Domestic Animal Management Plan

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The plan outlines how Council will manage dogs and cats across the municipality over the next 4 years. It encourages responsible pet ownership and provides methods to address issues caused by dogs or cats across Knox.

About the plan

The Domestic Animal Management Plan 2026–2029:

Outlines our vision
Describes our focus areas
Sets our aims
Establishes clear actions across nine focus areas

This plan supports the Knox Council and Health and Wellbeing theme “Being a strong voice for safety”, which focuses on keeping the community feeling safe, respected and supported in public spaces and at home.

Our vision

Knox City Council aims to promote responsible animal ownership to maintain sustainable communities and a healthy environment. Animal management supports safety, health and amenity through education, engagement, service provision, community capacity building, regulation and enforcement.

Focus areas and objectives

Focus area	Objectives
Training authorised officers	Ensure officers are qualified, skilled and appropriately trained.
Responsible pet ownership	Promote responsible ownership of dogs and cats and support compliance.
Over population & euthanasia	Reduce over population and euthanasia through desexing and early intervention. Build community awareness about semi-owned cats and how they affect sensitive natural areas.
Registration & identification	Increase animal registrations and improve compliance. Make registration and desexing information easier to understand for multicultural communities by offering it in multiple languages.
Nuisance dogs & cats	Minimise barking, waste, wandering animals and nuisance cat behaviour. Reduce at-related problems and support cat-containment messages.
Dog attacks	Reduce attacks and improve transparency in Council’s processes.
Dangerous/menacing/restricted dogs	Ensure accurate identification and compliance to protect community safety.
Domestic Animal Businesses	Ensure all businesses are registered and compliant with regulations.
Other matters (e.g. Orders)	Review off-leash rules (Section 26 Order) and related signage to make sure they're appropriate and up to date.

How we plan to achieve this

Expand all

Focus area 1: Training authorised officers

Objective: Ensure officers are qualified and skilled.

What Council will do

•    Develop individual officer training plans annually.
•    Develop an induction program for all new officers (2026).
•    Offer regular access to training including animal handling, conflict resolution, investigations, prosecution, OH&S, customer service and industry conferences.

Focus area 2: Responsible pet ownership

Objective: Promote responsible ownership of dogs and cats and support compliance.

What Council will do

•    Develop an annual communication plan to support animal management objectives.
•    Provide additional educational materials to newly registered pet owners (by Dec 2028).
•    Engage trainers to run free or discounted dog training sessions.
•    Investigate proactive dog programs (report due 2027).

Focus area 3: Address over population and high euthanasia rates

Objective: Reduce over population and euthanasia through desexing and early intervention. Help the community understand the impact of semi-owned cats on the environment.

What Council will do

•    Investigate initiatives to increase desexing of dogs.
•    Apply for grants to run low cost desexing programs.
•    Work with Council’s pound provider on early intervention strategies.
•    Investigate a community cat or cat desexing program (report due 2026).
•    Run education campaigns with the Biodiversity team on semi owned cats.

Focus area 4: Increase registration & identification

Objectives: Increase animal registrations and improve compliance. Provide clear pet registration information for people from different cultural and language backgrounds.

What Council will do

•    Conduct proactive audits to increase registrations.
•    Investigate feasibility of a registration amnesty (2026).
•    Produce multi-lingual information on desexing and registration (by 2029).

Focus area 5: Reduce nuisance dog & cat complaints

Objectives: Minimise barking, waste, wandering animals and nuisance cat behaviour. Reduce problems caused by cats and promote cat containment.

What Council will do

•    Review infringement penalties for not carrying or picking up waste (2026).
•    Investigate providing waste bags (2027).
•    Review bin locations in parks and reserves (2027).
•    Promote dog waste composters.
•    Review barking dog process and materials; investigate noise recording tools (2026).
•    Promote Victorian Government cat programs and cat containment messaging.

Focus area 6: Reduce dog attacks

Objectives: Reduce attacks and improve transparency in Council’s processes. Improve community safety by properly managing declared dogs.

What Council will do

•    Create an information booklet for attack investigations (2028).
•    Review animal management clauses relating to dog containment (2026).
•    Refer court outcomes to communications for public awareness.

Focus area 7: Dangerous, menacing & restricted breed dogs

Objective: Ensure accurate identification and compliance to protect community safety.

What Council will do

• Develop a written decision-making process for offending dogs (2027).
• Cross reference microchip details annually to locate missing declared dogs.

Focus area 8: Domestic Animal Businesses

Objective: Ensure all businesses are registered and compliant with regulations.

What Council will do

• Identify all businesses that should be registered and follow up if needed.
• Monitor Council databases and the Pet Exchange Register annually.

Focus area 9: Other matters (Orders, signage, off leash areas)

Objective: Review off leash areas and ensure Orders remain current.

What Council will do

• Review Council’s off leash areas and animal related signage (2027).

Yearly actions

Focus Area number	Activity	When
1	Develop an induction program for all new officers	2026
2	Provide additional educational materials to newly registered pet owners	December 2028
2	Investigate proactive dog programs	Report due 2027
3	Investigate a community cat or cat desexing program	Report due 2026
4	Investigate feasibility of a registration amnesty	2026
4	Produce multi-lingual information on desexing and registration	By 2029
5	Review infringement penalties for not carrying or picking up waste	2026
5	Investigate providing waste bags	2027
5	Review bin locations in parks and reserves	2027
5	Review barking dog process and materials; investigate noise recording tools	2026
6	Create an information booklet for attack investigations	2028
6	Review animal management clauses relating to dog containment	2026
7	Develop a written decision-making process for offending dogs	2027
9	Review Council’s off leash areas and animal related signage	2027

What we considered when developing this plan

•    Legislative requirement under the Domestic Animals Act 1994.
•    Extensive community engagement (376 Phase 1 responses; 97 Phase 2 submissions).
•    Feedback related to dog waste, barking, cats wandering, off leash control.
•    Impact of COVID 19 on registration rates and animal surrenders.
•    Environmental concerns about semi owned and wandering cats.
•    Benchmarking with neighbouring councils regarding off leash areas.

Implementation and reporting

Council will review the Plan annually, publish evaluation outcomes in the annual report, and provide updated versions to the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions. Reviews will consider completed activities, changes to actions, new initiatives and any incomplete items.

Read the full Domestic Animal Management Plan 2026–2029 (PDF)

Need help?

Or call our Community Laws Department on 9298 8000.

Domestic Animal Management Plan

About the plan

Our vision

Focus areas and objectives

How we plan to achieve this

What Council will do

What Council will do

What Council will do

What Council will do

What Council will do

What Council will do

What Council will do

What Council will do

What Council will do

Yearly actions

What we considered when developing this plan

Implementation and reporting

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