Today our major State newspaper ran a story which was very disturbing. Firstly it has been proposed by the state government to establish two large suburbs, one on the Southside, and one on the Northside of Brisbane which will be the first 'no-dogs' covenant introduced at any level of Government in Australia. Both of the selected suburbs are in Shires on the outskirts of Brisbane and not controlled by the Brisbane City Council.


The reason for this proposal is to create sustainable environments for the Koala population.

While I am all for protecting the Koala, what I am dumbfounded by is for years now this subject has been raised by concerned communities and environmentalists, not just trying to protect Koala habitats but also many other endangered wildlife, and these people have been ignored to a degree and the many hours spent lobbying against prime known habitat area's was to no avail and these eventually have been bulldozed, and more and more sprawling housing and industrial estates have replaced pristine bushland.

The person proposing this also suggested specific Koala corridors and other ideas which were not published.

The main idea is a total ban on any dogs in the estates, this has obviously not been thought through and the person is very uninformed regarding domestic pets versus feral animals and the fate of Koalas and other wildlife in human habitats, more are injured and die from car strike, poisoning from contact with herbicides used to keep the back fence clear of the local undergrowth and when the wildlife traverse the area and come in contact with the product - well the outcome is not good. Then there is the disturbance to natural environment through human versus wildlife population.

Maybe if more money was put into finding a cure for the Koala Chlamydia, and the planting of more of the specific Eucalypts they eat, and more public education this would be more productive, as someone in the article said $15million will only purchase around 5 hectares of land which is only one Koala's domain!

The list goes on, but once again who will police it and while the person making the initial purchase may be aware of the ruling, the visitor or future generation won't necessarily be informed. We live in an area where originally no front fencing was allowed in the estate 30yrs later many properties have changed owners and gradually one by one properties have had huge brick and rendered fences installed, to date the council has not prosecuted one owner for this blatant breach of the original area covenant regarding fencing.

A few weeks ago we flagged the news that Blacktown Council (Sydney) were planning on restricting dog numbers for who knows what reason. We got quite a lot of email on that one on our sister site http://www.petproductreviews.com.au/Reviews/showproduct.php/product/1403/cat/112 

Thanks to Zeebie's post (above) we now find another council (Brisbane) wants to go one step further and ultimately BAN all dogs  because of a declining Koala population.

It's an interesting fact but dogs have NOT caused a decline in Koala numbers - or any native wildlife.

Why? Because modern man has stretched his presence into the migratory corridors of Koalas, cutting them off from mates and reducing their habitat simply because 'man' needs more space.

So councils in their wisdom (actually they've never been wise in my opinion) take the easiest option and seek to 'ban' domestic pets such as dogs and cats.

"Even the Queensland Government's new planning laws to protect dwindling koala numbers in the state's southeast are laughable", the Australian Koala Foundation says. (source Courier Mail Oct 31 2009)

Back in March 2009 the same paper reported :
REDLAND City Council is considering banning pet birds after a deluge of complaints about noise from parrots,

cockatoos and even pigeons.

Have our local councils all gone mad? - Is the answer to every problem to BAN it?

If so - let's start with banning the couple next door to us who are ALWAYS fighting - While we're at it, let's ban their kids who scream from dawn to dusk, and ban the garbo who refuses to fix the painfully loud squeaking breaks that tear us from sleep at 4:30am....

Let's get real folks - we should be banning idiot local government polititians.

Brian

I have read before of certain councils..Brisbane if I recall..want to ban cats from certain residential areas.

As much as I love cats I do understand that just one cat roaming of a night can do a lot of damage to native wildlife.Dogs can be come wild and feral and are a danger to livestock in rural areas..

In residential areas however I think this ruling makes absolutely no sense. We keep breeding these animals and so they need homes.

Truly, I think that council does not think these comments through.