Companion Animals Community Education Grants Program

BACKGROUND TO THE COMPANION ANIMALS COMMUNITY EDUCATIONPROGRAMBACKGROUNDThe Companion Animals Act 1998 replaces the Dog Act 1966. There was a stagedintroduction of the new Act, with the first stage, relating to general dog controlprovisions, commencing in September 1998 and the final stage, relating to the newmicrochipping and lifetime registration provisions, coming into effect on 1 July 1999.The Companion Animals Act provides for the microchipping and lifetime registrationof cats and dogs. The aim of the Act is to promote responsible pet ownership, withresulting benefits both for the welfare of cats and dogs and for the generalcommunity by reducing the number of problems caused by pets (eg dog attacks;property damage).As well as a range of enforcement provisions for owners who do not do the rightthing by their animals and the community, the new Act has a strong focus oncommunity education. This is demonstrated by the establishment of the CompanionAnimals Fund under the Act. A proportion of all lifetime registration fees goes intothe Fund to be used for community education purposes.The Act also provides for the establishment of the Companion Animals AdvisoryBoard (CAAB) to provide advice to the Minister on a range of matters relating to thecompanion animals legislation, especially community education.Since the establishment of the Companion Animals Fund in 1999, the CAAB hasbeen responsible for co-ordinating statewide community education campaigns,principally targeting awareness of owner’s responsibilities under the new legislation.Having now passed the initial commencement phase of the legislation, it has beendecided to establish a grants funding program to assist in the development ofcommunity education resource materials. All NSW local councils and not-for-profitorganisations who develop project proposals in partnership with councils may applyfor funding.The Program will provide annual grants for discrete, time-limited projects whichproduce community education resource materials that can be used by all NSWcouncils.Funding of up to $200,000 has been allocated for the 2001-2002 year.OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMUNITY EDUCATION GRANTS PROGRAMThe goal of the Program is to promote the development of community educationresource materials such as brochures, videos and training materials aboutresponsible pet ownership for use by local councils and other key stakeholders.Companion Animals Community Education Grants Program page 4