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SBS Nepali Australian weather update: Monday, 9 June 2025

SBS Nepali Australian weather update: Monday, 9 June 2025

SBS Australia08-06-2025
Independent news and stories connecting you to life in Australia and Nepali-speaking Australians. Stories about women of Nepali heritage in Australia who are about to become parents.
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Dog owners must spend three hours minimum with pet under ACT's proposed animal welfare laws
Dog owners must spend three hours minimum with pet under ACT's proposed animal welfare laws

ABC News

time8 hours ago

  • ABC News

Dog owners must spend three hours minimum with pet under ACT's proposed animal welfare laws

Pet owners would be legally required to spend a minimum of three hours with their dog every day under proposed laws in the ACT, but questions remain about how such laws would be enforced. The draft Code of Practice for the Welfare of Dogs in the ACT features a number of mandatory standards including restricting surgical debarking and making it compulsory for owners to provide animals with "human contact for a reasonable length of time each day (three hours minimum)". The code also includes guidelines such as recommending against the use of retractable dog leads. Campbell's Tam Goddard has had her rescue kelpie Ruff for seven years and said the draft code was half-baked. "There's quite a lot of things in the ACT that the bureaucrats have come up with and it sounds like a good idea at first, but it doesn't seem to be well thought through," Ms Goddard said. "How are they going to police that? "Do we rely on people dobbing in each other? "How do you define human contact? Do they need to be sitting right next to you, or do you need to walk them?" Ms Goddard is concerned about the government's priorities during a cost-of-living crisis. "Do they worry about human contact for the homeless? Who is going to go and talk to them? Do we have more programs to support them? The government, most of the time, leaves it to the charities to take care of those not so fortunate in our city and you don't need to walk far to see them." The ACT Government has just made it more expensive for volunteers to provide services like that after introducing an $11 fee to acquire a volunteer working with vulnerable people card. Ms Goddard said the proposal was government overreach. "A lot of the time the government is hands-off, but then on the other hand they seem to dictate things that seem unnecessary," she said. "Why is the government getting into this sort of thing? RSPCA ACT's Rhiannon Kwateng supported the proposed changes and wanted to see the ACT lead the way around pet rights. She said the RSPCA followed a rigorous process before adopting out animals "to make sure [an owner] can meet the basic needs for that animal". She said most owners would already be spending far more than three hours with their pets. "Animals are sentient beings. They do have emotions. They do feel things," Ms Kwateng said. The ACT became the first jurisdiction in Australia to recognise the sentience of animals in law in 2019. Ms Kwateng acknowledged that enforcing the proposed rules would be tricky and said more conversations would be required. However, she said 'human contact' for an animal could be anything. "It's just being with them. Dogs are so social and just having that moment of being in the same room is meeting their basic needs," she said. The draft plan is on public exhibition until August 22.

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