As someone deeply involved in animal rescue, I have witnessed first hand the surge of unwanted litters of puppies and kittens. This is largely due to irresponsible pet owners who find it easier to register with DACO who pay a fee of $75 to avoid desexing their pets, only to offload their unwanted litters when they can't sell them. These litters end up in animal rescues throughout South Australia who should be taking the animals who need rescuing instead of animals from irresponsible pet owners who don't desex their pets and those who allow them to breed to try and make money from them. 

 The current system is not working - it's time for a change.

The Dogs and Cats Online breeder registration has done nothing but increase the number of dogs and cats being bred in South Australia. Instead of improving animal welfare, this system has only led to an increase in animals ending up in our rescues and shelters. It seems that DACO registration is merely a money grab rather than a genuine effort to improve the lives of our beloved pets.

It's clear that this system encourages people to pay a DACO fee allowing and encouraging back yard breeding instead of desexing their pets. This leads to more animals being abandoned when owners can't handle or sell all the offspring, burdens our animal rescues and shelters with such a huge influx of pets since the roll out of DACO breders licences.

This not only puts pressure on rescue organisations but also contributes significantly towards pet overpopulation and ultimately a higher amount of pets being euthanised. There are not enough homes for these animals which has leads to a higher euthanasia rate because there are more animals than there are homes.

We are in a housing crisis, with the cost of living gone up people are surrendering their pets because they simply cannot afford to keep their pets or provide them with necessary medication and medical treatment. 

We need your help now more than ever! Let's abolish DACO registration altogether for back yard breeders and animal rescue here in South Australia as it does more harm than good for our furry friends' population control efforts.

No one should pay DACO to whack any two dogs together and breed them and certainly no animal rescue should ever have a breeders licence. The only ones that should have a licence to breed are registered breeders who breed to better the breed. 

The DACO breeder registration defeats the purpose of the laws that were finally introduced into South Australia back in 2018 requiring all pets to be desexed by 6months of age to help curb backyard breeding and the sheer amount of pets being euthanised. DACO MUST GO and the laws need to be upheld to curb backyard breeding by the MANDATORY DESEXING OF ALL PETS BY 6 months of age! 

Please sign this petition today so we can bring about much-needed change for animals across South Australia!