Going around in circles … that’s how trying to resolve the issue of hall hire with Kingston Council is progressing.  New Councillors have been elected and a meeting held Monday 25 November, but still no progress.  If you submitted a question to the meeting, they were not read out as they were deemed a repeat of a question already answered.

The Petition was raised at the Council Meeting on 25 November and Councillors unanimously voted to refer it to Peter Bean, Chief Executive Officer for resolution.  I have received copies of 30 emails sent to Council from industry experts, local residents, veterinarians etc from all over Australia.  These were not tabled at the meeting, but I hope Councillors have seen them. Perhaps you wrote one of them.

Dog training is an unregulated industry.  I have done my best to keep a professionally run puppy school in Carrum, giving local residents a choice between classes at pet stores or a course run by a professional behavioural animal trainer using modern methods.  Removing a service that has been available for nearly 25 years is a retrograde step in community education for family pet dogs.  Dogs deserve better than this.

Very little funding is allocated to family pet activities.  Some councils do allocate facilities for training and education, but many do not.  Would you like to see more funding given to education and preventing behavioural issues with dogs?

If you are a Kingston resident and you would like to have access to a professional Family Pet Education service, consider emailing your new Local Councillor and share your views on the matter.  Here is a link to all City of Kingston Councillors –

https://www.kingston.vic.gov.au/council/your-council/councillors

Building awareness of the need for communities to have to access good trainers who are using modern, science based animal training methods is vital.  Unregulated means anyone can profess to be a “behaviourist” or dog trainer & use any made-up methods that often cause fear, pain and stress to dogs.  Dogs deserve better and families deserve better.

Thank you for your support and please, write to your Local Kingston Councillor and keep sharing our petition.  We will update you when we receive any news from Council.

Jen x