I SIT FOR YOU, WILL YOU STAND FOR ME?
Reform NSW dog laws so that every serious incident is fairly investigated before a dog's life is taken.
In honour of these five, and all those who have fallen before them through no fault of their own.
Dogs cannot speak for themselves.

When a serious incident occurs, they cannot tell us what happened immediately beforehand. They cannot explain whether they were frightened, provoked, defending themselves, protecting their owner or territory, responding to an intruder, or reacting to circumstances created by another person.

We have to speak for them.

This campaign is not about excusing genuinely dangerous dogs.

It is about making sure that dangerous and misunderstood are not treated as the same thing.

The Companion Animals Act 1998 was introduced almost three decades ago. Since then, our communities, our living environments and our relationship with dogs have changed enormously.

Our dogs are living in increasingly confined environments, with smaller yards, greater population density and more interaction between people, properties and animals.

The law needs to keep pace with the world in which our dogs now live.

THERE MUST BE A MIDDLE GROUND
When a dog is involved in a serious incident, the circumstances should be properly established before an irreversible decision is made.

We are calling on the NSW Government to:

1. Require thorough investigation of the circumstances surrounding every serious dog incident.

2. Require consideration of provocation, trespass, self-defence, human actions and other relevant circumstances.

3. Require an individual behavioural and public-safety assessment of the dog.

4. Ensure safe alternatives to destruction are genuinely considered, including secure containment, behavioural rehabilitation, training, transfer of ownership and appropriate rehoming where possible.

5. Strengthen independent review and appeal mechanisms before a dog's life is irreversibly ended.

6. Ensure that the severity of an outcome does not, by itself, determine the fate of the dog.

A tragic death is devastating.

A serious injury is devastating.

Public safety must always matter.

But the circumstances matter too.

A dog that has genuinely demonstrated an ongoing and unmanageable danger must be dealt with appropriately.

But where a dog's behaviour resulted from provocation, self-defence, trespass, human error, inadequate circumstances or another factor that materially changes the situation, the law should have the flexibility to recognise that.

A tragic outcome should not erase the circumstances that caused it.

A DOG'S LIFE SHOULD NOT BE DETERMINED BY FEAR, ASSUMPTION OR A SINGLE SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES.
We believe there must be a fair and proportionate process that protects the community while recognising that every dog and every incident is different.

Investigate.
Assess.
Understand.
Then decide.

The five dogs who inspired this campaign cannot be brought back.

Neither can the dogs who came before them.

But their stories can help ensure that the next dog is given something they could not have:

A VOICE.
This campaign stands for responsible dog ownership, public safety, animal welfare and fair, evidence-based decision-making.

We are asking the NSW Government to review and reform the laws governing serious dog incidents and destruction orders so that the system provides a genuine middle ground between doing nothing and destroying a dog.

I SIT FOR YOU.
WILL YOU STAND FOR ME?
Please sign this petition. Share it. Wear the message. Give a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves.

For the five.
For Mayhem.
For those who came before them.
And for the dogs who may yet be saved.