A Brookfield man is demanding answers from Wyndham council after an elderly friend received a $289 fine for having an unregistered dog, despite the dog being registered in his name.
Reno Joubert often leaves his American staffordshire terrier, Zeus, with elderly family friends in Hoppers Crossing while he is at work.
Documents show that Zeus is microchipped and registered to Mr Joubert. On May 13 the council issued an infringement notice to the grandmother at the Hoppers Crossing address.
Mr Joubert said he phoned the council to try and explain that the dog was his and that it was registered, in the hope they would dismiss the fine.
“They basically just said if I wasn’t happy with it I could take the matter to court.”
Mr Joubert said it was “wrong” that the council would fine someone without doing its homework first.
“They’ve just assumed the dog is not registered, but if they scanned the microchip they would see that it’s registered to my home address.”
Wyndham council chief executive Kerry Thompson said that the woman who received the fine had obtained a pensioner-discounted desexing voucher for a dog in January.
“As a condition of receiving this subsidy, Wyndham city requested the animal be desexed before being registered,” Ms Thompson said.
“Later checks on Wyndham city’s database showed this animal was not registered and after several attempts to contact the resident, a council officer visited the residence and issued an infringement notice.
“Under the Domestic Animals Act, [a] dog must be registered in the municipality where it resides.”
Ms Thompson said that Mr Joubert could object to the fine by contacting the council’s internal review officer.
For more details about pet registrations visit www.wyndham.vic.gov.au
