The community's hard fight to have Logan City Council produce fair and workable animal keeping laws has taken a giant step forward.

Speaking at Council's recent February 2011 meeting, Councillors Sean and Hajnal Black thanked their colleagues and council staff, who have put an extraordinary amount of work into getting the new laws right.

Logan Councillors voted to send the latest draft animal laws to public consultation in the coming weeks to garner feedback on the new proposals.


View the new laws (here). Cr Hajnal and Sean Black encourage locals to study the impacts of the laws and let council know their thoughts on how the laws will impact their lifestyles. To find out more information or make comment on the draft policy positions, contact Animal Services on 07 3412 3412 or email pound@logan.qld.gov.au for more information.

Logan City Council redrafted its animal keeping laws after a ground swell of community discussion lead to protests and thousands of submissions objecting to the way the first draft animal laws impacted on people's rural lifestyle and were seen as revenue raising.

These new draft laws strike a fair balance; domestic and hobby farm animal keepers, as distinct from primary producers, will be allowed to listen to the sweet sound of snorting, wallowing, braying, clucking and naying in our city for quite some time.

Animal husbandry, or farming, will still be allowed to continue on land zoned rural production as of right without any interference from Council.

There is a flip side though; we know that neighbourhoods want quiet enjoyment of their community, so we have fought hard to ensure nuisance provisions are well considered and that people have to be responsible in they way they keep their animals.

The Councillors said that by working as a two-person team they were able to bring about change in the way their colleagues thought about rural and semi-rural lifestyles.

Both Councillors urged the community to participate in the feedback process in the coming weeks and make sure they understood the new draft laws. They said residents could contact their offices on 3412 5912 if they had questions.

* The views expressed in the following press release are personal in nature, and not Council's corporate position. *

Whats the history? Remember this from August 2010

Logan City Council is planning to introduce some tough new Animal Laws. These laws will see new fees introduced for the keeping of animals and restrict the number of animals on blocks that were not previously restricted.

What am I doing as your local representative to stop these laws?

Cr Sean Black and I moved the following motion in Council recently to try and get a re-think of Council's new disastrous Animal Laws;

Moved: Cr S Black, Cr H Black (13/07/2010 Minute No 241/2010)
That the Animal & Pest Services Manager be requested to redraft Local Law No. 4 (Domestic Animals) and Subordinate Local Law No. 4.1 (Domestic Animals) to minimise Council's control over the number of animals in private dwellings. LOST

A majority of Councillors not only ganged up on us to defeat this motion, but what is worse your voice was silenced when the Mayor allowed a motion to stop us debating this issue!

When these laws were first proposed in committee we fought hard to have them thrown out. However the original laws were actually made TOUGHER by Councillors. Through community pressure some Councillors are starting to back down. Let’s keep going.

What can the community do to have these ridiculous Animal Laws stopped?

1. Sign a petition that has been circulated at produce stores and the community.
2. Join the public rally so that Councillors get the message loud and clear that these laws are not acceptable.
3. Make a submission to Council about the laws. You can go to Council's website to lodge your submission; ( here)