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Role of Animal Management Workers in animal managementAnimal Management Workers (AMW) administer and enforce local laws on animal management. The duties of AMWs will depend on their job description, and on the local laws adopted by their councils.
Usually, AMWs are involved in six main areas of animal management: administration, inspections and complaints, enforcing local laws, feral animal management, animal welfare and community education.
An Animal Management Worker develops and implements their council’s animal management program. The Animal Management Worker’s administration tasks may include:
One aspect of an animal management program that require special attention is where animals need to be euthanized (put down). An animal may need to be put down because it is old, injured or dangerous or because Council decides to cull the numbers of stray animals in a community.
If you are looking to start a program that puts down animals or start a culling program, it is best to use a vet as they are properly trained and authorised to administer the drugs that are needed. However, in some situations, a vet may not be able to come to your community and do this work. Animal Management Workers can apply to Queensland Health for an approval to keep and use poisons to put down animals. If you want more information about this call your local Population Health Unit.
You may also wish to discuss other options with an officer from the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries Biosecurity Animal Welfare Unit.
Also, it is important to link your animal management program with your pest management program. You could even consider combining both programs into one document to save you time and effort. Linking animal management to pest management is important in situations where you have packs of wild dogs outside your community. Some of the strategies you use to control dogs in the community could be used to control the wild dogs, such as desexing or catching and putting down.
If your council does not have local laws on animal management, or needs to update its laws, look at the following Model Local Laws. They have been drafted by the Department of Local Government, Sport and Recreation. The models make the process of drafting and adopting local laws quick and simple.
Complaints people make about animals should be recorded by the council (eg. on computer, in a book, or using a card system). Complaints can be about all sorts of animals and situations. Before taking action, you need to be sure that the problem is one covered by the local laws of your council. When a local law does apply, the complaint should be investigated by the AMW. 
If a complaint is about cruelty to animals, or farm animals, you might need to contact a specialist agency.
Local laws usually cover problems of noise (dogs barking or fighting), animals wandering the streets or into neighbours yards, or attacks by dogs on people or animals.
If your local laws say that council will make a written response to complaints, be sure that you follow up on complaints in writing. You might also need to write to the people who are keeping the animal causing the problem, especially if they have to fix the problem within a certain period (eg. within 24 hours, or within 7 days).
Enforcing local laws can include issuing fines to people who break local laws or taking a problem animal to the council pound.
An AMW sometimes needs to arrange for an animal to be destroyed or for a number of animals to be destroyed (culled from a pack or herd). A vet or other animal specialist should be involved in destroying animals, unless you have an approval from Queensland Health to keep and use the poison for destroying animals. Contact your local Population Health Unit for more information.
Be sure that the problem you are about to fix is covered by the local laws of your council. Also, be sure you have a written authority to take action if this is required by local or state laws. If you are unsure about this, contact your Environmental Health Coordinator:
Feral animals such as pigs, cats, horse and deer have become a big problem in many areas. These animals destroy plants, threaten native animal species and threaten the safety of people in the community. They can have a major economic, environmental and social impact.
AMWs will be involved in developing and implementing the Council's Pest Management Plan for control of feral animals and also any other 'declared' pests under the Land Protection (Pest and Stock Route Management) Act 2002. This plan may also incorporate the control of domestic animals to simplify the Council approach to animal management issues.
The Plan should be reviewed periodically to ensure it gives an accurate picture of the animal issues which need to be addressed in the local area.
People need to know about the council’s animal management services, the council’s local laws and the fines for breaking local laws. It is difficult to get all this information out to people at one time. A good plan is to tackle problems that currently affect most of the community. For example, dogs roaming the streets, barking, and leaving faeces (animal droppings) in the streets or playgrounds. An information leaflet with key facts could be given to dog owners when they register their dogs or renew their registration. (eg. “Fact 1: Did you know you can be fined $X for not cleaning up after your dog?”)
The council could organise dog training sessions that deal with the basics of dog care and obedience. (These sessions are really about training the owners to be responsible for their animals.) This kind of personal contact with people and their dogs shows that you (and the council) are interested in their pets. You're not just there to enforce local laws. Word-of-mouth should see that ways of keeping dogs healthy and controlled soon get handed on to other dog owners.
You’ll find fact sheets on responsible dog ownership on the websites of the Townsville City Council and Cairns Regional Council. The Townsville City Council site also has fact sheets on Barking Dogs and Pets and Disasters (cyclones).
The RSPCA has an Educational Mobile Unit (EMU) that travels to schools and community centres. If the EMU can’t visit your community in the near future, ask the RSPCA Queensland about resources that you can use to educate animal owners.
AMRRIC is a non-profit partnership which aims to raise health standards in communities by improving the health of their animals.
The organisation puts out an email newsletter about once a month. To find out more about AMRRIC and subscribe to its newsletter, visit the AMRRIC website.
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