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Things You Should Know About Dangerous Dogs
The Domestic (Feral and Nuisance) Animals Act 1994 empowers Council to declare dogs to be 'dangerous' if these dogs have attacked or bitten and have caused death or serious injury to a person or animal. Dogs are deemed 'dangerous' if they have been trained to attack a person, or are kept on non-residential premises for the purpose of guarding. In the event of an attack, serious injury to a person is defined as an injury requiring medical or veterinary attention in the nature of a broken bone, a laceration, a partial or total loss of sensation or function in a part of the body or an injury requiring cosmetic surgery.
The Act defines the decision to declare an individual dog to be dangerous on the basis of it's deed. This decision recognises that not all members of a breed of dogs behave in exactly the same way. It deals adequately with instances of unacceptable behaviour in individual dogs and covers the potential of any dog to cause problems.
Owners of dangerous dogs have imposed upon them a series of obligations to make sure that innocent members of the public are not attacked by such a dog. The attached document below provides an overview of the requirements relating to a dangerous dog, as prescribed in the Domestic (Feral and Nuisance) Animals Regulations 2005.
To view the attached PDF document you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. A free copy can be downloaded from Adobe Acrobat (external link).
 (PDF 123kb)
Dogs declared or deemed dangerous must be identified by microchip implanted into the dog’s shoulder. The State Government has developed a Victorian Declared Dog Registry where Councils must record all dogs declared Dangerous, Menacing and Restricted Breeds. This Registry holds the information of the dog's owner, the dog’s microchip number, a description of the dog and the location where the dog is kept.
Domestic (Feral and Nuisance) Animals Act 1994 is State legislation which is managed by Municipal Councils.
The document has also been translated into ten languages, and the files are available for download below:
| Arabic | 
(PDF 79kb) |
| Cantonese | 
(PDF 871kb) |
| Croatian | 
(PDF 55kb) |
| Greek | 
(PDF 61kb) |
| Italian | 
(PDF 41kb) |
| Macedonian | 
(PDF 64kb) |
| Mandarin | 
(PDF 1309kb) |
| Spanish | 
(PDF 42kb) |
| Turkish | 
(PDF 64kb) |
| Vietnamese | 
(PDF 59kb) |
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