Last month,this masthead revealed Merri-bek City Council,formerly Moreland City Council,made $600,000 in “unanticipated” revenue by fining residents for overdue animal registrations. But there were widespread claims from pet owners that they were unfairly fined without notice.
Cat owner Negar Riazati avoided having to pay registration fines she received for her two cats,Samur and Pashmak.Chris Hopkins
The claims led to the establishment of the.
Some residents claim their renewal notice went straight to their spam inbox,so they did not see the notice sent by third-party bill provider EzyBill. Others claim to have received no renewal notice at all,via post or email,but failed to convince the council to overturn the fines.
In one case,the council admitted it mistyped a pet owner’s email address – which meant the resident did not receive a renewal notice – but Merri-bek refused to waive the total fine amount.
The resident reluctantly paid the $370 fine as she wanted to avoid court.
Negar Riazati,whose matter was heard in Broadmeadows Magistrates’ Court last week,said she paid the $68 fee for registering her two cats after the renewal date,but four days before she received a $740 fine.
Riazati said she had “every intention of paying” the renewal registration fees for Ragdoll cats Samur and Pashmak after receiving the notice on March 15 last year,which was the day after she was discharged from hospital with her newborn baby.
“I had just given birth to my daughter,” she told the court. “So naturally,as a first-time mum,you go through things. It’s not an excuse,but it is a fact.”
It wasn’t until August 13,four months after the fee was due,that Riazati renewed her cats’ registration.
“I totally accept that I was late to make the payment ...[but] I feel that fine is excessive,” she told the court,while pleading guilty to a charge of failing to renew the registration of a cat.
The state government sets the $370 fine for missing the registration deadline and it is standard across Victorian councils.
Merri-bek Council claimed Riazati was sent another reminder in May,but she said that was not true.
Riazati appealed to the council for leniency. The council waived one $370 fine,but not the other and referred the matter to court.
The magistrate found the charge proven,but dismissed Riazati’s fine and did not impose any penalty after hearing the pet owner had always paid her animal registrations,was an active community volunteer and had no history of unpaid fines.
Brunswick resident Robert Lechte helped establish the pet registration justice committee after he was unsuccessful in appealing against a fine for not renewing his dog’s registration. He told this masthead last month many in the community were stressed by the infringements,which he described as “kind of like robo-debt for pets”.
Riazati is not the only Merri-bek resident who has avoided paying an animal registration fine after the matter was taken to court in the past two financial years,according to the council.
A spokeswoman said three of the six people referred to court between 2021 and 2023 had their fines dismissed,despite the charges being proven. The.
“Referring pet registration infringements to court happens rarely and is a last resort after we’ve exhausted all other options,including reminders sent by post and through our communications channels,” Merri-bek Mayor Angelica Panopoulos said in a statement.
“Registering your pet with council is important,so council issues infringements with the goal of changing behaviour and encouraging pet owners to renew in future years.”
Riazati urged others who received fines they believed were unfair not to fear the matter going to court.
“Register your animals,but also don’t accept being bullied,” she said. “If you have a legitimate reason for why it was late,don’t accept it,fight it because it’s not OK to have people in the community be taken advantage of.”
Merri-bek’s Socialist Alliance councillor Sue Bolton has asked the council internally to explain the higher revenue from animal registration fines after being contacted by residents. She said officers needed to act with compassion,not a “bureaucratic high-minded manner” when people asked for their fines to be reviewed.
“Pets need to be registered,but the enforcement needs to be applied in a compassionate way,” Bolton said.
“There’s always certain exceptions here – people have life circumstances which have prevented them paying on time,or else they simply haven’t received the notice.”
Merri-bek said in March the bonus $600,000 income was a key contributor to the council’s operating surplus of $25.2 million,which is $5.7 million more than budgeted.
Mid-year financial reports for the previous year also noted another $300,000 extra in revenue from fines,credited mainly to animal infringements.
The council has repeatedly refused to reveal the full income earned from animal registration the past two financial years.
Panopoulos has previously said the council believed the increase in revenue was due to an increase in pet ownership during the pandemic.
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