Council under fire for increasing fines for dog owners who fail to clean up their act
A Melbourne council is under fire for hiking up fines for irresponsible dog owners, but it's making no apologies, claiming pooch parents need to clean up their act.
The council recently asked residents about the big pet issues and droppings were were near the top of the pile.
So they decided to put their foot down, increasing the fine from $200 to $500, making it more than the penalty for train surfing ($396), using your phone while driving ($476) or cycling without a helmet ($198).
The new fine is double the City of Melbourne's penalty.
"Five hundred's pretty steep," Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said.
"I think you'd only get pinged once before you learned your lesson."
Some locals think the fine hike stinks.
"It's a heck of a lot of money," one resident said.
"I can't afford to just shell that out on one of my dog's poos," another said.
"We don't have a by-laws officer on every corner, but the number of complaints of people seeing this happen is what's triggered us to take a stronger stance," City of Casey's Geoff Ablett said.
But council rarely enforces the law, only fining four people in 2016.
"That's because of our shortage of by-laws officers," Mr Ablett said.
"But eventually it's like driving a car.
"If you're going to speed all the time, eventually you'll get caught."
