Animal registration

Every dog and cat over the age of three months must be registered with the local council where it resides. Existing registrations must be renewed by 10 April each year.

Dogs and cats being registered for the first time with Council are required to provide evidence that they have a microchip.  A desexing certificate is also required if applying for the relevant fee concession.

Registering your dog or cat greatly improves their chances of being returned to you if they become lost. Registration fees provide a whole range of other important services too.  These include:

• a Council registration tag for your pet to wear
• if your pet is found wandering and wearing its registration tag you will be notified and reunited quickly
• if your pet has lost its registration tag and is microchipped, Council officers can scan your pet and obtain owners details to contact you (ensure your details are kept up to date with the applicable microchip register)
• Council services to respond to calls about wandering dogs or dog attacks. This includes the removal of aggressive dogs from the streets
• Council services to deal with nuisance problems, eg. barking dogs
• Council control of "dangerous", "menacing" and "restricted breed" dogs in your area
• Council monitoring of boarding kennels, catteries, breeding and training businesses

A "life time tag" is issued at the time of initial animal registration.  If you lose your pet's registration tag at anytime or if the registration number becomes illegible, please contact Loddon Shire Council for a replacement free of charge.
The benefits of the your animal wearing the tag is that if found by someone off your property, the tag is able to be read out to local laws staff who can remotely put it into their computer system and retrieve the owners details. This means that the animal can be quickly returned to its owner without staff having to attend. 

Further information on pet registration can be obtained from Local Laws staff on (03) 5494 1200.