Circulars

What’s new or changing

• A second round of improvements and additional functionality for the NSW Companion Animals Register (CAR) will be released on 12 April 2021.
• OLG has sought clarification on a number of regulatory issues that arose from the introduction of the desexing date requirement in the Companion Animals Register (CAR) following the start of annual permits on 1 July 2020

What this will mean for your council

• From 12 April 2021, councils will have the ability in the CAR to charge a late fee for lifetime registration payments made more than 28 days after the animal turns six months old.
• Further clarification is now available regarding the operation of annual permits as well as various implementation issues that councils have raised since the introduction of annual permits and the date of desexing requirement in the CAR.

Key points

Late Fees for lifetime registration payments

• Councils will now have the option to apply a late fee to lifetime registration payments that are made more than 28 days after a companion animal turns six months old.
• Late fees cannot be applied to the registration of animals sold by a pound or approved rehoming organisation, animals from interstate or certain categories of dogs (as outlined below).
• Those councils that have already been collecting late fees will need to apply those late fees in the CAR via the correct registration function.

Additional CAR Functionality

• Since 1 July 2020, the date of desexing is a required field in the CAR. This desexing date now appears on all relevant screens and certificates. In addition to this, the desexing document type will auto populate in the registration screen if this has already been recorded previously.
• If an animal has been flagged by a vet as temporarily not recommended for desexing, the date this exemption to the desexing requirement expires is now displayed on all relevant screens and certificates.
• The pound/shelter function is now also available within the registration function.
• Two new search functions are available that enable users to search for recognised breeders and approved rehoming organisations. Previously this information was limited to the NSW Pet Registry.
• Council managers (level 3 access) now have the ability to remove a notice of intention.
• Where relevant, these changes are reflected in the NSW Pet Registry.

Clarification of annual permit implementation issues

• Since the introduction of annual permits on 1 July 2020, councils have sought guidance on several implementation issues, which are now clarified as follows:

Pensioners

• Eligible pensioners whose pet cat or dog is desexed at the time of registration are not required to pay for an annual permit (cat) or the additional registration fee (dog) even if they had the animal desexed after the relevant desexing age.
• Accordingly, the requirement to enter a desexing date will no longer apply for pensioners in the CAR in order to process an eligible pensioner registration. However, councils are recommended to still enter this date, where it is known. Staff will be able to apply the pensioner discount even when a pensioner’s pet is desexed after the relevant desexing age.
• When processing a registration for an eligible pensioner whose pet has been recommended by a vet to not undergo desexing (either temporarily or permanently), select the new “not desexed (not recommended – pensioner)” category. This will allow the eligible pensioner to claim the discounted registration.

Exemptions from the additional registration fee and late fee for certain dogs:

• Interstate Animals
  • If the animal is desexed but was desexed interstate after the relevant desexing age for NSW, then the owner is not liable for the additional fee/ annual permit when they register the animal in NSW because they were not subject to NSW legislation at the time.
  • An animal can now be marked by a vet / authorised identifier / council officer as having come from interstate. If marked as such then relevant messaging will appear in the CAR when it comes to processing lifetime registration.
• New owners of the following categories of dogs are not required to pay the additional registration fee (as long as the dog is desexed at the time of registration by the new owner) because they did not own the animal until after the relevant desexing age had been reached and therefore were unable to comply with the desexing requirement. Often these dogs are not desexed by six months of age.
  • Ex-service of state dogs (police and correctional dogs)
  • Ex-racing greyhounds rehomed outside the racing industry
  • Ex-working dogs
  • Ex-assistance animals
  • Ex-breeding dogs kept by recognised breeders.

Cats desexed prior to 1 July 2020

• If a cat was desexed prior to 1 July 2020 then an annual permit is not required, even if the desexing procedure took place after the cat turned four months old.

Animals sold by pounds/shelters/approved rehoming organisations

• To encourage the adoption of pet cats and dogs, the annual permit fee (cats) or the additional registration fee (dogs) does not apply if the new owner purchases the animal from a pound/shelter/approved rehoming organisation. A late fee also cannot be applied.

Where to go for further information

• Refer to the below information in the PDF version of this circular.

Tim Hurst
Deputy Secretary
Local Government, Planning and Policy