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Some shires are making it clear to us and to the media (MacDonnell Shire CEO Wayne Wright stated publicly with AMRRIC on ABC news and Radio in Dec 08) that they are still grossly under-funded and under resourced to meet their legislative responsibilities for their core responsibility of animal welfare and control.

I am the first to agree that Territory and federal governments appear never to have quite come to grasp with the immensity of the problems faced in improving the long term health of dogs and consequently their owners and the inability of Indigenous people to access the resources they need to ‘do it themselves’.

Some shires are leading the way- MacDonnell Shire and West Arnhem Shires are developing sustainable frameworks for Animal Welfare and Control based on AMRRIC’s Best Practice Model. Holistic and sustainable models that employ and train Aboriginal people, encourage community ownership of the dog management plans and support them to do this, coupled with specialist veterinary services, two way knowledge transfer education programs paint a picture of sustainability and hopeful futures. Both of these shires have been visionary in recognizing this as a sustainable model.

Leaders like Dr Sue Gordon and Major General Dave Chalmers, as part of the Federal Intervention, certainly did get it about the link between animal health and human health and have been great supporters of AMRRIC and dog programs in general. Dave Chalmers who spent significant time at one of the AMRRIC Dog programs in Maningrida, fully understood the imperative need for appropriate resources to be allocated to the culturally complex issues regarding dogs in remote communities and supported and encouraged AMRRIC to submit a major funding submission to Minister Macklin for a comprehensive Dog Health Program across the NT. The submission was lodged with FaHCSIA and the Ministers Office in May 2008. To date we have not had an acknowledgement of receipt of the application.

Dr Sue Gordon speaking at the recent National aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Environmental Health Conference (NATSIEH) in Kalgoorlie, spent the first 8 minutes of her key note address discussing the links between dog health and human health and the importance of organizations like AMRRIC and other dog programs being resourced to support communities to effect change. We hope that FaHCSIA will look seriously at our submission and get some much needed resources targeted to this area as a matter of urgency.

Dogs are not just a ‘Municipal’ responsibility in remote communities. They are the responsibility of the owner and the shires who are charged with looking after them. The immensity of the problems are an Indigenous Affairs issue! The Department of Health should not be let off the hook here either. There is a growing body of evidence that supports the links and outcomes of poor dog health to human health, including effects on mental health and human safety. AMRRIC Conferences have highlighted these for years.

We hear it all the time from people in communities when I ask the question’ do you have any problems with your dogs?’ Almost always the first answer is, ‘Yeh- those sick ones are making us and our kids sick’. Why is it that these comments are not acknowledged at the higher levels I ask.

We have seen more than enough ‘Fluffy’s’ around communities I agree, but we have also seen a measured decline in these sort of sad cases where AMRRIC-style programs are in operation. Focussing on the positive stories keep us hopeful.

We will continue to advocate at all levels to bring about sustainable change!!! Support us by becoming a member. We need your voices to be heard on this issue.

‘Nothing changes when nothing changes’.