The Domestic Animals Act 1994 (the Act) requires all Victorian councils to prepare a Domestic Animal Management Plan every 4 years.

Building on insights from the first round of engagement in April 2025, we developed the draft Domestic Animal Management Plan 2026-29 (DAMP). In this second round of engagement, we shared the draft plan with the community to help ensure the final version reflects community needs and expectations.

The Phase 2 consultation ran from 7 July 2025 to 4 August 2025. We published the draft DAMP online via Participate Melbourne. The community were given the opportunity to provide feedback via a survey or written submission.

Read more about the second round of engagement.

We received 227 survey responses and a further 16 written submissions via email.

• 59% were dog owners
• 40% were cat owners
• 13% did not own a cat or dog
• 57% were users of local parks, reserves or playgrounds
• 63% identified as female
• 30% identified as male
• 94% were residents of City of Melbourne
• 22% were born overseas
• 36% of the total survey contributors stated they live, work, own a business, study or visit Kensington and North Melbourne

Several key themes emerged through the feedback:

• Strong concerns about dogs being off-leash in non-off-leash areas.
• Desire for more designated off-leash areas with clear and effective signage.

• Frequent mentions of issues related to dog waste.
• Strong support for improved infrastructure such as more bins and waste bag dispensers.

• General support for cat curfews.
• Some concerns about the enforcement of cat containment orders and the potential impact on community members.
• Requests for greater support and guidance around the cat containment orders being implemented.

• Strong support for education programs promoting responsible pet ownership and improving pet owner behaviour.
• Desire for more pet-friendly spaces in high-density areas.

• Concerns raised about support for vulnerable community members who own pets.
• A desire for equitable access to pet ownership.

Examples of what we heard

We have reviewed the feedback and submissions and made the following amendments to the final DAMP:

More consideration for dogs in public places, including designation of areas and infrastructure for managing dogs and dog waste.

The below actions have been included:

• Review the effectiveness of dog waste bins and bag dispensers in high-traffic areas and parks and implement findings from the review.
• Utilise our communications channels to promote leashing requirements and responsible dog ownership.

Address the need for greater support and guidance around the new cat management orders.

The below action has been included:

• Deliver on our commitment to a communications plan and education campaign to increase awareness of City of Melbourne’s cat containment and mandatory desexing laws to improve compliance, provide clarity on enforcement of the orders and raise awareness of the impacts of roaming cats on wildlife.

Do more to address commonly held concerns about the lack of pet-friendly spaces and restrictions on pet ownership.

• We’ve added a new section to the plan under the heading ‘A pet-friendly City’, which commits to a review of the way people and their pets interact with the city and advocates for a review in policies and design that make the City of Melbourne a more pet-friendly city.

Find ways to facilitate more equitable support for vulnerable pet owners to ensure fair access to pet ownership across the municipality.

The below action has been included:

• Explore partnerships with support services to provide affordable and accessible pet care services.

The final DAMP will be presented to the Future Melbourne Committee on 16 September 2025 for endorsement.

The final step will be submission of the final DAMP to State Government by December 2025.

The Domestic Animals Act 1994 (the Act) requires domestic animal management plans to be prepared by every council in Victoria at four yearly intervals. The Domestic Animal Management Plan 2026-29 (DAMP) outlines the services, programs and policies that Council has established to address the administration of the Act and the management of dogs and cats in their community.

We asked the community for feedback on the key issues and objectives relating to animal management. We wanted to hear people’s experiences with animals in the city and what actions or programs we should prioritise.

We sought feedback on the following topics:

• training of Authorised Officers
• pet registration and identification
• nuisance issues, such as barking dogs
• dog attacks
• dangerous, menacing and restricted breed dogs
• domestic animal businesses.

These insights were used to set goals in the DAMP targeted at promoting responsible pet ownership, ensuring positive welfare outcomes for animals and minimising negative impacts cat and dogs may have on the community and environment.

The first phase of community engagement on the DAMP took place between 3 April to 29 April 2025. Consultation included an online survey on the Participate Melbourne website, published with a discussion paper to help inform decision making.

973 contributions were received via the online survey. We also received 15 written submissions via email.

The key themes identified include:

• the introduction of cat curfews and mandatory desexing of cats. This echoes what we heard in our cat management consultation in 2024 – that the community is largely supportive of these initiatives to benefit the welfare of cats and minimise harm to wildlife.
• the importance of implementing a strategy to manage semi-owned and unowned cat populations.
• more off-leash dog areas, with an emphasis on these areas being fenced.
• more bins with dog waste bags to reduce the amount of dog waste in public places.
• issues caused by dogs being off-leash outside of designated areas persist, and people would like to see more visible enforcement of the rules during peak times to boost compliance.
• to better incorporate pets into our day to day lives by being able to take them on public transport and to more restaurants, bars and cafes.

Download the full community engagement report (PDF 739.41 KB) .

Examples of what we heard

We are currently reviewing community feedback. The insights collected will support and inform the draft DAMP. This draft will be presented to the Future Melbourne Committee on 1 July 2025 for endorsement.

Following the Future Melbourne Committee meeting, a second round of community consultation will take place to seek any further feedback from the community on the final draft DAMP.