QCAT orders council to set aside declaration that rottweiler accused of savaging wallabies is a dangerous dog

A dispute between neighbours over allegations a rottweiler was ‘slaughtering’ and ‘mutilating’ wallabies at a hinterland property has been blown wide open at a legal hearing, with findings handed down about council’s response.

A tribunal has found an eight-year-old female rottweiler called Bayne is not a bad dog, throwing out accusations it had been “slaughtering” wallabies in Tallai and feasting on the “live meat”.

Bayne’s owner Amelia Smiley took Gold Coast Council to QCAT after the local authority in February 2020 declared Bayne a “dangerous dog”.

Owners of dogs declared dangerous or menacing must comply with a host of regulations including using a distinctive collar and displaying signage at the dog’s enclosure to warn the public of its presence.

The declaration came after a complaint from neighbour Max Meinhold that Bayne had allegedly “cornered, snared and left mutilated” a wallaby near a dam on Ms Smiley’s 4.96 hectare property at The Panorama in Tallai on August 23, 2019.

“Mr Meinhold further complained to the council that Ms Smiley’s partner, Mr Zabusky, had ‘disposed’ of it ‘down the dam’s bank’,” the judgment states.

However Ms Smiley said she had no recollection of the alleged incident, and that Bayne, who suffered from arthritis and had limited ability to run and walk, had never killed any wallabies.

“She maintained the complaint was made by her neighbour, Mr Meinhold, to vex and harass her,” the judgment states, while photos submitted by Mr Meinhold did not include Bayne and merely showed Mr Zabusky carrying a wallaby by the tail that did not “bear any apparent sign of injury”.

File image of a rottweiler dog. Picture: iStock

Mr Meinhold’s daughter, a Ms York, also complained to council about an incident on July 26, 2019 when Bayne allegedly “lunged” at her from behind a fence where it had been “eating” a wallaby.

“It was quite vicious showing his teeth, barking and snarling with his heckles (sic) up,” Ms York wrote in a statement to council. “I had to visit my doctor over the stress of the tragic fearful event.”

Ms York made similar allegations regarding a September 24, 2019 incident.

“I am terrified that every time I visit my parents,” she said.

In his judgment, QCAT member Michael Howe concluded Ms York had “no reasonable basis” to fear an attack from the dog on either occasion because it was “safely fenced away”, noting a council officer had found the fence was “sound and adequate to contain Bayne”.

The dam at the property. Picture: CoreLogic.

Mr Meinhold also complained of an incident on September 26, 2019 when he said Bayne lunged at him in an aggressive manner as he tried to film a video through a fence of the dog eating a dead wallaby.

“Mr Meinhold was asked why he would be afraid of Bayne given he was standing outside the fence,” the judgment states.

“Mr Meinhold said because he took a photograph of a savage dog eating a wallaby; it could have been his grandson who is six years of age that got into Ms Smiley’s property. The dog might get out and mutilate a child or passer-by and Mr Meinhold and the Council were doing something about it.”

However in his judgment Mr Howe said Bayne’s response was “very predictable” in circumstances where “a person knowingly advances towards an eating dog”, while any fear held by Mr Meinhold was “not a fear of attack”, but a “vague and amorphous fear that harm might potentially befall others sometime in the future were they to enter the dog’s yard”.

He found the claims against Bayne were not proven and ordered council’s decision to declare Bayne a dangerous dog be set aside.

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