9Registration required from age 6 months

9 Registration required from age 6 months

9 Registration required from age 6 months

(1) A companion animal must be registered under this Act from the time the animal is 6 months old. The owner of the animal is guilty of an offence if it is not registered.

Maximum penalty—

(a) in the case of a dangerous, menacing or restricted dog—60 penalty units for a first offence or 70 penalty units for a second or subsequent offence, or

(b) in any other case—50 penalty units for a first offence or 60 penalty units for a second or subsequent offence.

Note.

The regulations may provide for exceptions to this section. An owner does not have to wait until an animal is 6 months old to register it. An animal of any age can be registered.

(2) The regulations may change the age from which a companion animal is required to be registered under this section from 6 months to any other age, either generally for all companion animals or for a particular kind or class of companion animal.

(3) A person is taken to commit a separate offence under this section on every day the companion animal remains unregistered. However, a person—

(a) may not be convicted for the commission of more than one offence in relation to the failure to register a companion animal during any single calendar month, and

(b) may be convicted only once in relation to any failure to register a companion animal that occurred before that failure came to the notice of the council of the area in which the animal is ordinarily kept.

Note.

This subsection does not limit the number of times a person may be prosecuted under section 10B (Notice requiring companion animal to be registered).

(4) A greyhound that is registered for the time being under the Greyhound Racing Act 2017 is exempt from this section.

s 9: Am 2005 No 101, Sch 1 [12]; 2013 No 86, Sch 1 [4] [5]; 2017 No 13, Sch 7.3 [1]; 2018 No 27, Sch 1 [3].