Good friends dogged by fees hike

Pauline Gunner and her dog Miss Sooty are inseperabe, but the pensioner is facing a financial struggle due to a 166% hike in her registration fee.

Max Fleet dog0406

Poll

Do you think the dog registration fee hike is excessive?

This poll ended on 26 June 2009.

Yes - it will put stress on my budget

62%

No - it is still pretty cheap

37%

I don't have a dog

0%

This is not a scientific poll. The results reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate.

PAULINE Gunner could not bear to be parted from her black poodle Miss Sooty.

“Just before my husband passed away he said to me, 'I have saved this money up. I want you to go and buy yourself a dog',” said the Kepnock pensioner.

Miss Sooty is nine now, and every time Mrs Gunner looks at her and strokes her woolly head she remembers with love her husband, Walter.

But the value added by the poodle does not stop there.

Now almost 70, Mrs Gunner is deaf when not wearing a hearing aid and relies on Miss Sooty to be her ears and, to an extent, her eyes.

“If the phone rings or someone's at the door, I can't hear them so she (Miss Sooty) comes in and hits me,” she laughs.

But Mrs Gunner is not amused that Bundaberg Regional Council has hit elderly people by raising the pensioners' desexed dog registration fee from $7.50 to $20 - a leap of 166% on last year.

Her 2009 renewal notice has just arrived.

“I rang Bundaberg council to speak to (mayor) Lorraine Pyefinch about it but they wouldn't put me through,” said Mrs Gunner.

“The man at the council I was put through to told me it's a luxury to keep a dog.”

For Mrs Gunner, who survives on the government age pension, it is a huge blow.

“It's pretty bad,” she said.

“Everything's gone up - petrol, registration, food... we can't afford to keep paying.”

Bundaberg council put in place a new fee structure for all dog registrations at the end of May. Pensioners with desexed dogs were hit by the biggest price rise.

The new fees will boost council coffers by $238,000.

The council has recently been flagging some tough decisions in the coming budget due to financial pressures.

Council health and environment spokeswoman Cr Mary Wilkinson has defended the move as promoting responsible pet ownership.

Mrs Gunner says pensioners are not generally the irresponsible owners because they have their dogs for company and security.

Bundaberg and District Senior Citizens Association secretary Jean Vane said it was a huge financial blow to pensioners on restricted incomes and she would be saddened if any had to give up their companion.