An alarming spike in the number of banned ‘pronged’ dog collars detected at Australia’s borders has prompted a warning from the Australian Border Force (ABF).
Assistant Commissioner for East and Port Operations with ABF, Erin Dale said the dog collars were considered dangerous.
“[They] are considered dangerous due to the possibility of the prongs causing injury by puncturing or bruising a dog’s neck during use, even if unintentional, and the potential for misuse,” Assistant Commissioner Dale said, “and as such are classified as a prohibited import.”
“There has been a more than seven-fold increase in pronged dog collar detections over the past 12 months (April 2020 – March 2021) compared to the previous 12 months, up from 56 to 477,” she said.
“The majority of intercepted consignments are of single collars.”
Assistant Commissioner Dale said that while the massive increase in detections was pleasing from an operational perspective, the trend was concerning.
“Pronged dog collars can only be imported into Australia if permission has been granted by the Minister for Home Affairs or an authorised person but this is rarely granted due to the high risk of harm they pose to animals,” she said.
Assistant Minister for Customs, Jason Wood applauded the vigilance of the frontline ABF officers who prevented the banned collars from entering the country.
“These pronged dog collars have been prohibited from import for a very good reason – to prevent them being used in the abuse of animals,” Mr Wood said.
“At the very least, people who import banned items like this are wasting their money, but they also risk prosecution,” he said.
Mr Wood urged people who purchased items from overseas to first check the ABF’s list of items which couldn’t legally be brought into the country.
ABF’s list of prohibited goods can be accessed at this PS News link.
