Right: A wide range of studies have demonstrated that pet ownership assists a child’s social development.
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Background information
In Australia, more than two thirds of households own pets. Australia has the highest incidence of pet ownership per household of any country in the world. However, finding pet friendly rental accommodation can be difficult.
Across the country, residential tenancy agreements either do not mention keeping pets or state that written consent is required from the landlord before pets are allowed in rental properties. Despite some apparent shift in attitude among real estate agents, a majority of landlords do not allow tenants to have pets. The situation appears to be particularly acute in Queensland which has a high annual intake of new residents from other states and thus a large rental market with a proportionately large number of surrendered pets, a high percentage of which are put down.
The RSPCA manages about 160,000 animals Australia-wide each year, and the charity's ACT chief, Michael Linke, claims shelters are crowed because changing living situations mean people can no longer stay with their pets. Mr Linke has said pet owners struggle trying to rent private and single-dwelling houses the most. He has stated, 'We've been calling on the Real Estate Institute and private land-holders to loosen the ties a bit and be more forthcoming in allowing people with pets to find accommodation, because we're finding a lot of people are surrendering animals to move into free-standing houses.'
In June 2011 a private law firm, Lawyers for Companion Animals, was established in NSW. The primary purpose of this firm is to make submissions to government and government agencies, provide pro-bono information and, to a lesser extent, advice and advocacy, on companion Animal Law and companion Animal Law related issues. It is the only law firm in Australia to focus exclusively in the practice of Animal Law for companion animals. One of their areas of concern is providing information to assist those threatened with eviction due to the keeping of a pet.