Animal emergencies

All dog attacks should be reported to Council Local Laws Officers immediately or as soon as possible, no matter the severity. If a person is severely injured, please call 000 immediately. For injured pets and livestock contact a vet.

During office hours, please report dog attacks to Council on 5348 2306. If a dog attack takes place outside Council hours, please call our EMERGENCY After-Hours Number, 0419 587 955.

Agriculture Victoria has information on preventing dog attacks.

If your cat or dog is missing, please notify Council on (03) 5348 2306, and contact the Ballarat Animal Shelter on (03) 5334 2075. You should also check with local vets who often receive found or injured animals.

If you find a pet please contact Council.

Make sure to keep your pet registration current and your contact details up to date. This will help to reunite you with your pet if it goes missing.

If you see a snake, keep calm and remember that if left alone, snakes present little danger to people. If possible, keep still and let the snake move away. When you’re a safe distance away, calmly remove yourself and any people or pets away from the snake.

Never touch or attempt to capture snakes. If they are injured or inside your house, call the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning on 136 186 for advice, or call a licensed snake catcher.

Snakes are protected under the Wildlife Act 1975. It is illegal to capture, kill or harm them. Bites can occur when people try to harm snakes.

Local Snake Catchers

Les Williams: 0438 681 090

Jason Lambie: 5472 3239 | 0407 723 239

Jason Blainey: 0413 676 751 after 4.30PM

Snake and Animal Damage Control Toll Free: 1800 004 744

Michael Henry: 0407 973 520

Manfred Zabinskas: 5368 6813 | 0438 681 501

Hodgson's Snakes: 0490 415 734 (24/7)

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning has more information on snake encounters. 

Wildlife matters are not managed by Council. Caring and handling wildlife requires specialist skills and training. The best thing you can do to help the animal is to contact a trained professional who can give the animal the care it needs.

Wildlife Victoria 24/7 - (03) 8400 7300. If a phone call is not possible, you can report an animal emergency online at Wildlife Victoria.

Wildlife Rescue 24/7 - 1300 596 457. Report the emergency online at Wildlife Rescue Australia.

If you cannot reach the above numbers, you can call Hepburn Wildlife Shelter directly on 0409 380 327 and they will do their best to assist.

Drive carefully

Please take care when driving on our roads, especially in the periods around dawn and dusk, as these are the most likely times to encounter wildlife, particularly kangaroos, wallabies and wombats.

Stray or wandering dogs and cats may kill or injure wildlife such as birds or ringtail possums, so please keep your pets contained to your property.

European Wasp nests must not be allowed to exist on your land. Please bear in mind that wasps may aggressively defend their nest. If a nest is found on private property, Council recommends hiring a qualified pest removalist.

Council destroys European Wasp nests on Council land. Please call Customer Service on (03) 5348 2306 to report nests on Council land.

If you find a swarm of bees on your land, we recommend contacting a qualified apiarist.

If you find a deceased dog or cat that is not known to you, please notify Council, and our staff can scan the microchip and notify the owner.

If you find dead livestock in a location that might be a danger to other people, such as on a busy road, call the police on 000.

If you find a recently deceased kangaroo near the roadside in a busy residential area, please notify Council on 5348 2306 for removal.