The Domestic Animals Act provides that certain dogs may be declared by councils to be of a restricted breed .

In most cases this will involve the dog being destroyed and in some cases the dog then must be kept under the very restrictive provisions relating to the keeping of a restricted breed dog. There are many potential arguments to raise against such a declaration, but the process of challenging the declaration can be very complicated and require substantial non-legal assistance.

Melke Legal conducted the first appeal successfully to The Supreme Court against a Restricted Breed dog declaration under the recent restricted breed dog legislation and has conducted applications successfully against such declarations in VCAT.