{"id":18034,"date":"2026-05-25T07:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T07:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/18034\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T07:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T07:53:11","slug":"dogs-banned-from-hahndorf-cafe-three-years-after-it-opened-welcoming-pooches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/18034\/","title":{"rendered":"Dogs banned from Hahndorf cafe three years after it opened welcoming pooches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three-and-a-half years after opening her dog-friendly cafe in the Adelaide Hills, Kellie Hunter has been issued a stern warning from the local council, which could lead to a costly fine.<\/p>\n

Ms Hunter opened Same But Different Cafe in Hahndorf at the start of 2023 as a friendly place for locals and tourists to dine with their pets.<\/p>\n

“It brings happiness and joy,” she told 891 ABC Adelaide on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

“People see the dogs, it gives you the warm fuzzies, basically \u2014 it’s amazing.”\"A<\/p>\n

Dogs now have to stay outside of the cafe. (ABC News: Olivia Mason)<\/p>\n

But one recent complaint to the Mount Barker District Council prompted the council to issue a warning relating to food safety standards.<\/p>\n

Dogs are no longer allowed inside the cafe, and if one does make it inside, Ms Hunter could be fined $2,500.<\/p>\n

She said there had been no issues like dog hair found in food or unruly dogs inside.<\/p>\n

“It’s disappointing that one complaint can completely change the dynamic of the cafe, really, and what I wanted to build,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kellie Hunter has started an online petition to fight the ban. (891 ABC Adelaide: Bobby Macumber)<\/p>\n

Ms Hunter has started an online petition to fight the measure, which has already garnered more than 1,700 signatures.<\/p>\n

Dogs can continue to accompany cafe-goers outside.<\/p>\n

Your dog owner pet peeves<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s how you can become a more responsible dog owner \u2014 according to your fellow readers.<\/p>\n

“It’s a tourist town \u2014 people travel with their dogs all year round,” she said.<\/p>\n

891 ABC Adelaide listeners were divided on whether dogs should be allowed inside cafes or not.<\/p>\n

Pat originally hailed from Scotland and said it was “unusual not to have dogs” allowed inside in Europe.<\/p>\n

“Some dogs are better behaved than some people,” she said.<\/p>\n

But Susan, from the Adelaide suburb of Kingswood, said she was “fed up” with dogs being in places they did not belong, like hardware stores.<\/p>\n

Rules must be enforced: council<\/p>\n

In a statement, Council Planning and Regulatory General Manager Natalie Armstrong said environmental health officers were required to enforce the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code.<\/p>\n

“Under this national code, animals are not permitted inside food premises, except for accredited assistance animals in dining and drinking areas,” Ms Armstrong said.<\/p>\n

“These requirements are in place to minimise public health risks associated with animals in food handling environments, including the potential spread of pathogens and contamination from hair or other animal waste.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Customers like Trudy Semler have got behind Ms Hunter’s push to have dogs allowed.\u00a0 (ABC News: Olivia Mason)<\/p>\n

She said council officers had not noticed dogs were allowed inside during earlier inspections of the cafe.<\/p>\n

“Council has informed the business owner of their responsibilities under the Food Standards Code,” she said.<\/p>\n

“While council acknowledges the cafe’s strong community support and understands the challenges faced by small businesses, council does not have the authority to exempt individual businesses from complying with national food safety standards.”<\/p>\n

Ms Hunter said she had emailed SA Health about the issue but had not heard back.<\/p>\n

In a statement, SA Health said that under state law, it was incumbent on food businesses to comply with the national code, which it said contained “an exemption allowing for dogs in outdoor dining areas that are not enclosed”.<\/p>\n

But SA Health said the code did “not allow animals in areas where food is handled, including where food is served to customers, with an exception for assistance dogs”.<\/p>\n

“Local councils are responsible for ensuring food businesses within their catchment areas comply with the requirements,” SA Health said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three-and-a-half years after opening her dog-friendly cafe in the Adelaide Hills, Kellie Hunter has been issued a stern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[395,1693,17803,17805,3352,17806,2759,1694,17804,17801,2683,17802],"class_list":["post-18034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-adelaide","tag-adelaide-hills","tag-bylaw","tag-change-org","tag-council","tag-dog-cafe","tag-dogs","tag-hahndorf","tag-hygiene","tag-kellie-hunter","tag-mount-barker","tag-rules"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}