Auckland Council impounded more than 12,000 dogs last year and more than half were euthanised. As shelters overflow, many animals like this one are never reclaimed, prompting calls for law reform. Photo / Auckland Council
Auckland Council impounded more than 12,000 dogs last year and more than half were euthanised. As shelters overflow, many animals like this one are never reclaimed, prompting calls for law reform. Photo / Auckland Council
By Mary Afemata, Local Democracy Reporting
Auckland Council is pushing for stronger powers under the Dog Control Act 1996 to address the growing number of roaming and uncontrolled dogs.
Despite this, frontline rescuers and local leaders say the crisis requires immediate on-the-ground action.
Jo Coulam, a volunteer at the SavingHope Foundation, says rescue groups are overwhelmed and feel abandoned.
Coulam criticises the council’s desexing pilot for not targeting the right communities and highlights that rescue groups are carrying too much of the burden.
“We spoke in May about the Kāinga Ora houses and now, as we predicted, we have newborn puppies dumped on train tracks and in rubbish bins,” she says.
“Rescues like ours are left to do the hard work while trying to educate owners, but we can’t do it alone. By 1pm that day we’d already had 32 more, including a mum and a litter of newborn pups. It’s out of control.”
“This is why I’ve been calling on the Mayor and councillor Josephine Bartley to pull together a taskforce. Central and local government need to work together for Aucklanders,” she says.
Children cross the street on their way to school but safety concerns are rising as roaming dog incidents increase. Photo / Auckland Council
“Roaming dogs have got out of control in the last two years in Manurewa. Our kids and elderly people are at risk. Dog attacks are up, and we’re now seeing roaming packs of unowned dogs.
“Manurewa needs new solutions to deal with this rapidly escalating issue. National has spent a lot of time telling councils what to cut. This is an opportunity for ministers to do something constructive and actually help Auckland with something that will genuinely benefit people in Manurewa and other communities affected.”
Council defends response, calls for law reform
Auckland Council animal management manager Elly Waitoa says public safety is its top priority and that dog owners must take responsibility for their pets.
Waitoa says while desexing dogs is not the council’s responsibility it is stepping in because of the scale of the problem.
She says the council is seeking stronger enforcement powers through legislative reform, which could include establishing conditions such as requiring fencing upgrades before a dog is released, mandating desexing in certain cases, and introducing mandatory reporting of serious dog attacks to enable timely intervention.
“We’ve got children being attacked, people being attacked, animals being attacked… children can’t go to school because they’re being terrorised by aggressive dogs… they can’t walk to their local shop because of dogs,” she says.
“We don’t have unlimited resources… it is the dog owner’s responsibility to desex their dog… but we are doing everything that we can at this stage with the funding that we have.
“We’re calling for more tools, like mandatory fencing standards and hospital reporting of dog attacks. It’s about giving councils real options when education alone doesn’t work.”
In the past year, the council received 16,739 reports of roaming dogs, 1341 reports of dog attacks on people and 1523 reports of attacks on other animals. Only 42% of dogs were reclaimed by their owners and more than 6000 were euthanised – over half of all dogs impounded.
Frontline officers are stretched thin as Auckland Council faces record numbers of roaming dog reports. Photo / Auckland Council
ACC claim data suggests the actual number of dog attacks is likely higher. Most serious attacks involving children happen in the family home and go unreported to council, says general manager Robert Irvine. “Introducing mandatory hospital reporting would allow us to intervene and put measures in place to prevent attacks from happening again,” he says.
Proposed changes to the Dog Control Act
To help reduce attacks and improve enforcement, Auckland Council is asking the Government for powers to:
Mandate desexing policies
Require desexing before releasing dogs from shelters
Shorten the shelter holding period from seven to five days
Detain dogs post-attack if deemed dangerous
Increase fines for obstructing officers or breaching orders
Set localised infringement schedules
Require hospitals to report serious dog attacks.
“These changes make good common sense and would greatly improve our ability to protect Aucklanders from dog-related harm,” says Irvine. “They would not affect the majority of dog owners, who we know are responsible.”
“There is a group that just doesn’t seem to care. Their actions are putting our communities at risk, particularly our tamariki, so having stricter rules around things like fencing and desexing has become necessary.”
Manurewa-Papakura councillor Daniel Newman says local board budgets are insufficient to respond to the scale of the problem.
“I don’t want to have to be looking around at local boards trying to fund desexing vouchers and what have you,” he says. “This has to be a regional response to a region-wide problem.”
SPCA national community outreach manager Rebecca Dobson says the council-SPCA pilot only began in June and it is too early to judge its success.
“Since 2022, SPCA has desexed 1294 dogs in Auckland. That’s part of a national programme that’s seen 55,000 animals desexed and more than 200,000 unwanted litters prevented.”
She says meaningful progress requires a significantly larger investment, estimated at more than $75 million.
“Rescue groups, SPCA, councils, vets and communities are all grappling with the fallout of people not desexing their pets. None of us can fix this alone. Desexing needs to become a priority for all pet owners.”
Dobson also says enforcement is the council’s role, not the SPCA’s.
“The public should contact their local council when it comes to roaming dogs, dog attacks or public safety issues. SPCA works under the Animal Welfare Act, focused on cruelty prevention.”