The Manukau City Council is spearheading moves to redefine what constitutes a dog attack. under the Dog Control Act.
The council wants the power to seize threatening dogs before they sink their fangs into people.
Its action follows a High Court decision in Auckland last year, when Justice Randerson declaredthat a dog must touch or cause injury to someone to constitute an attack under the Act.
His decision was in response to the council's accusation that a German Shepherd, Reika, had attacked a postie by barking and rushing at him. Reika was released after being impounded for eight months.
However, the court decision has prevented animal wardens from seizing "dangerous dogs" from owners' properties, unless the dogs physically hurt someone.
The Manukau City Council has dropped an appeal against the court decision and is instead seeking a change to the Dog Control Act through Local Government New Zealand, the lobby group for New Zealand's territorial local authorities.
It would like the power to seize a dog that is considered a threat, but it needs the backing of four other councils by next Tuesday.
The council's settlement manager, Gary Stephenson, said the Rotorua District Council has already made a submission and at least another four councils have considered supporting the law change.
Mr Stephenson said Manukau is spearheading the proposal because its court case has affected animal management throughout the country. The city also has a lot of dogs, about 25,000,with scores impounded each year because they are considered dangerous. It receives around 600 dog attack complaints a year.
Mr Stephenson said council's main concern was public safety and the animal wardens' inability to stop a dangerous dog from attacking someone if it remained at large.
"We are talking about dogs which have not physically hurt someone because it missed, or the person took action to avoid being hurt.
"The dog is still dangerous and we want to be able to remove it before it does bite someone," he said.
The council's environmental compliance manager, Sue Harkness, said animal wardens were left with few options to control dangerous dogs.
Ms Harkness said the number of dangerous dogs has increased this year.
"Without being able to seize a dangerous dog it poses a risk to public safety, a risk we can't remove. We are always worried when we give back a dangerous dog."
