Dog control checks pay dividends

Lou Fairest and Fred de Burgh are part of the Rangitikei District Council and Manawatu District Council animal control team which has cracked down on unregistered dogs in recent years. PHOTO/BEVAN CONLEY

A pro-active approach to dog control in Rangitikei has led to a drop in roaming and menacing dogs.

It includes checking every home in the area suspected of having unregistered dogs.

A Rangitikei District Council report on its dog control operations said dog control in the district was based on strictly enforcing legislation.

That had led to a "noticeable decline of detected offences in previous problem areas, and also specific types of offences, such as roaming, had declined."

Senior animal control officer Matt Blythe said the thrust of the new approach in the past two years had been physically checking every property in the district known to possibly have unregistered dogs.

Those owners found to have unregistered dogs were fined and given 10 days to register their dogs.

Those who didn't had the dogs removed.

Mr Blythe said legislation was clear and enforcement was essential in keeping on top of a range of dog control issues.

"Basically, we do what the legislation says," My Blythe said.

"In my opinion we have to work within the law. We're pretty black and white with it."

Mr Blythe said checking so many properties was a huge task.

"We still had our day-to-day job to do."

But he said the change in attitude of dog owners in the district had been massive.

He said word has spread and people were now generally more compliant.

The property checks found a lot of unregistered dogs which were now on the books. "It's the same as registering your car, police just aren't going to let you carry on."

Mr Blythe said now that they had a better record of the dog population it was much easier to control.

Roaming and menacing dog incidents had dropped.

He said the animal control team were fortunate to have good support from council management.

"We don't have political interference."

The dog control policy is currently under review but Mr Blythe said he didn't expect any significant changes.

Meanwhile, Wanganui District Council is also reviewing its dog control policy, which is expected to be tightened.

"Our elected members are supportive of significantly tightening the Dog Control Bylaw," deputy strategy and development manager Jonathan Barrett said.

"One of the conclusions from the workshop was that the draft policy presented to our councillors will be made public as part of an informal consultation to gauge the views of the community which would be followed by another re-draft prior to the policy being put out for formal consultation."