Tauranga City Council hearing: Owner fights to keep dog licence

A dog owner is preparing to formally fight Tauranga City Council’s decision to disqualify him from owning dogs.

A Tauranga dog owner who has already jumped over a back fence with his dogs to prevent them from being taken is preparing to formally fight a council decision to disqualify him from owning dogs, official council papers show.

Complaints about his male cross-breed dog include that the animal rushed at people, including a 6-year-old girl riding a bike, attacked the dog of another complainant, was roaming the streets and stalked and barked at people in a reserve.

But the dog owner says the dog is his “beautiful nature boy”, and that it’s misunderstood and “just gets scared”.

In a report that will be presented to a Tauranga City Council Regulatory Hearings Panel on Wednesday, council team leader of animal services Brent Lincoln said it had received six complaints over a period of 21 months, “mostly about the dog either roaming with aggression or rushing at people”.

Lincoln said that having considered the nature of the offending, the associated aggression of the dog and the repeat nature of the offences, “staff are satisfied that the disqualification is warranted”.

But the dog owner has objected, prompting the hearing.

Normal practice was for a council to disqualify an owner for three years when they incur three or more infringements within two years.

The dog owner has received the equivalent of four qualifying infringements, plus another that has been issued but not yet paid or defended.

The report stated the dog had rushed and barked at people and stalked them in a reserve. On August 22, 2022, a 6-year-old was rushed by the dog while riding her bike, and on July 12, 2021, the dog and another belonging to the same owner jumped out of their Pāpāmoa property and attacked a complainant’s dog.

In November 2021, officers visited the owner’s home and advised him they were there to impound his two dogs. Neither was registered and they were the subject of complaints about roaming dogs the day earlier, the report stated.

“The officer had also seen his dogs roaming ... and chased them back to his address.”

The owner threatened to call the police and asked for the paperwork. He then went back inside the address.

As officers filed out the two seizure notices, the owner had left the property by jumping over the back fence of the property.

He returned a short time later without the dogs.

In response to a letter from the council informing him of his disqualification, the dog owner wrote back saying he moved addresses to better control the main offending dog escaping.

In the letter, he said he moved “because [neither] the owner nor the council would come to aid for higher fences for the backyard ... it was clear I had to relocate somewhere more suitable where he could no longer jump the fence and therefore remain contained in my backyard”.

Since moving, he had padlocked the fence and set up a motion detector “should he get past a certain point where we would be able to get him before he comes into public contact”.

The dog had since got out once due to a guest leaving, he said.

He was also enquiring about getting the dog neutered “to try to calm down his hormones”.

“[He] really is a beautiful nature boy, he just gets scared, or more often than not - too excited - of the unfamiliar.”

“If it is too exciting then he can come across as aggressive if you don’t know him, so I do understand the victim’s points of view as well as the council’s. But if you could please re-evaluate the disqualification based on the steps I have made to ensure your previous requests have been met. [sic]”

The hearing will be held at 9am on Wednesday at Regional House on Elizabeth St.