Council has to act now on pound says activist

An animal activist says conditions at the Hastings pound cast a "huge slur on the city", forced a council manager to resign from his animal control position and resulted in more than 3000 people signing a petition to improve animal welfare at the facility.

Presenting the petition to the Hastings District Council on Thursday, Jessica Maxwell, representing newly-formed group Watchdog!, said the "appalling conditions" at the pound have failed to meet minimum animal welfare standards for years.

"The conditions and activities at the pound are so widely known to be terrible that they cast a huge slur on the city of Hastings," she said.

Hastings District Council CEO John O'Shaughnessy agreed the standards at the city's pound were not of the "highest order" or "best practice" but the council was improving several areas, while Mayor Lawrence Yule said all matters are part of a review ordered by the council last month and being undertaken by independent consultant and ex-Tauranga council environmental-compliance manager John Payne.

Mr Yule said interviews with those who raised concerns started this week, including Ms Maxwell, and he hoped that part of the process would be completed within two weeks, and we committed to seeing recommendations implemented by Christmas.

At the council meeting, Ms Maxwell referred to concerns raised by the Ministry of Primary Industries on January 9 when the council was notified conditions at the pound failed to meet minimum standards in five areas - disease mitigation, isolation facilities, aggressive dogs in adjoining cages, temperature control and staff failing to exercise dogs.

"The [MPI] inspector also noted, unbelievably, that some staff had no formal training in the basics of dog husbandry or health, that communication was poor, records woefully inadequate, there was no bedding provided and dog food was stored beside chemicals," she said.

Mr O'Shaughnessy said he was "more than happy" with the council's actions to improve dog bedding and conditions, as the review is conducted, launched following a Section 130 notice by the MPI, which allows an inspector to direct the owner or person in charge of the animals to take steps to prevent or mitigate suffering.

Council community safety manager Philip Evans however sent an internal memo to Mr O'Shaughnessy on April 4 stating: "The notice appears flawed as it does not detail the particulars of the inspection that indicated the problem, and it refers to a code of practise that is in turn extremely vague." Before adding: "Alternatively, we could just ignore the notice, wait to see if they prosecute and then raise the defects in court."

Mr O'Shaughnessy said on September 1 that council recognised a need for a "change of direction" in animal control, that building consents manager Malcom Hart would take over day-to-day management of the section, and that Mr Evans would "step down" from his roles of acting group manager Planning and Regulatory and Community safety manager to take on a "project/key account" role.

On Thursday, Ms Maxwell urged Hastings City councillors to conduct an urgent enquiry and asked whether Mr O'Shaughnessy "was not only fully aware of but indeed embroiled in the toxic environment within animal control."

She also noted the "abject misery and cruelty" at the pound was seen in two photographs of two severely emaciated and neglected dogs, which were later euthanased, posted on Facebook on July 17.

"I was shocked at the debilitated condition these dogs were in," she said.