Council: We got it wrong

HEART BROKEN: A tearful 7-year-old Czah Waihape, mourning the loss of his life-long friend.

Far North District Council compliance manager Darren Edwards has admitted that it should have done better after it removed the body of a dog from a street in Kaitaia.

Ruby Waihape said her beloved family pet Boy, which was registered and had been microchipped the day before, went missing on Monday last week. Despite her best efforts she did not learn what had become of it until Thursday, when the council told her that the body had been disposed of.

Ms Waihape accepted that the council was not responsible for Boy's death - it was apparently fatally mauled by other dogs just three doors along the street from its home - but the council's failure to contact her had left her angry and distressed.

Mr Edwards said, after the Northland Age sought a response on Friday, that the council accepted that its processes had not been of an "acceptable level in this case", and that Ms Waihape had not received the level of service she was entitled to.

"When dogs are seized, the first step taken is to identify the registered owner. However, in this instance the animal control officer was not able to do this, even though the dog was registered and tagged," he added.

"We are making every endeavour to ensure that all animal control officers can access the system 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so that an incident like this is not repeated. We are also making arrangements to meet with Ms Waihape to discuss what happened to her dog."

Ms Waihape said she had phoned the council several times in the hope of finding her dog, which she believed was simply missing, and was eventually put through to Whangarei. She did not understand how that was supposed to help. She also claimed that she had been told by Animal Control that there was nothing she could do about the way Boy had been disposed of, and that as the dog's owner, she had no rights.

"At least they could have told us he was dead," she said.

"Animal Control picked him up an hour after he was seen by someone. The pound man knew the dog and knew where he lived. He had been microchipped. They are meant to notify you that they have picked your dog up. Nothing from them whatsoever ... We were unable to bring him home, back to his family to rest," she added.

"I accept my dog was not on my property and had got off his chain, but surely Animal Control officers have procedures to help reunite the dog with its family, especially when they are registered and microchipped. He was scanned and identified as my dog, but I was not contacted before he got disposed of in the pit.

"So what's the purpose of registering and microchipping your dogs?"