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Pitbull terrier owners have mauled SPCA chief executive Bob Kerridge for saying dog owners should be licensed, rather than dogs.
Mr Kerridge told the New Zealand Herald newspaper more than 40 per cent of the city's menacing and dangerous dogs were not microchipped, two years after it became mandatory.
Only 6 per cent, or 1092, of the 19,012 dogs known to Auckland City Council were not microchipped, but 179 of the city's 418 dogs classified as menacing and dangerous had not been microchipped.
Microchipping was not a weapon against dangerous dogs, Mr Kerridge said. The only way to really change the threat of dangerous dogs was to target their owners, he said.
The best way to control that was to license owners, not dogs.
That view worried the American Pit Bull Terrier Association, who were concerned Mr Kerridge would use his "considerable influence" to bring about owner licensing.
It would be expensive for law-abiding dog owners, while those flouting the law would still flout it, association spokeswoman Karen Batchelor said.
More compliance costs would seriously threaten the survival of the family dog, she said.
"Unless the goal is to bring about the constructive dismissal of the family pet, one struggles to understand the logic," she said.
More than half of dog bite victims were bitten by their own dog, more than half of the victims were children, and more than half of those were boys aged five to nine years-old, she said.
"When ignorance is plainly the problem, then education - not more legislation - is plainly the solution."
Mr Kerridge would do better to apply himself to "the horror that is battery hen farming", or some other "serious" animal welfare issue, she said.
Dogs classified as menacing under the Dog Control Amendment Act 2004 are the Brazilian fila, dogo argentino, Japanese tosa, and American pit bull terrier.
Dogs are classified "dangerous" if they have attacked someone, or shown aggressive behaviour.
Marketing microchipping as a way of controlling dangerous dogs was a "political stunt" and a mistake, Mr Kerridge said.
"Excluding pit bulls, dogs aren't born dangerous, they're made dangerous. As long as you have irresponsible owners, you're going to have dangerous dogs."
- NZPA
