Roaming dogs ' a district wide issue’ across Hauraki

Hauraki District Council says lost and roaming dogs are a district-wide issue and can frighten, intimidate or annoy others, in addition to attacking other animals and people. Photo / 123rf

An increase in dog attacks has Hauraki district officials worried.

Reported dog attacks on other dogs and animals have more than doubled, with 50 this year compared to 23 last year, a Hauraki District Council dog control activity report reveals.

Over the past year, the number of reported dog attacks on people also increased, with 18 this year compared to 14 the previous year.

Roaming dogs were a district-wide issue, which could “frighten, intimidate or annoy others, in addition to attacking other animals and people”, the report said.

There had been an increase from 269 roaming dog complaints in the previous year to 328 in 2023/24.

A council spokesperson said there could be many reasons why reported attacks had increased, from more people feeling comfortable to make a complaint, more dog owners not desexing their dogs, or owners not socialising their dogs properly.

In the case of roaming and lost dogs, complaints could be difficult to resolve if the dog was not secured. If a roaming dog was secured then animal control could pick it up and attempt to find the owner.

“There could be multiple reasons for an increase in roaming dogs. Dog owners may not have sufficient fencing or there is an increase of non-responsible dog owners. There is no provision in legislation to enforce the fencing of dogs.

“Again, people may be more comfortable in reporting roaming dogs to council, and this could be seen as a positive. It is of note that animal control does undertake street patrols to check for roaming dogs.”

Animal control staff visited 273 properties to find unregistered dogs in 2023/24.

The spokesperson said properties were randomly selected across the Hauraki district and checked for unregistered dogs.

Fourteen unregistered dogs were found. No prosecutions were undertaken in the 2023/24 year.

The number of infringement notices filed to court in 2023/24 was up compared with infringements filed to court in the previous year. Ninety infringements were lodged to the court compared to 59 in the previous year.

A total of 14 (13 in 2022/23) dogs were classified as dangerous and 50 (49 in 2022/23) were classified as menacing.

It had been pleasing most dogs were impounded with no owner coming forward had been adopted or re-homed to rescue organisations, the spokesperson said.

“The animal control contractors that we now have, have implemented a re-homing service, and have re-homed quite a number of dogs that may have otherwise been euthanised.”

“Statistics help the team to see where issues may be lying, for example roaming dogs, so that action can be taken, in the form of, but not limited to doing extra street patrols as one example or providing dog cages where the public are having roaming dogs coming onto their property.

“At times it can be difficult to ascertain where the roaming dog is coming from,” the spokesperson said.