Thousands of dog complaints lodged with Christchurch City Council

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Thousands of complaints were made to Christchurch City Council over dogs barking, disrupting traffic, attacking people, poultry and, in some circumstances, even protected wildlife over the space of 12 months.

Statistics released from the city council this week show 7613 complaints were made in relation to dogs barking, wandering, fouling and being unregistered during the previous financial year.

A further 578 "priority one" complaints were made to the city council which relate to dogs disrupting traffic and attacking either people, stock, poultry, domestic animals or protected wildlife.

The city council also issued 1494 infringement notices for breaches against the Dog Control Act.

The city council undertook one prosecution resulting in a conviction of a dog owner, disqualifying them from owning a dog for four years. There were also 11 owners put on probation.

The number of dangerous dogs within the city also rose to 60, with an additional eight canines added to the dangerous dog register.

The total number of dogs recorded on the city council's database rose to 40,002 compared to 39,127 the previous year.

- starnews.co.nz