Taupō dog pound gets awards nod

Taupō District Council compliance and regulatory manager Ross McDonald (left) and Taupō Pound & Animal Shelter pound keeper Taylor Hori sharing the love with some of the pound pups. Photo / Taupō District Council

A new approach to connecting hopeful pound dogs with loving new owners recently won the Taupō District Council animal control team a special award for engagement.

The team, consisting of head pound keeper Taylor Hori with support from assistant pound keepers and council animal compliance officers, run the Taupō Pound & Animal Shelter. Part of the job is to reunite lost dogs with their owners, and find new homes for unwanted or surrendered dogs.

At the Local Government New Zealand awards evening, the Taupō District dog pound and animal shelter won a highly-commended nod from the judges in the Super Engaged category, which recognised creative ways to capture the community’s attention and promote engagement.

The team’s flagship initiative was its Taupō District Adopt a Dog Facebook page, which shares descriptions of each dog and its personality, along with eye-catching photographs.

The page had 6900 followers and gained the attention of potential owners from around New Zealand.

The team’s adoption statistics were evidence the approach worked.

In 2019, before the team began the Facebook group, 31 dogs were rehomed from the shelter.

By the 2022/23 year, this had increased to 250 dogs that found forever homes.

Compliance officers also worked hard to build good relationships in the community and focused on dealing with dog owners in a positive way, offering advice and information on animal control and promoting the benefits of doing the right thing, for both owner and dog.

Council compliance and regulatory manager Ross McDonald said he was incredibly proud of the animal control team, especially because it was unusual for a regulation activity like animal control to be singled out in the Super Engaged category.

“The team is amazing and we get so much feedback about their genuine care for the dogs and how well looked after they are.

“They really do go the extra mile to connect dogs with the right owners and make sure they are set up for a successful adoption.

“The real winners in this scenario are not the team or the council, but the dogs they work so hard to find homes for.”