The Government has ordered a comprehensive review of the Dog Control Act in response to a series of serious dog attacks, aiming to strengthen enforcement and improve public safety.
Local Government Minister Simon Watts said recent incidents involving aggressive and uncontrolled dogs had left communities shaken, with some residents avoiding public spaces due to safety concerns. He said dog owners must take responsibility to ensure their animals are properly controlled.
The review will examine whether the current legislation is outdated and limiting councils’ ability to manage dangerous dogs effectively. It is expected to consider stronger penalties for non-compliant owners, desexing requirements, and expanded powers for council officers.
Alongside the review, the Government is updating national enforcement guidelines to provide clearer direction for dog control officers and ensure a more consistent approach across councils. Watts has also written to all councils urging them to fully utilise existing powers while the review is underway.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell said police would continue supporting councils, particularly in situations involving high-risk dogs or where officer safety is a concern. Conservation Minister Tama Potaka added that the Department of Conservation would increase monitoring in high-risk areas and expand its response to feral or uncontrolled dogs, particularly where native wildlife is at risk.
The Government has also announced a $468,000 grant to the SPCA for dog desexing, with the organisation contributing an additional $700,000, bringing the total funding to nearly $1.2 million. Officials say the initiative aims to address dog overpopulation and reduce the number of unwanted animals.
The review forms part of a broader effort to improve dog control measures and support councils in keeping communities safe.
Image credit: Dimitry Ganin
Fine and make people keep their fricken cats inside at night! 😡
Cat’s don’t kill people.
Yes they do. Toxoplasmosis Gondi. Please educate yourself. They Sh1t in other peoples vegetable gardens. Disgusting.
Keep your filthy cats on your own property.
Furthermore they kill birds. People who defend their wandering cats are quite obviously suffering from historical toxoplasmosis infection. Hence crazy cat lady associations.
Do you want to meet and say that again you little ****?
Give me ONE good reason I should have to tolerate anyone’s cat in my property?
Personally I think cats should be registered as well so we can fine their lazy owners when they wander.
Btw when I owned a dog, it was walked twice a day and fully enclosed in my yard. Never had a complaint.
You pathetic moron, it is people like you who need to be locked in at night for your OWN safety.
For YOUR safety you mean…..own goal there 🤣🤣🤣
People who own cats are mentally ill and should be locked up. Their cats should be put down.
I agree. I have just this minute returned from a walk and came across a neighbour who was carrying a duckling she had just rescued from the other neighbours cat. I don’t think it’s going to make it. You cat people are disgraceful for letting your PREDATOR hunt innocent birds and kill them. What kind of a person are you who thinks that’s ok? You’re sick if you do.
You’re quite obviously mental if you can justify allowing your cat to Sh1t in other peoples gardens. How would you feel if I shat in your vege garden? It’s about time this country had a grown up civil discussion about the control of ALL cats – like they do in Australia.
Make them be in at night, micro chipped, registered and neutered. Also they need to be kept on the cat owners property. Anything that wanders is fair game to be removed. What other domestic animal is allowed to just wander around pissing people off and killing things? NONE. So the rules should apply to cats as well.
One neighbour of mine allowed her cat to have TWO litters of kittens before she neutered her cat. Disgusting. She couldn’t even give them away. She’s a terrible dog owner too. Register owners for all I care. I would pass with flying colours. Good animal owners don’t have a problem with being responsible.
Cat owners often excuse their cats by saying cats are very clean animals because they lick themselves so much. But, when cats lick themselves it’s not for cleaning – they’re eating their own dirt and the bugs that accumulate in their pelts, and every now and then they cough it all up all over the carpet spreading dirt, disease and bugs everywhere.
I have a specific recommendation. All “Americanised” pit bulls should be hunted down and exterminated without mercy.
This particular breed is a breeding mistake. You cannot train these dogs. They will always be inherently unsafe and explosive, not matter what you do. If you own one, you are not safe, nor are your children.
Extermination and extinction (preferably by lethal injection) is the only solution.
Exterminated without mercy? Are supposed to be amongst the living? You moron.
Its not just the dog, a certain type of people seek these dogs out, obtain them and encourage the dogs base instincts. But in the right hands these dogs are like any other.
Minister Tama Potaka is a hollow headed p****. For someone who does not know his arse from his elbow is supposed to be involved with any living creature is a joke. Get this ****wit removed from office.
Tama Potato, this minister is so far out of his depth that is drowning in it. What a loser.
Why isn’t it the case here that any dog that attacks a person outside the boundaries of its own property is automatically euthanised?
Any dog that attacks a person unprovoked (regardless of property boundaries) is automatically euthanised?
Feral /stray dogs euthanised automatically?
These are the rules in other countries- who strangely enough have fewer dog attacks and fewer dog related deaths of children.
Dog control doesn’t round up strays to go the expense of deserving them and then releasing them back to the wilds of suburbia from whence they came….they round them up and remove them and euthanise them ….sounds very sensible.
‘Why isn’t it the case here that any dog that attacks a person outside the boundaries of its own property is automatically euthanised?’
Because, there are also a certain type of people who will make bogus complaints about non aggressive dogs.
‘Any dog that attacks a person unprovoked (regardless of property boundaries) is automatically euthanised?’
Because, being uninvited on private property is provocation for a possible attack from a dog with a guard instinct.
‘Feral /stray dogs euthanised automatically?’
Because dogs sometimes get out, thats why we microchip them.
the only dogs that need to be sorted out are the bad owners and the ones in the beehive and local council
Health and Safety, the universal tool of extortion. New compliance laws increase revenue without addressing the problem, and the problem lies with certain breeds and their owners.
Yay hate the dog obsession in nz. Dogs need to be trained they are not humans or peoples children, they are from the wolf pack and don’t cope well with nz domestic demands on their life at all. Outside, fresh air and away from the public is sensible, and they are not emotional handbags, people or drug protection, they are DOGS.
The misconception that a microchip solves every problem in my opinion causes untold harm if the microchip receives a radio frequency pulsed signal out of the blue. These RF pings hurt. They could trigger sudden aggression in dogs as they most definitely do in people.
The other problem is the ‘natural flavour’ added to dog food. If we don’t know what ‘natural flavour’ really is maybe we should look it up.