{"id":345290,"date":"2026-03-24T12:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/345290\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T12:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:20:13","slug":"dog-control-act-to-go-under-microscope-after-deaths-and-northland-outcry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/345290\/","title":{"rendered":"Dog Control Act to go under microscope after deaths and Northland outcry"},"content":{"rendered":"

He was worried by the reputation Northland<\/a> had gained. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want a reputation to strike where people don\u2019t feel safe coming up here as tourists.\u201d <\/p>\n

He believed the review would look at whether penalties, which were set in the 1990s, were tough enough. <\/p>\n

Dog owners<\/a> needed to take responsibility for their animals, but laws needed to allow councils to work to the \u201cfullest extent\u201d, McCallum said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to clarify the rights of the dog control people so they then have got the ability to remove dangerous dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NorthlandNorthland MP Grant McCallum felt the review of the Dog Control Act was overdue. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

McCallum agreed responsible owners should not be unfairly impacted. <\/p>\n

Registering and microchipping would place them in good stead, he said. <\/p>\n

McCallum also pointed to Thursday\u2019s announcement that more than $1.2m would be invested into desexing in Northland and Auckland<\/a>, by the SPCA and central Government. <\/p>\n

Bay of Islands Watchdogs\u2019 Leonie Exel was \u201cdelighted\u201d to hear the Act was being reviewed. <\/p>\n

Exel wrote a letter to Local Government Minister Simon Watts<\/a> after Kaih\u016b woman Mihiata Te Rore<\/a> was killed.<\/p>\n

Her suggestions included a review of the Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just one step among many that\u2019s needed,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

A small percentage of dog owners were causing serious problems, so change needed to be targeted and collaborative, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is possible, as long as we have the goodwill of everybody.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rehette Stoltz, Gisborne mayor and Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) president, said councils had told LGNZ an overhaul of the Act would have the greatest impact, and that they required stronger, proactive powers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne council we spoke to was preparing to prosecute the owners of two dogs, but couldn\u2019t legally hold the animals in the meantime,\u201d Stoltz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of those dogs then went on to attack someone. Changes need to prevent instances like this happening again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stoltz said LGNZ was pleased to see stronger police support for animal control officers in high-risk situations<\/a>, and updated enforcement guidelines for police.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s announcement also highlighted how the Department of Conservation would step up monitoring of high-risk areas and its professional hunter response on public conservation land.<\/p>\n

It would focus on places where dogs were high risk to people or native wildlife, and DoC would work closely with councils, iwi, landowners and communities.<\/p>\n

At a local government level, Watts said he had sent a letter to all councils setting out his expectations while the Act was reviewed. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want councils to be able to confidently say they are using every power available to tackle this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MinisterMinister of Local Government Simon Watts. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

Watts said he heard \u201cclearly\u201d from LGNZ and councils that the Act was outdated and preventing them from doing their jobs effectively. <\/p>\n

The scope of the review was still being considered. <\/p>\n

It would include looking at barriers or resource pressure on councils, penalties for non-compliant dog owners, desexing obligations, and stronger powers for council officers<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Enforcement guidelines had also been updated, so animal officers had clarity on how they should respond and what tools were available, he said. <\/p>\n

Brodie Stone covers crime and emergency for the Northern Advocate. She has spent most of her life in Whang\u0101rei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He was worried by the reputation Northland had gained. \u201cWe don\u2019t want a reputation to strike where people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20931,4619,74,95,682,10474,15166,9219,29419,28726,2190,6108,111,43,139,1067,69,156954,59265,762,61,8238],"class_list":["post-345290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-30yearold","tag-act","tag-after","tag-and","tag-being","tag-control","tag-deaths","tag-dog","tag-go","tag-hailed","tag-long","tag-microscope","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-outcry","tag-overdue","tag-review","tag-to","tag-under"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}