A woman who was attacked by two menacing dogs that escaped an \u014cp\u014dtiki property is calling for tougher rules.<\/p>\n
By Diane McCarthy of Local Democracy Reporting<\/p>\n
Awhina Kurei, who spoke to the local council this week, said she was attacked by the dogs on Princess St in the Eastern Bay of Plenty town on September 9.<\/p>\n
The dogs were already known to council as menacing dogs and had bitten twice previously.<\/p>\n
The owners had been issued five infringement notices and dog control staff had requested police assistance to visit the property.<\/p>\n
Kurei received three bites to her legs and says she has lost the sense of safety she formerly felt on the streets of her hometown.<\/p>\n
“I stand before you today as a proud \u014cp\u014dtiki uri (descendant), raised and nurtured in the safe streets of this community… that sense of safety has changed,” Kurei told \u014cp\u014dtiki District Council on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The council was hearing submissions on the renewal of its dog control policy.<\/p>\n
It received eight submissions that were generally supportive of the policy but improved public safety was a key theme.<\/p>\n
Kurei said control measures needed to be tightened.<\/p>\n
It follows a spate of attacks, including the fatal mauling of a woman in Northland. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
“Because behind every dog control statistic is a wh\u0101nau making decisions about whether it’s safe to walk down their own street, visit their own relatives, focus on their wellbeing or let their children and mokopuna play outside.”<\/p>\n
The issue is not only in the \u014cp\u014dtiki township, but in rural areas and Te Kaha, she said.<\/p>\n
“I know of at least seven wh\u0101nau who have been bailed up by dogs, including myself.<\/p>\n
“Some whose calves [legs] were torn up by dogs that were already known to be aggressive, and some whose dogs have bitten four times before something was done with them.”<\/p>\n
Dogs were ‘known to council’<\/p>\n
Coast M\u0101ori ward councillor P\u0101p\u0101 Wharewera acknowledged Kurei’s “articulate and moving presentation”.<\/p>\n
“The attack that occurred was by dogs known to council. The dogs had bitten twice before, yet an attack occurred again.<\/p>\n
“Nothing in [this policy] gives me confidence that we are addressing the fact that there are dangerous dogs or that they are being dealt with.”<\/p>\n
Regulatory manager Jessica Hunter said both dogs had been labelled as menacing.<\/p>\n
She said the property was fenced and the dogs were required to be muzzled when taken out in public.<\/p>\n
“As it turns out, those dogs were able to jump the fence.”<\/p>\n
One of the dogs had since been impounded but the other ran away.<\/p>\n
Under the Dog Control Act, dog control staff were able to uplift and impound dogs if they bit someone, she said.<\/p>\n
‘We can’t blanket euthanise any dog that attacks’<\/p>\n
Having a dog euthanised was a time consuming process that involved an investigation having to take place, she said.<\/p>\n
“It’s much more difficult for us. We can’t blanket euthanise any dog that has made an attack … The amount of work involved is enormous.”<\/p>\n
With two full-time staff covering a large district with 1732 registered dogs, she said council staff were severely under resourced.<\/p>\n
“Our preference is for owners of dogs that have attacked to surrender the dogs to us. It’s a much simpler process.”<\/p>\n
Many owners just wanted their dog back no matter what they had to do.<\/p>\n
“So, we go through a process of classifying a dog as menacing or dangerous. Then there are requirements in terms of muzzling and fencing.”<\/p>\n
There are 53 classified menacing dogs in the district.<\/p>\n
Council chief executive Stace Lewer said there were constraints through the Dog Control Act.<\/p>\n
The Government is currently reviewing the legislation after a spate of attacks across the country.<\/p>\n
Together, the fund is enough to desex about 3000 dogs of an estimated 51,000 across Auckland and Northland that are not desexed. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
“It may result in more favourable outcomes for councils and more ability for councils to take a bit more of a hard line without having to jump through a lot of hoops.”<\/p>\n
Hunter said the two animal control officers “put their heart and soul into controlling dogs and rehoming them”.<\/p>\n
“They can’t be everywhere at once,” she said.<\/p>\n
Over the past year they had impounded 200 dogs for a variety of reasons, with 74 rehomed out of the district, 40 returned to their owners, and 75 destroyed. That was 110 fewer than was destroyed in the previous year.<\/p>\n
‘A very clear message’<\/p>\n
Mayor David Moore said prosecutions of dog owners would send a message to dog owners who flouted the law. There had been no prosecutions in the past year.<\/p>\n
“I do believe there have been some cases where there should have been over the last few years.<\/p>\n
Challenge to train guide dogs due to other dogs roaming and attacking. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
“It’s very time consuming and it’s frustrating but it sends a very clear message.”<\/p>\n
Moore said he didn’t think adding one more person to the team would make much of a difference.<\/p>\n
“Every department needs more staff,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a matter of doing something different.”<\/p>\n
The council agreed to get together for a workshop on animal control to look into a solution.<\/p>\n
\u2013 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman who was attacked by two menacing dogs that escaped an \u014cp\u014dtiki property is calling for tougher…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[50,111,43,139,69,1756],"class_list":["post-602470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-animals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tauranga-bay-of-plenty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602470","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=602470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}