Auckland City seizes unregistered dogs

Auckland City has seized 11 unregistered dogs from properties in the Avondale area. Most of the dogs seized in the blitz on Tuesday appear to be pitbull terriers.

Auckland City’s team leader for compliance monitoring, Geoff Atherfold, says the seizures were in response to a continued lack of cooperation from the dogs’ owners, both in refusing to register their dogs or allow them to be evaluated to see whether they met the criteria to be classed as menacing.

“Our animal control officers have faced threats and abuse from these dog owners who continue to flout the law,” says Mr Atherfold. “Pitbull terriers can be highly dangerous as we have seen in recent Auckland attacks, many of which were on children. The only remaining option for us was to impound the dogs as the owners were not prepared to take responsibility for them.”

Since July 2004, Auckland City has been evaluating pit bull terrier type dogs to assess whether they meet the criteria set down by the Dog Control Act 1996 to be classified as “menacing”. During this time, several owners have refused to allow their dogs to be evaluated, refused to register them and threatened the animal control officer that attended these addresses.

As a result, search warrants were obtained in order to impound the dogs.

Animal control officers attended the properties, with police acting as back-up. At several addresses, the occupants were required to be restrained due to their aggression towards the officers.

Ten infringements for failing to register the dogs will be sent to the owners, along with other infringements for obstruction, having two or more dogs on the premises without a permit and failing to notify of change of address.

To date, only two dog owners have made inquiries about the return of their dogs.