Satisfaction with the Far North District Council’s management of dogs dropped from 35 percent in 2022 to 16 percent in 2024.
Photo: 123RF

There has been a massive jump in aggressive, unsocialised dogs being put down in the Far North, and the mayor says it is the fault of irresponsible owners.

Moko Tepania says the code of silence protecting them needs to be broken, and bad owners should “bloody look after [their] dog”.

Sixty-two percent of dogs impounded in the Far North in the past year ended up dead, compared to 47 percent the previous year – 281 animals euthanised.

Tepania says there have been more dog attacks and nuisance dog reports, but also a 15 percent rise in the number of surrendered dogs.

Satisfaction with the Far North District Council’s management of dogs dropped from 35 percent in 2022 to 16 percent in 2024. Seventy-eight percent said there were too many stray dogs in the district.

Tepania told Checkpoint on Tuesday the region covered more than 7000 square kilometres, but only had 10 animal management officers.

“The statistics tell the story eh? It has gotten worse, and so this callout to our community of whānau in Far North who have dogs is hey, first and foremost, we’ve got thousands of responsible pet owners who are doing a great job with their companion pets and everything like that. This message isn’t for you. Keep up the awesome mahi.

“But to those who aren’t, this message is for you, man. If you want to have a dog, you bloody look after your dog. You make sure it’s well treated. Please make sure that it’s got its vaccinations. That you get it desexed and everything like that in between, because the statistics are speaking for themselves in that we have a huge increase in issues with dogs here in the Far North.”

Last year, locals staged a protest outside the Far North District Council headquarters in Kaikohe, demanding tougher action against roaming and dangerous dogs, better conditions in the council’s pounds and a reduced euthanasia.

The demonstration followed a surge in dog attacks across the region – with double the rate of attacks recorded nationwide. Two people were killed by dogs in the space of barely more than a year.

“You can go on any Far North community notice board, and there will be pictures and there will be stories from Far Northerners about roaming dogs or aggressive dogs that are causing issues across our communities,” Tepania said.

“We need Far Northerners who are not being responsible to really step up and make sure that they’re looking after the animals. Or if they can’t, then they need to surrender them to council so we can deal with it.”

Part of the issue was irresponsible owners hiding their pets if they knew an animal management officer was on the way, he said.

“It’s very hard to stay on top of this with the limited resource we have in council, and we need our community to step up and call each other out and support each other at the same time, so that we can get on top of this.”

Moko Tepania
Photo: Susan Botting / Local Democracy Reporter Northland

The council recently had an independent review done, and its seven recommendations were being actioned now, Tepania said. The district was also upping the number of animal control officers to 12 – which Tepania admitted still was not enough, but the best they could do considering the cost.

“One of the things that we’re going to have to look at is how we resource this. Now, we know that we as a community are not the richest in Aotearoa New Zealand, so we’ve tried to keep the cost down. Our dog registration fees, which help to pay for some of this, are some of the lowest in the country. We might have to look at that.

“But it is going to take an entire community effort alongside council to try and sort this out.”