Rise in number of dogs registered in Waitakere

An increase in the number of registered dogs in Waitakere is just one of the highlights of a busy year for Animal Welfare Waitakere.

In the last financial year, the unit has processed 13,603 dog registrations, an increase of 60 on the previous year.

Animal Welfare Waitakere manager Neil Wells says the increase is a direct result of its efforts to educate people on the importance of registering their dogs.

“One of our approaches is going door to door and we tend to find that the word goes out that we’re in the neighbourhood and we get a flood of registrations from people in that area,” he says.

“However, random checks in the past year have found that in some streets there are up to 15 percent of dogs that are unknown to Animal Welfare Waitakere and are therefore unregistered. Eighty percent of dogs impounded by the service are unregistered.

Any dog owner found with an unregistered dog is liable to an infringement fine of $300.

Mr Wells says the unit’s adoption and re-homing programme has had particularly good results this year, with more than 75 percent of animals being returned to their owners or adopted to new homes.

“We do extraordinary well in that regard and we have also built up good relationships with a range of organisations, such as Mobility Dogs, who adopt the dogs to use in their service,” says Mr Wells.

Animal Welfare Waitakere is also focussed on educating the community on responsible ownership, conducting education and licensing sessions on becoming responsible dog owners. Its officers are also giving talks to school children on animal awareness, including how to behave around dogs to protect themselves from harm and how to care for domestic pets.

Mr Wells says this is an important part of their work and is working on introducing an animal awareness programme in every Year 1 class in Waitakere.