"Dead" Dog found alive

Dogs are rising from the dead in Timaru.

A project by district council staff to identify unregistered dogs in the district found about 1000, several of which the owners had claimed were dead.

Failing to register a very alive Fido cost one owner in excess of $1500 the cost of the two $750 fines for providing false information to council staff. And there was still the licence fee to be paid.

That was not the only "dead" dog staff came across during the project.

In another case a nine-year-old dog had been registered only once, building and environmental services manager David Armstrong said.

Staff had located the unregistered dogs by several methods including information from neighbours and dog complaints.

The project aimed to improve the accuracy of council records and added just over 1000 dogs to the 7062 registered in the district in 2007-08. In spite of the number of dogs found, Mr Armstrong believed there were still more that were unregistered.

In the last nine months 280 owners received infringement notices for having unregistered dogs, whereas 123 were fined for the whole of the last financial year and 30 in 2006-07.

Those who fail to register their animals on time will also be facing penalties. Letters will be sent out on June 30, reminder notices on August 1 and those unregistered at September 1 will have to pay an additional 50 per cent. Dogs still unregistered on October 1 will pay the additional fee as well as receiving an infringement notice.

The number of dangerous and menacing dogs have both increased this financial year. Dangerous dogs are those that have been involved in an attack, while a menacing dog is defined by either "breed or deed". There were eight dangerous dogs, while menacing dogs increased four-fold to more than 120.

Mr Armstrong suggested the public's greater awareness of dog owners' obligations was responsible for the increase in the number of dogs classified as menacing.

In the nine months to the end of March, staff had received 1769 dog-related requests, whereas there were only 300 more in the whole 2007-08 year.

He attributed that same public awareness for the increase in the number of dogs impounded 473 in 2007-08 and 410 in the nine months to the end of March.

Fewer dogs were being collected from the pound. Mr Armstrong said the impounding fee was the likely reason, although the owner still had to pay those fees regardless of whether the dog was collected. The number of dogs having to be destroyed was also well up with 166 destroyed between July and the end of March, a similar number to the whole of 2007-08 ye

Only a handful of dogs have been adopted from the pound.

Mr Armstrong said what was pleasing was there were fewer incidents of dogs biting other animals, although complaints of dogs attacking people or vehicles were possibly on the increase with the 23 incidents reported in the last nine months being one more than in the previous 12 months.