Council’s Animal Services team is responsible for managing dog issues in the city. Our priority is community safety, and we attend to complaints of aggression and attacks as soon as possible.
The dog population is growing at around 3% each year, and we now have over 15,920 known dogs. Our Animal Services team receives over 5,000 complaints every year. We impound nearly 600 dogs, of which 80% are returned home or adopted to new homes.
In Tauranga, dog registration fees help to pay for most of our animal services activities, including:
- a dog registration database of over 15,920 dogs.
- automatic reminder notices for registration of dogs.
- dog owner education, including education programmes, material, and dog bite safety programmes.
- enhanced education program to target school children and at-risk groups.
- dog shelter facilities for the care, welfare and return of lost and stray dogs.
- investigation, monitoring and resolution of dog issues such as nuisance, aggressive and dangerous dogs.
- installation and maintenance of poo bag dispensers.
- patrols of public places to protect public safety and enforcement.
- four-wheel drive beach patrols.
- friendly and professional advice as well-educated dog owners are more responsible dog owners.
- dog owner education to assist in reducing the number of acts of aggression from dogs.
- focus on helping to reduce the number of roaming dogs.
Why don’t we have a ‘good dog owner’ discount?
The government introduced dog registration fees in the late 1800s, and they have been in existence ever since. The law (The Dog Control Act 1996) requires every dog owner to be a ‘good dog owner’. At Tauranga City Council, we treat everyone as if they are good dog owners and provide additional penalties for owners who fail to look after their dogs appropriately.
Information for dog owners (338kb pdf)