Dog days

Every dog has his day and Andrew Pope spent much of yesterday at Hamilton District Court dressed as a dog. Wearing a white and black dog suit, rubber glove on one hand, dog collar with registration tag, carrying a Tux bag and using dog biscuits as paper weights, Pope appeared before Judge Denise Clark.

The 51-year-old was disputing a Hamilton City Council infringement notice for owning a dog that was not kept under control. Council lawyer Dorothy Thresher said Pope's huntaway dog Puppy wandered from his Grey St home to a house in Fifth Ave on November 20 last year.

The council impounded the dog and asked Pope to pay a $160 fee to get it back. He paid by cheque but later instructed his bank to stop payment. The council sent him an infringement notice requesting payment of $300 and the original fees. Pope requested a defended hearing.
The judge, who seemed to realise Pope was dressed as a dog after seeing a tail protruding from his overcoat, found in Pope's favour on a technicality.

"I am not satisfied that the only inference I can draw was that the defendant caused the dog to be at large. It may have been someone else who caused that to occur," Judge Clark said.

Pope submitted that the dog control officers had a choice to return the dog to its owner or take it to the pound.

Dog control officer Matthew Auld said he always took dogs to the pound, unless the dog was found right outside its home.

Outside court, Pope said he didn't want to appear dogmatic but he had a point to make. He said the council held him "emotionally and financially" to ransom by taking the dog he loved and demanded he pay for its release or it would be killed.

He said council procedures were a "revenue gathering exercise dreamed up by bureaucrats".

Council general manager environmental services, Graeme Fleming, said they accepted Judge Clark's decision.

"There is a technical error in the way the notice was served. We have learned from that and move on," he said.