Attack dogs not on register

A fatal dog attack on a Bay of Plenty woman is raising fears that tougher dog control laws are not working after it was found the dogs were not registered.

Well, well... gee I predicted that, like all the rest of dog trainers around the country. When you create a law that most people don't believe in, it's doomed to fail. Raising the price of an unregistered dog is, to me, the most stupidest thing you can do. What you want is to register your dog FOR FREE. Then you've got a database of all dogs. Putting the price of registration to 9in some cities) over $100 is ludicrous!

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Owners can be jailed or fined up to $20,000 for owning a dog involved in a serious attack.

The Whakatane District Council now plans to review the steps it can take to ensure that dog owners register and contain their dogs. So let's fine the good dog owners?? let's make the price of fines out of reach for most people's budget... but that'll show 'em, hein?

Ohlson's family say more needs to be done to prevent such cases. Surely does... one question: why weren't the dogs registered?

Close friend Brenda Barnett said local people feared for their safety because there were so many dogs roaming the streets in the area.

"We've only got one dog-control man here and it's just not working," she said. A community approach might be a good answer. Why leave it up to the government??

"Maybe with what's happened the police will get involved, because it's going to happen again if they don't do something.

"There are other dogs that are vicious around here." Those are the dogs that need to seen to!

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Public outrage sparked a raft of new legislation, including a requirement for councils to identify and classify menacing dogs and the microchipping bill introduced last year that required all newly registered dogs, except farm dogs, to be microchipped.

National Party associate local government spokeswoman Sandra Goudie said the latest incident was shocking and called for an investigation into the impact of the recent law changes, including whether microchipping had affected the number of dogs being registered.

New Zealand Kennel Club senior vice-president Martin Hewitt said it had opposed microchipping because it did not believe it would solve the problem.

"Identification is one thing, but how is that actually going to stop a dangerous dog attacking?" he said.

There needed to be more controls placed on dog owners and "backyard breeders", Hewitt said. I don't agree.

The club supported screening for prospective dog owners and breeders similar to applying for a driver's licence. Yes, I agree with this. And include dog education programme in the mix to!

MORE MEDIA articles

Radio host Paul Holmes said the problem seemed to be that pitbulls were not banned because they did not exist as a breed.

"Why don't we simply ban dogs that look like killers – thick short legs, nasty snarls, heads like pigs and jaws like bolt cutters?"

Miss Clark said personally nothing would please her more.

"I think it's horrific that these dogs are running loose anywhere in New Zealand," she said.

"But you often find there's a lot of passion excited among dog owners on the issue. It's not as simple to make progress as you might think."

Other media article Calls to Ban Vicious Breeds

A man who survived being mauled by dogs six years ago says the death of a 56-year-old Rotorua woman at the weekend is good enough reason to ban vicious breeds. MORE>>

But (Helen) Clark says past experience has shown it is too hard to pin down what constitutes a dangerous breed.

"The advice was that if you tried to define the dogs, then the cross-breeding soon rendered those definitions not particularly relevant, that's the problem," she says.

Clark says it is not as easy to make progress on the issue as one might think.