Dog control officers welcome Govt review

Any review of dog control laws must include local body dog control officers, says the city council's animal services boss.

Brent Lincoln, team leader for animal services at Tauranga City Council, welcomed the review announced this week by Local Government Minister Rodney Hide.

Mr Lincoln said his only request would be that the New Zealand Institute of Animal Control Officers (NZIACO) be involved from the start.

Everything from registering owners, banning some breeds and whether microchipping is working or not would be up for debate.

Mr Lincoln said dog control officers and NZIACO had been advocating for changes to the dog control act for several years.

"The act is a mix of old and new with parts dating back to the 1800s," he said. MORE>>

In the comment section of Hide plans review of 'onerous' regulations below, a commentor criticisized me for my comment that microchip haven't reduced dog bites as the government said they would when they went out there selling this idea as The Solution For Dog Bites.

It is nice to read that the "Everything from registering owners, banning some breeds and whether microchipping is working or not would be up for debate." And that's what I think that I'm doing... giving my opinion.

I do not doubt that microchip have help reunite dogs... no question that it does, but as we know, when a society dictates what you can and can't do and makes laws around them without evidence based research to back it up, there will be a certain amount of hate towards those who tell us what to do.

Why do you think that Labour got voted out. Nanny-state was given as a reason, needed change was another... but people generally don't like being told what to do, and that's the reason why compulsory microchipping will not stop dog bites.

To illustrate my point even further about knee-jerk reaction, laws and regulation put in place to stop a segment of the population from doing something that irritates the hell out of people.....

I see as much tagging (grafitti) on our city's wall as ever before, but we have made a law that dictates how spray cans will be sold. They can't be sold to minors under 18 years old, and that they have to be put in a secure locked cabinet. Yup, that worked, Not!