Rental squeeze sees dogs kicked to the kerb
Kiwis are abandoning their fourlegged friends just so they can have a roof over their head, as the rental squeeze bites harder with every passing day.
There is also a little ignorance about the realities of dog ownership, says one Nelson woman.
‘‘I’ve just seen a fifth dog that’s been advertised,’’ Nelson woman Annika Horn said, several days after posting a message on a local buy-and-sell Facebook page raising concerns about the amount of people in the area trying to rehome their pets.
‘‘A nine-month-old puppy, this is the fifth dog in two weeks . . . and that’s just on the [web] pages that I’m actually a part of.’’
Horn, who has two dogs, said the situation was ‘‘just crazy’’.
‘‘It’s not that these people are necessarily horrible for rehoming their animals . . . there are all sorts of situations why people go through that process.
‘‘I feel for people who are in that situation. But it does annoy me because I feel like some people just don’t think it through.’’
SPCA Nelson general manager Donna Walzl said the main reason cited when people dropped off animals was difficulty finding a rental property.
‘‘People [say] they are moving and so they can’t find accommodation where they are allowed to take their dogs. Whether that’s a genuine reason or just an excuse, it’s hard to know.’’
More dog owners renting in the region are having to give up pets they have owned for some time because of a shortage of pet-friendly properties, according to the organiser of the Facebook page Dogs for Adoption Upper South Island, Jess Brougham, of Richmond.
‘‘We are seeing a bigger increase in animals of all ages . . . where people are having to rehome them because there just isn’t the housing there for them.
‘‘I get some really devastated owners that contact me and say, ‘This is the last thing I want to do, but I have no choice. It’s either that, or we have no home’.’’
Some dog owners had thought their rental was long-term but then found themselves having to move on and unable to find another landlord who would accept their pet, Brougham said.
‘‘Even elderly people, where they’ve had to move and they’ve had pets and they’ve had to rehome them, because landlords aren’t willing to give people the benefit of the doubt that they’re a good dog owner.’’
In some cases, tenants were not telling landlords they had got a dog and were ‘‘hoping for the best’’, only to have to move it on quickly once the the landlord found out, she said.
The New Zealand Property Investors’ Federation said landlords needed greater controls to help encourage them to take pets.
‘‘Pets are an important part of people’s lives, and we recognise that, but there’s a lot of regulations which make it difficult for a [property] owner to accept pets, because the risk is just too high,’’ executive
officer Andrew King said.
Making a tenant totally responsible for any damage their animal caused, by allowing a landlord to require them to have pet insurance, would help to ease the risk, he suggested.
A pet bond was also among recommendations the group had made to an ongoing government review of rental rules.
Motueka veterinarian Matt Evans said he wouldn’t be surprised to hear that there was a seasonal element to any increase in people seeking to rehome their dogs, as people considered what to do with their pets over the holidays.
He urged people overall to do more homework before getting a dog.
‘‘I do think people put a lot more research into the appliances and whiteware they might be about to buy, as opposed to a dog they’re about to provide a home for.’’
Inappropriate choices regarding the type of dogs people went for had become more common over recent years, he said.
‘‘There’s a lot of variety out there in terms of breed types and designer breeds . . . we do see some situations that just don’t match up.’’ These included cases where people with health issues and mobility concerns got young, active dogs, like elderly people getting a labrador puppy.
Apps were available that could help to match prospective owners to dogs, Evans said. People could also contact vets to find out what kind of exercise and costs were involved for the dog they wanted.
‘‘It’s about actually looking properly in behind it and making sure that this will actually work, because this is a commitment that is going to be probably for 10-plus years in most cases.’’