Council has another go at dog bylaw
The Far North District Council is taking another bite at a controversial dog bylaw by putting an entirely rewritten version out for public consultation, including a refinement of the two dog per owner rule currently applied to 12 residential areas, increasing the number of locations covered.
Councillors voted unanimously last week to accept the proposed Dog Management Policy and Bylaw 2018, following a 2016 attempt that was met with howls of protest from dog owners, some of whom formed the lobby group Bay of Islands Watchdogs.
While the latest version of the bylaw is less restrictive than the 2016 proposal, mayor John Carter seemed resigned to more division on the issue of dogs versus wildlife, however.
“The chance of this getting 100 per cent agreement is zero. If we achieve 80 per cent we’ll have done particularly well,” he said.
Given previous controversy, the standard one-month consultation period is likely to be extended to two months.
Deputy mayor Tania McInnes also had reservations, saying the new proposal had “swung quite a way back the other way” in favour of dogs.
“We need to be mindful that we have some precious flora and fauna. We have to make sure that not only people are protected but also our wildlife,” she said.
Watchdogs spokeswoman Leonie Excel welcomed the council’s U-turn on an earlier refusal to go back to the drawing board.
“I think it’s great that it’s going back for consultation. That’s what we lobbied for in the first place,” she said, but while the new proposal was a “better, clearer document”, she still believed it over-legislated dog owners.
In particular she was unhappy with an extension of the period in which dogs would be excluded from some popular beaches between 9am and 6pm. Currently that restriction runs from December to the end of February. The new version proposes extending that to the end of March.
The new proposal also bans dogs, or allows them only while leashed, from the entirety of Taupo Bay, Ms Excel saying dogs should be allowed to run at least on part of the beach, where wildlife was not in danger.
“It goes without saying dogs shouldn’t be allowed on beaches where dotterel are present, and they shouldn’t be allowed to wander uncontrolled on any beaches,” she added.
The Watchdogs would now consult its members, other dog owners and conservation experts, before drafting its submission.
Conservation group Bay Bush Action has yet to study the proposed new bylaw in detail, but its members are expected to welcome proposals to ban dogs from the shorebird hotspots of Te Haumi, near Paihia, and the shore between Waitangi Bridge and the Treaty Grounds.
The new proposal retains the current bylaw’s two-dog limit in urban areas, and the requirement that dogs be leashed on
public footpaths.
Consultation details have yet to be confirmed, but it is likely to run from July 30 to September 24.