The sad saga of ‘death row’ dogs
Dog owners say animals at pounds are sometimes waiting months to hear their fates, some not receiving any fresh air or exercise. They say it’s cruel and are demanding better conditions. Tony Wall investigates.
Helen Fraser compares visiting her dog, Chopper the rottweiler, to going inside a high-security prison. She has to pass through two double security gates at the Tauranga pound until she comes to the small, bare pen that has been his home for the past four-and-a-half months.
There are four pens in this part of the pound, nicknamed ‘‘death row’’ by owners, each 4x4m and 2.5m high.
They usually contain no bedding, blankets or toys. Because the dogs are deemed too dangerous to leave their cages, their mess is hosed down while they’re still inside, sometimes leaving them wet, although staff take care not to squirt them.
Signs on Chopper’s door say ‘‘under investigation’’ and ‘‘aggressive dog, do not exercise’’ – he hasn’t seen sunlight or fresh air since he was impounded in October after biting a veterinarian, leaving her with serious arm injuries.
Chopper, aged two, comes from a loving family and it was his first offence – Fraser says he was anxious and attacked the vet when she approached him too quickly.
‘‘He doesn’t get exercise, he doesn’t go anywhere, he just stays in his little cage, it’s cruel,’’ says Fraser, who along with family members has launched a campaign to have him released and get dog control laws changed.
Tauranga City Council denies that conditions at the pound are cruel, but says it is always looking for ways to improve.
Fraser is at least able to visit Chopper on week days – some pounds around the country have strict no visiting rules.
Under the Dog Control Act, Chopper has to be destroyed unless Fraser can convince a judge there were ‘‘exceptional circumstances’’ around the incident. She’s pleaded not guilty to owning a dog that attacked a person and is waiting for a trial date.
While the case limps through the courts, Chopper’s life of solitary confinement continues, with no end in sight.
He’s developed sores on his legs from the hard edges of his plastic bed, and gets depressed, especially after long weekends, when he can’t see Fraser.
‘‘I’m extremely worried about Chopper because he’s a very young, very bright dog,’’ says Bev Edwards, a Tauranga lawyer who specialises in dog cases and is representing Fraser.
‘‘He’s sitting in a tiny cell with no natural light. There’s not a blade of glass, nothing that’s natural.’’
She believes those conditions go against the Animal Welfare Act, which requires anyone in charge of an animal to allow it to ‘‘display its normal patterns of behaviour’’.
Edwards says the SPCA and Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) visited the Tauranga pound and gave it the all-clear. ‘‘There’s a very low level of requirement in New Zealand – so long as there is food, water and shelter, it’s deemed sufficient. I don’t agree.’’
Owners are able to apply to councils for their dogs to be released to them or another facility while they are before the courts, but it hardly ever happens in Tauranga.
Edwards says ‘‘doggie bail’’ is more common in other areas, such as Auckland, and thinks it should be given more often.
The Dog Control Act requires that dogs being held in custody be given ‘‘proper care and exercise’’, but according to Gary Dixon, Tauranga’s acting team leader of animal services, some dogs are too dangerous to be let out of their pens.
‘‘Staff safety is the primary consideration. We do consult with veterinarians as well – it’s not just a sole decision of the council. To say it’s cruel is unfair, because we have experienced pound keepers who have been doing the job for a long time, they know how to assess these dogs. The dogs aren’t confined to a cage as such, they do have room within the pens to be able to move around.’’
Nigel McGlone, the council’s manager of environmental regulation, says staff are committed to the welfare of animals in their care.
‘‘I have great confidence that our pound facilities and our pound staff are more than capable of doing what’s required and looking after the... dogs.
‘‘None of them want to see any harm come to any dog – many are dog owners themselves and realise the trauma that having a dog impounded may cause.’’
McGlone says ‘‘staff do everything they can to accommodate owners’’, particularly those of dogs that are housed for long periods.
‘‘This... extends to signed agreements to allow daily visits where appropriate. This is not something that staff are required to do, and in other parts of New Zealand, visitation rights... are not allowed.’’
But owners of dogs that have gone through the pound after attacking someone are concerned and angry; several have taken to
Facebook with their stories.
One animal, Ryde, was put down in February after being impounded in July last year when he bit an electrician who came on to his property.
A 6-year-old American staffordshire terrier who had a history of biting people, he was only exercised twice during his seven weeks at the pound, co-owner Kim Lodge says, and only after she took to social media to complain about conditions.
These included no natural light, no toys, no bedding – only a hard plastic bench to lay on, Lodge says.
Eventually the council allowed Ryde to be transferred to a dog rehabilitation centre near Whakata¯ne, Freedom & Harmony, but only after the owners signed an agreement stipulating that they wouldn’t talk about it publicly.
The agreement also said the council ‘‘does not accept any suggestion... that its pound facility and staff are not capable of providing the custody, care and exercise to any dog as outlined [in the Dog Control Act].’’
Edwards says it’s the only case she’s aware of where the council has agreed to ‘‘bail’’ a dog facing a destruction order. ‘‘I imagine the only reason they did it is because that owner... went on to social media and put a huge amount of pressure on the council.’’
McGlone says he can’t talk about the case because of the agreement, but confirms it was a ‘‘one-off’’.
Ryde went through a four-week rehabilitation programme and stayed for five months. It cost the family almost $9000 in total, including the cost of council staff transferring him.
Tammi Wharton, the dog behaviour specialist who runs Freedom & Harmony, describes the conditions Ryde was held in at the pound as ‘‘disgusting and very cruel’’.
‘‘They just have no understanding of dog psychology at all,’’ she says.
‘‘Ryde arrived with these two massive guys with all the protective gear, a long metal pole, and they’re like, ‘oh no, we don’t touch him’.
‘‘I said ‘I’ll do it’. I just fronted up with him, took his muzzle off and just pulled him out of the crate, they were like, ‘holy s...’. But he’s not dangerous if you understand him.’’
She says Ryde was ‘‘really strung out ... fearful’’ from his time in the pound, but she was able to turn him around.
‘‘He was the sweetest, most loving dog. But I wasn’t scared of him and I didn’t let him get away with any behaviours that [didn’t] keep him stable and balanced.’’
This month, a judge ruled that Ryde be destroyed, and the council wrote to Lodge saying it intended to take him back to the pound for the 28-day appeal before the order was carried out.
Lodge, who was overseas at the time, says the family decided to take matters into their own hands, having Ryde euthanised at Freedom & Harmony by their own vet.
‘‘We were not about to subject Ryde to the stress and cruelty of sending him back to the pound environment,’’ she says.
‘‘They would have put him down without us being allowed to be with him in his final moments.’’
Lodge says the family intends suing the council for costs and damages.
Wharton, who’d grown to love Ryde, says she was devastated when he was put down and she was too upset to be there.
She says there’s no reason why dogs held at the pound can’t be exercised. ‘‘It’s just because they don’t know how to handle the dog,
they’re fearful. I think it would be really beneficial if all their staff got training from someone.’’
Dixon says he’s satisfied staff work to a high standard and are ‘‘competent to be able to make assessments on all the dogs at the pound’’.
Sonia Hodge, whose 12-year-old shar pei/pitbull cross, Pai, was put down at the pound in June last year after seven months at the facility, describes the ordeal as harrowing.
She suffers from agoraphobia and anxiety and Pai was her therapy dog. He was impounded after attacking a police officer who had come to help Hodge during a domestic incident.
She says Pai ended up getting blood sores from lying on the wet floor, as well as the skin condition mange.
Video footage shows him standing on his sleeping platform, listless, his head hung low.
‘‘He ended up becoming a dog that I didn’t recognise any more,’’ Hodge says. ‘‘His eyes changed and he wouldn’t even look at me. In the end I couldn’t visit. My mum ended up visiting and giving him his treats.’’
Pai was put down in June; Hodge says she wasn’t allowed to be there to say goodbye. The whole experience has broken her, she says.
‘‘It’s worse than a prison – prisoners have more rights than these dogs. My dog was just trying to protect me, he didn’t know he’d done anything wrong.’’
While the Tauranga pound has passed official muster, several other pounds around the country have been pulled up for their conditions and practices in recent years.
MPI found the Napier City pound had major issues of noncompliance in 2017; South Waikato District Council admitted in 2018 it was struggling to meet animal welfare regulations at its un-insulated pound; the SPCA said in 2018 it was disappointed with practices at the Far North District Council’s pound and in 2020, MPI ordered several changes at the Palmerston North pound.
The SPCA’s national inspectorate manager, Alan Wilson, says both MPI and the SPCA have the power to investigate welfare concerns at pounds and if anyone has a complaint they should report it to one of the agencies.
‘‘Over the years we’ve received a small number of complaints about council pounds nationwide, the majority of which were transferred to MPI. Sometimes ... SPCA receives calls from pet owners who are struggling to get their dog out of the pound and are asking for our assistance or advice, which we always try to provide where we can.’’
Gray Harrison, MPI’s national manager for animal welfare, says the department has done 10 investigations involving dog pounds over the past year. Two were found to be above the minimum standard, but not best practice, ‘‘so we provided advice and education’’. Two cases remain under investigation, while the rest were cleared.
Asked if MPI was concerned by reports of dogs being locked up 24/7 without exercise, Harrison said: ‘‘Exercise is extremely important for both the physical and mental health of dogs, and dogs need access to shelter that provides warmth and is free from draughts and excessive heat or cold, to meet their physical needs. They also need a dry bed and enough space to lie down, stand and turn around.’’
In Tauranga, there are 15,000 registered dogs and in the 2020/21 financial year, 469 were impounded. Of those, 352 were released, 30 were released to the SPCA, 20 were adopted and 67 destroyed.
Dixon says it’s a very emotional times for some owners. ‘‘We’re always looking at ways to improve the way we do things ... we’re looking at upgrading our pound. We do take things the public say to us very seriously.
‘‘We make sure the dogs are kept in the best health that we can, because we have an obligation to the owners that if a dog goes back to them, we must return it in the same condition we received it in.’’
But the reality is, some dogs never return home.
Fraser has come to terms with the fact Chopper may be destroyed, although she vows to fight for his release until the end.
Her family has set up a Givealittle page to cover legal and pound fees, $3000 donated so far.
They’ve offered to pay the costs of Chopper being housed at Freedom & Harmony, but the council has refused.
‘‘It’s taken a big toll on all of us, financially as well as emotionally,’’ she says.
‘‘My son [Billy, 14] won’t visit him because it’s too sad. It’s his dog. My life is basically working around Chopper’s visits.
‘‘I do have my moments when I finish seeing him, I take my time to get home to get my head sorted. It’s hard. It’s not the same without him.’’
‘‘None of them want to see any harm come to any dog – many are dog owners themselves and realise the trauma that having a dog impounded may cause.’’ Nigel McGlone