‘Less Mother Teresa, more Attila the Hun?’

After a rise in dog attacks and complaints, South Taranaki district councillors have asked their animal control team to take a tougher approach – with one suggesting they should be more like Attila the Hun than Mother Teresa.

There were 74 dog attacks in the past year, up from 56 in the previous 12 months, and 61 incidents of dogs rushing or threatening, up from 26, the council’s annual dog control policy and practice report said.

Roaming dog complaints tallied 713, up from 570, while there were 633 complaints of barking dogs, up from 431.

‘‘Would you say it’s time for us to take more of an Attila the Hun stance rather than the Mother Teresa stance we tend to take in most things?’’ councillor Celine Filbee asked at this week’s policy and strategy committee meeting.

Deputy mayor Rob Northcott said the increase in dog issues over 2021 ‘‘seemed to be reasonably significant’’.

‘‘Is that just that people are not taking care of their dogs or are we underfunded and understaffed to deal with these issues?’’ he asked Monday’s meeting.

Environmental group services manager Liam Dagg said an internal review was already under way into the council’s management of dogs.

‘‘The numbers are disturbing.

The conversation needs to be had whether we provide more resources, we need to look at our tactics and our approach,’’ he said.

‘‘We can’t get into the heads of dog owners and get them to control their animals. We are certainly asking questions around if the council approach is working. I don’t think anyone can argue with that.’’

There were 4723 dogs registered in the district.

Councillor Mark Bellringer asked why there were 368 cases of people failing to register their dogs, but only three prosecutions for dog offences.

‘‘Is failing to register not something we can prosecute? Couldn’t we be a bit tougher?’’

Dagg said prosecutions were usually for dog attacks on other animals or people, while infringements were issued for failing to register dogs.

He said there were five or six prosecutions under way at present.

A total of 246 dogs were impounded, up from 189 in 2020, and of these 90 were euthanised while 156 were returned or rehomed.

‘‘The total dogs impounded increased significantly over this period.

‘‘This could be due to the active involvement and education in the community from the animal management team,’’ the report said.

Two hundred general dog complaints were received, an increase of 40 on the previous year.

There were no welfare cases in 2021, a decrease from two in 2020 and 16 in 2017/18.

In February, despite an appeal from a Pa¯tea woman, the council upheld a decision that her eight-year-old german spitz, Coco, had to be muzzled at all times while out in public places after it bit a passerby.

In April, a Pa¯tea man was convicted of owning two dogs that twice attacked and killed sheep at the town’s golf club in September 2020, and the court ordered the dogs be destroyed.

‘‘Couldn’t we be a bit tougher?’’ Mark Bellringer councillor