Officers work in pairs for safety

Timaru District Council's animal control officers are increasingly working in pairs because of concerns for their safety.

The council has three fulltime and one part time animal control officers, but staff were working together more often when there was a possibility they could be at risk, according to the council's building and environmental services manager, Dave Armstrong.

He said all enforcement officers were at risk of intimidation.

The council was taking a tougher line with issues such as dog fights and unregistered dogs. As a result, staff were more likely to encounter difficult situations.

"We are being more proactive," he said, explaining there had been cases where a dog owner had paid a fine for having an unregistered dog, but had not registered it in previous years. Staff were now insisting on the dog being registered, which had not pleased those owners.

Having the staff attend incidents in pairs had the advantage of providing a witness to events if the matter required further action, such as prosecution.

If dogs were fighting, it was much easier for two staff to deal with the incident.

It was also useful to have two staff present if witnesses needed to be spoken to.

Staff had been told to err on the side of caution and take someone with them if they had any concerns about a situation.

Staff concentrated on unregistered dogs in the latter half of last year. As as a result, the number of dogs registered in the district rose by more than 1200 from the previous year to 9200.

Barking dog complaints were up slightly, from 113 to 128 for the last six months of the year.

Wandering dog complaints also increased - from 154 to 179 - as had the number of infringement notices for unregistered dogs, up more than 60 to 329.

Infringement notices for dogs not under control rose from 32 to 72.

- © Fairfax NZ News