Far North leads the pack in dog attacks - ACC figures

Dog-related injuries had cost New Zealand $15.8 million in the year to 30 June, figures from ACC show.

That's an increase of almost 50 percent from five years earlier when the cost was under $11m.

The figures also show the Far North District leads the pack when it comes to dog attacks, with 427 ACC claims in the 2022-23 year ̶ a rate of 5.88 dog-related injuries per 1000 people per year.

That's more than double the national average, and significantly higher than Northland's two other districts.

The new figures come amid calls in the Far North for a clampdown on roaming and dangerous dogs, following two fatal attacks in just over a year.

Neville Thomson, 69, was mauled to death by his lodger's dogs in Panguru in August 2022, and Elizabeth "Effie" Whittaker, 78, is thought to have died when she tried to break up a dog fight on her Moerewa property last month.

Chris Radich, an Awanui resident who survived an attack last year, said he had so far collected 600 signatures calling on the Far North District Council to take tougher action against irresponsible dog owners.

He vowed to walk more than 110km to the council's headquarters in Kaikohe to deliver his petition, despite leg injuries he suffered in the mauling.

Analysis of ACC's figures shows the districts with the next-highest rates of dog-related injuries are Ōpōtiki (5.34 claims per 1000 people), Wairoa (4.89) and Thames-Coromandel (4.36).

At the other end of the scale, Selwyn's rate was just 0.93 claims per 1000 people, followed by Wellington City (1.53) and Stratford (1.58).

Auckland had the highest total number of dog injury claims, 4544, but its rate per 1000 people was a near-average 2.65.

Christchurch, Hamilton and Tauranga recorded dog injury rates of 2.74, 2.89 and 3.14 per 1000 people, respectively.

The two other council areas in Northland, Whangārei and Kaipara, had rates of around 3.4 per 1000.

The national average was 2.75.

The total number of claims for dog-related injuries in 2022-23 was 14,104, an increase of 6 percent from 2018-19.

Most attacks unreported

Far North District Council compliance manager Rochelle Deane said the number of attacks recorded by ACC in 2022-23 was five times higher than the 86 reported to the council in the same period.

She believed that was because most dog bites were from household or wider family pets.

"People rarely report their own or their family's dogs to the council. This is not unique to the Far North. All territorial authorities in Aotearoa are aware of under-reporting of dog attacks," Deane said.

That did not, however, diminish the Far North's high rate of dog attacks on people, other dogs and animals.

There was a range of reasons for that, Deane said.

"Many people live remotely in the Far North meaning poorly controlled dogs never come to the attention of animal management officers. That is, until they are reported to staff by neighbours or passers-by who've been harassed by those dogs. We know many people are attacked by dogs that belong them, to their family, or to friends and neighbours. Most attack victims are reluctant to upset those relationships. Some are fearful to do so."

Deane said the council could only act on incidents that were reported, and the ACC figures showed most incidents serious enough to require medical treatment were never reported.

She said it was easy to blame the council for not doing enough, but the gulf between council and ACC statistics proved it was as much a community problem as an enforcement one.

The reasons behind dog attacks were the same across New Zealand, Deane said.

They included owning dogs that were not trained or socialised; having the wrong type of dog for a family situation; not supervising young children around dogs; and not getting dogs de-sexed.

Irresponsible owners, roaming dogs key factors

Auckland Council animal management head Elly Waitoa said most dog attacks occurred in the city's low socio-economic areas.

"That's where we definitely see the highest level of dog attacks and the highest number of menacing breed dogs. Pit bulls are very popular," she said.

Financial constraints were part of the problem with those areas also having much lower rates of desexing and registration.

"They don't have sufficient fencing, or the fencing isn't high enough for the type of dog they're getting and they don't have the money to raise their fences."

Often it came down to a lack of responsibility from owners who allowed their dogs to roam.

"If you go into the areas where the attacks are happening you'll see dogs roaming. Any day of the week, you go down there, they're just left to go out. That's an issue in itself because the roaming dog goes on potentially attack. It will expand its territory by going out on the street, where there's kids riding past on bikes and people walking dogs," Waitoa said.

"The majority of dog attacks on people happen either on the dog's own property or just outside it. They are territorial because they're not contained properly."

The number of dog attacks in Auckland had "absolutely snowballed" in the past few years with a 28 percent increase in the past financial year and a 22 percent increase the year before.

In the Far North dog attacks jumped 18 percent in the past year but are down from a peak recorded in 2020-21, according to ACC figures.

The Covid factor

Waitoa put much of Auckland's increase in dog bites and overall dog numbers down to the Covid lockdowns.

"We know that people were getting dogs during Covid. They're shut in their homes, suddenly they're not at work. So it's like, 'Oh well, we've got the time and we're bored and the kids need something. So let's get a dog'. And those dogs weren't being socialised."

"There's a lot of research about how critical it is that a puppy is well socialised by the age of 12 weeks. That means going out and meeting people, meeting dogs, being in different situations, having people come to and from their property. That's really important for a dog to be well adjusted," she said.

"But during the lockdowns dogs didn't have people come into their properties. Normally you'd have family or friends over, and you might have a party or a barbecue. None of that happened. So that seems to have changed the behaviour of a lot of these dogs that were born and taken into households in that time."

"Now what we're seeing is that those dogs have grown up. And we see so much aggression through our shelters. Those dogs are much less socialised and they're more aggressive."

Waitoa said the council's euthanasia rate almost doubled last year as a result.

Any unclaimed dogs in the pounds were temperament-tested before rehoming was considered.

"But there were so many more that just would not be safe to put back out into society, so they got euthanised. The lack of socialisation is a huge issue."

Another factor was a drop in desexing during the lockdowns because vets were limited to emergency surgery, leading to an "explosion" in the number of puppies.

Ambulance at the bottom of the cliff

Waitoa said soaring dog attacks meant her staff had no chance to tackle the underlying causes.

"We'll never keep on top of it, because we're so busy responding to these dog attacks, which are our most complex, time-consuming workloads. The officers are tied up as the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff and unable to be proactive and get on top of all the roaming that's going on, which then goes on to cause dog attacks."

Smaller organisations, such as the Far North District Council with a few rangers covering a huge area, would find it even harder to be proactive.

"We have 119 staff and we absolutely struggle. We will never have enough staff to throw at Auckland's dog issues because the population keeps growing, and the attacks keep snowballing."

Waitoa said the problem would not be solved without dog owners on board.

As part of its dog bite prevention strategy, the council was setting up a new team to engage with the worst affected communities, Pasifika and Māori in particular.

"The new team will educate them on not leaving kids alone with dogs, and the importance of not allowing your dog to roam because it's only going to get itself or someone else into trouble," she said.

"They will be working with natural community leaders, such as sports leaders, church ministers, people that the community already have a trust in, to try and spread the key messages, because we can't do it on our own. And we need a societal behavioural shift to be able to make any headway at all."

Waitoa said central government also needed to provide funding for animal management and the de-sexing of dogs, particularly for people who could not afford it.

*The dog attack rates quoted here are calculated from ACC figures for dog-related injury claims by council area and projected population figures for 2021 from Statistics NZ. Most of the injuries were due to bites but the figures include a small number of injuries from other dog-related causes, such as tripping over pets.