Auckland Council has unleashed a new animal management team to deal with roaming dogs - and it won't wait for complaints from the public before it acts.
The proactive animal management team works in a different way to the longstanding reactive animal management team.
While the reactive team waits for calls to come in before going to pick up a dog, the proactive team patrols the streets aiming to catch dogs before they end up in places they shouldn't.
Aaron Neary from Auckland Council said the proactive team aims to get ahead of the roaming dog problem before people get chased or injured.
"Primarily we are patrolling the high-risk areas such as Ōtara, Manurewa, Papakura, where we are getting those high levels of roaming and aggressive dogs and where kids are being followed to school by dogs.
A dog spotted by Auckland Council's proactive animal management team. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel
"But we're also going out into the community, speaking to schools, speaking to parents, community events, setting up stands and stalls and things so we can actually connect with communities and engage."
The team focusses its patrolling efforts around schools in the morning, in the hopes of avoiding children running afoul of a scary, roaming dog.
Neary said children and roaming dogs are not a good mix.
"Not all dogs are friendly. Any dog can bite and children can be very loud, very dramatic. Those sudden movements can actually freak a dog out. Also there's the risk of causing a traffic accident if the dogs are running through cars."
South Auckland is a hotspot for Auckland's dog problem, something Papatoetoe High School Principal Vaughan Couillault is well aware of.
He's had dogs on school grounds twice this year and said it's a problem even if the dogs aren't aggressive.
"The dogs in question for us were actually outrageously friendly, but of course it's just it's not appropriate to have a dog on the loose in a school setting."
Couillault said the dogs were mobbed by curious and excited teenagers and they were a huge distraction.
Manukau ward councillor Lotu Fuli said she struggles to get around the neighbourhood due to the sheer number of roaming dogs she encounters.
"I used to love to go for walks for exercise and things like that but now I don't because I'm afraid of that.
"I'm not afraid of being mugged or being run over or anything like that, it's the dogs."
According to Auckland Council, South Auckland has the highest number of roaming dogs in the region, with more than 5000 picked up in the area in the year to the end of August.
