34% of New Zealand households have at least one dog, and every year, about 500 dog owners face prosecution under the Dog Control Act 1996. That law means that owners, or people in control or possession of a dog, have a legal responsibility to keep their dogs under control at all times.
Questions about ‘control’ are routinely part of conversations we have when people contact us, understandably upset about their dog being picked up by the council, the possibility of prosecution, and the risk of their dog being euthanised.
And in so many of the cases we’ve seen, 15 seconds is all it takes for things to go very wrong.