Dr Alison Vaughan: SPCA Scientific Officer on the new regulations cracking down on prolonged dog tethering

The Government’s cracking down on dog owners tying up pets for too long. 

MPI and SPCA Animal Welfare Inspectors will now be able to issue fines topping $1,000. 

The regulation targets dogs tethered in poor conditions with signs of mistreatment like excessive barking. 

SPCA Scientific Officer Dr Alison Vaughan told John MacDonald that the regulations won’t be targeting people who tether their togs temporarily, such as when they pop out to the shops. 

She says the issue is prolonged tethering, sometimes known as life chaining, in which dogs are living out their whole lives on a chain.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Kerry Wood of Morning's podcast from
News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
He'd be the government is cracking down on dog owners.
They tied the pets up for too long. It's called
you know, tethering for too long and mp I. In
SPC a animal welfare inspectors will now now be able
to issue fine for up to up to one thousand
bucks if they find dogs tethered in poor condition with
signs of mistreatment and also things like excessive barketing barking,

(00:32):
I should say so the SPCA Scientific Officers, Doctor Allison
launches with us Now, Hi Ellison, Hi the John. How
much of a problem is it that dog's being tied
up for too long?

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Well, the issue of prolonged tethering of dogs is something
that inspectors deal with daily and it's really difficult to
gather accurate numbers, but it's probay safe to say this
issue impacts slides of thousands of dogs across New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
And these are dogs that are what people at work,
people who don't care what's what's behind it.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
So these new regulations when they come out, they won't
be targeting people who are temporarily tethering their dogs, say,
if you have to pop out to the shops or
you have a kid's tea party or something like this.
This is really targeting the issue of prolonged tethering. So
that's when many dogs and people may refer to as
life chaining doctor living their whole lives out on a chain.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Can I run something past you? Because I mentioned earlier
there that excessive backing is part of it. Do you reckon?
Part of the problem is that people have dogs in
areas where or dogs that aren't appropriate for particular areas.
For example, massive big al Sachians tied up all day
in a little concrete backyard.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah, I think that could be part of it. So
people get the cute little puppy and everything's all well
and good, but when they get to be a big animal,
they find them hard to manage. And that's why it's
really important that people consider their lifestyle where they live
when they're choosing their dog, and that they also seek
help at their earlyat is if they need it. So
if your dog is a handful, that there are things

(02:10):
you can do in terms of training and in terms
of management rather than just sticking them on a chain.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
What can you do if you think you've got a
dog next door that's been tied up for too long.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Well, right now, the Minister has just announced that the
regulations will come out later this year. But in a
lot of cases, people are doing this out of necessity.
So a good place to start is if your neighbor,
if you know them, is to have a conversation. Some
people are open to people helping them out by walking
a dog. They might be going through a really difficult
time with something in their lives, so it's always we

(02:42):
always encourage people to be neighborly first. But once these
new regulations come into force, they will fill this gap
between these high level offenses where there's very very severe
signs of physical harm where we can currently prosecute, and
they're really targeting these low to moderate level offenses where
the dog is healthy physically, they have shelter, they have food,

(03:04):
they have water, but there's good evidence that they are
living their lives on the chain and we know that's
not an acceptable way for dogs to live.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
All right, for nice to talk to you, Thanks for time.
That's doctor Ellison Vaughan, who's the scientific officer with the SPCA.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
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