Elly Waitoa: On average 11 dogs euthanised a day

Less than half of all dogs impounded in Auckland last year made it out alive, with an average of 11 euthanised each day. 

Auckland Council euthanised just over 4000 dogs in the last financial year, up 50% from the year prior. 

It marks the first time in a decade that more dogs were euthanised than rehomed and returned to their owners, and the council is pleading to potential owners to properly consider if they can commit to caring for a dog. 

Auckland Council's manager of animal management, Elly Waitoa, has more. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Get this, less than half of all the dogs impounded
in Auckland last year made it out alive, with an
average of eleven dogs euthanized every day. Auckland Council euthanized
just over four thousand dogs in the last financial year,
up fifty percent on the year before it. It marks
the first time in a decade that more dogs were

(00:20):
euthanized than re homed or returned to their owners, and
the council is pleading potential owners, pleading with potential owners
to properly consider if they can actually commit to all
of the responsibilities that come with caring for a dog.
Ali Waitoa is Auckland Council's manager of Animal Behavement Management
and she's with us this evening.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Kelder, good evening, that's the name Jack.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Why has there been such a rise in the number
of euthanized dogs.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, we've had a huge increase of twenty six percent
and pounded dogs across our shelters over us around three
eighty three hundred dogs and unfortunately we're being the lowest
claim rate from dog owners in about ten years and
only forty three percent of those dogs have been claimed,
so unfortunately that leads to increased euthanasias, which is half

(01:12):
on everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, it must be really painful, But why do you
think you've had so many more dogs being impended in
the first place.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
There's been a puppy boom across Auckland since COVID. We've
noticed that there's a lot of puppies been dumped in
parks and our shelters. Well, are people trying to relinquish puppies?
So I think that there are people who are getting
dogs which probably aren't in a position where they should
have a dog, and the funds to look after them
don't have the proper fencing. They're letting them roam and

(01:44):
they're ending up in our shelters.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
But do you put that down to COVID? Is it
like a COVID hangover kind of thing?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Well, there indeed sext thing. So we're definitely seen a
puppy boon since then, and our dog known dog population
each year has increased exponentially compared to pre COVID, so
there's definitely an isition in terms of desexing, and around
eighty three percent of the dogs in the last three
years through our shelters are entire and haven't been desex

(02:11):
so that gives us a bit of a picture of
what's happening out there.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah. Right, So eight hundred and fifty dogs had to
be euthanized because the shelters were full. So talk to
us though about the efforts that the team takes to
actually try and rehome the dogs.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
So or the dogs that come through here, they're kept
for a minimum of seven days to allow the owners
to come forward and to claim the dog where the
dog is unclaimed, and as we do enable extensions for
owners who have genuine reason that they may be a
couple of days late, but the staff they implement es

(02:46):
the dog. So we need to make sure that any
dog that we're potentially going to rehome is suitable to
go back into the community and won't pose a risk.
But with the dogs that were ethnos due to capacity,
they were potentially a dog optical dogs, but there's nowhere
for them to go. So when you look at that
large number and the four thousand dogs who put down,

(03:09):
where do people think that four thousand dogs are going
to go every year where there going to be looked after,
cared for, fed, often unsocialized. So unfortunately there's just very
limited options for those dogs. Other than to be euthanized.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
So sad ah, I mean, how does it affect you
and your team? Alie?

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Devastating. They're all dog lovers, all of us, and animal
management them. Almost all of us have dogs, a lot
of impound dogs, and it's really difficult, particularly on the
shelter staff who have to support the vets during euthanasias,
but also our field officers who are picking these dogs
up as well, and the abuse that they suffer at

(03:51):
the hands of the community and on Facebook, social media,
that sort of thing. So it is really devastating. But
of course the ultimate price paid by the dogs and
the owners who don't claim them are four thousand owners
go on and get another one from up the road
and the process starts all over again.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Does that happen quite often.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
But constantly? Yeah, dog ends up in the pound, owner
doesn't claim it. We've been handed out like lollies. They
get another dog and ends up in the pound in
six six months time. So that's the cycle that's happening.
And we're teaching where children are being taught that that's
the appropriate way to care for a dog in your position.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah, So how do we break the cycle? What would
be your message.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Decet than six de sts. We know there's a lot
of the issues we're having are in these low socio
economic areas, so we do have some programs that we've
been running. One of them was to provide free D
six and four dogs, claim bids, menacing and also in
high risk of dog attack areas. We have limited funding
for that and this high demand business setain issues with

(05:02):
vet capacity to keep up with the demand. But what
it really needs, and my view is for Ventral government
to support to look at the statistics, realize the enormity
of the situation and to put together some form of
funding and campaign to help change people's behavior attitudes towards

(05:24):
desecting and roaming and provide some services to get these
dogs these sex because when you think, be foolish not
to think there's ten female dogs having lists of puppies
across Auckland today, right and if we're desexing one hundred
a day, we're not keeping on top of it and
it's going to get worse.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
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Speaker 2 (05:46):
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