Responses at the February briefing were mixed, with some councillors voicing concerns about unfairly penalising those who kept packs of hunting dogs to help feed their families.
Council staff did more research and analysis, after which the proposal was dropped from the draft document brought back to the committee this month.
Senior strategic policy analyst Harvey Keravel told the committee the limit had been withdrawn because it had been found to be “administratively challenging”.
Regulation monitoring team leader Mike Mackenzie later told Local Democracy Reporting that the decision was based on data showing that only a small proportion of dog owners in Whakatāne had more than two registered dogs, and those owners rarely caused problems.
“Introducing a strict bylaw limiting dog numbers could be seen as unnecessary or an undue restriction on responsible dog owners.”
Just over 200 of the 3400 registered dog owners in the district had more than two dogs.
Animal control staff had rarely needed to ask owners with multiple dogs to reduce their numbers, and in most cases where they had, the dogs had been unregistered.
“In situations where multiple dogs do become problematic, such as roaming or persistent barking, existing mechanisms already allow staff to require owners to reduce their dog numbers,” Mackenzie said.
The draft policy now includes four new sites along Pikowai Beach where dogs will be restricted for the protection of nesting birds. These are the beach and dune areas around Hauone, Pikowai, Herepuru and Mimiha streams.
Dog control maps will inform owners where they can and cannot take their dogs. Advice spelling out the restrictions is being made more user-friendly after public feedback said they were too difficult to understand.
The Dog Control Bylaw is being updated along with the Dog Control Policy and six other bylaws, currently open for submissions.
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.