Explainer – A Northland woman was killed by a dog this week, the latest in a series of fatalities. What exactly are the laws around animal control?

Here’s where dangerous dog regulations stand in New Zealand, and what people are saying needs changing.

What’s been happening with dog attacks?

Mihiata Te Rore, 62, was killed by dogs while visiting a home in the Northland town of Kaihu this week.

She is the fourth person killed by dogs in the last four years, three of which were in Northland. Elizabeth Whittaker was killed in an attack in 2023 while Neville Thomson died in a 2022 attack. A four-year-old boy was also killed in an attack in the Bay of Plenty last year.

There had been multiple complaints about the dogs in this week’s attack, Kaipara District Council said, and staff had visited the property at least four times.

There are reports of people around the country terrified of roaming dogs in their area and even arming themselves with weapons.

“For far too long we have been warning regulators that New Zealand’s current approach to dog control is not fit for purpose,” the SPCA’s chief scientific officer Dr Arnja Dale said. “Our thoughts are with the woman’s whānau and the wider community during this incredibly heartbreaking time.”

A dog runs freely on the roadside in Kaihu, Northland. This dog was not part of the recent attack. Photo: RNZ

What are the current laws?

The 1996 Dog Control Act lays out the rules for dog owners, but many advocacy groups have said it’s long overdue for a revamp.

It includes provisions for registration, leash laws, and what owners must do to control and care for their pets.

• Read the full Dog Control Act 1996 here

The act sets out how dogs can be classified as menacing or dangerous, seized and impounded, and infringement offences and fees. People can also be disqualified from owning dogs for certain offences.

However, local councils and authorities are responsible for actually enforcing many of these laws.

“Dog owners are responsible for their dogs – they have a legal responsibility to look after and control their animals – but we also acknowledge that council’s animal control plays an important role in managing risks in the community,” the Kaipara District Council said in a statement after this week’s fatal attack.

“We really need an urgent, substantive and evidence-based review of the Dog Control Act, which is 30 years old and hopelessly out of date,” SPCA senior science officer Alison Vaughan told RNZ’s Morning Report.

The Auckland Council has also called for major changes to the act, saying the dog problem is out of control in many areas.

“We’ve got children being attacked, people being attacked, animals being attacked,” Auckland Council animal management manager Elly Waitoa told RNZ last year. “Children can’t go to school, because they’re being terrorised by aggressive dogs.”

Local Government Minister Simon Watts has said he is looking how the central government can respond, but no reforms to the Dog Control Act have yet been announced.

“This is a serious issue, and I agree that action is needed,” he told RNZ this week.

“As Minister of Local Government, I am responsible for the Dog Control Act. I have sought advice on all available options, in addition to the work that is already being completed.”

What exactly is a dangerous dog?

Dangerous dogs are classified if they’re a “threat to the safety of any person, stock, poultry, domestic animal or protected wildlife,” according to the act, or if their owners are convicted of an offence involving the dog attacking.

If a dog is classified as dangerous, they must be kept in a secure fenced area, cannot be in public without being muzzled and controlled on a leash, and they must be neutered. You’ll also pay higher registration fees for owning a dangerous dog.

Menacing dogs are considered to be dogs that may pose a particular threat. Certain breeds of dogs, such as American pit bulls, are automatically considered menacing and are banned or heavily restricted from being allowed in New Zealand.

Abel Wira was found guilty of manslaughter over a fatal dog attack. Photo: NZ Herald

What are the penalties for dog attacks?

The owner of a dog that causes serious injury is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or a fine not exceeding $20,000. The court will also order the dog destroyed upon the owner’s conviction unless there are exceptional circumstances.

For less serious attacks, the Dog Control Act also lays out fines not exceeding $3000 and liability for damage.

This week, The Post reported that an Auckland woman whose leashed dog pulled away from her teenage son and attacked a 70-year-old woman was convicted for owning a dog that caused serious injury. She was sentenced to 70 hours of community work and to pay $500 emotional harm reparation to the victim.

And last year, a Northland man was jailed for manslaughter after his dogs killed Neville Thomson in 2022 – a New Zealand first.

Abel Jaye Wira was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to three years and six months in jail. Wira’s dogs were described as aggressive, uncontrollable and dangerous.

Wira was first charged with being the owner of a dog that caused injury or death, and then several months later the charge was upgraded to manslaughter, the first such case in New Zealand’s history.

“The community cannot underestimate what can arise when dog owners majorly depart from their responsibilities,” Judge Andrew Becroft said during sentencing.

The Kaihu death this week remains under investigation.

Auckland Council is calling for changes to national dog control guidelines. Photo: Nick Monro

So what’s not working?

Local governments lack consistency in how they respond to dog attacks and central government needs to take a stronger hand, the SPCA’s Vaughan said.

She said Dog Control Act reform needs to look at measures such as increased desexing and subsidies for those who can’t afford the costs, addressing irresponsible breeding and more public education.

The SPCA also seeks standardised national guidelines for councils on actions to take following a dog bite incident.

Auckland Council has also pressured the government to give councils more power to deal with dog attacks.

It’s calling for measures such as mandatory reporting of dog attacks from hospitals and medical clinics, introducing fencing requirements, allowing councils to set their own desexing policies, and improving councils’ abilities to detain dogs following an attack.

“The changes we are proposing make good common sense and would greatly improve our ability to protect Aucklanders from dog-related harm,” Auckland Council general manager of licensing and compliance Robert Irvine said in launching the campaign last year. “They would not affect the majority of dog owners who we know are responsible.”

Auckland’s council said last July that within the past year it received 16,739 reports of roaming dogs, 1341 reports of dog attacks on people and 1523 reports of attacks on other animals.

In Northland, where dog problems are chronic, statistics from the Kaipara District Council showed the number of dogs impounded by the council more than doubled over the four years from 2021 to 2025.

In the period from July 2022 to July 2025, there were 174 call-outs for dog attacks, but only one person was prosecuted in the same period.

“We cannot afford to wait for another tragedy before meaningful reform is undertaken,” the SPCA’s Dale said.

Local Government Minister Simon Watts. Photo: RNZ/Mark Papalii

What’s the government doing about it?

In an interview with RNZ’s Checkpoint earlier this month before the latest fatal attack, Watts said he understood frustration over uncontrolled dogs.

On the current legislation, Watts said, “It is an old act and a lot of the feedback coming back from councils is that they are wanting to see amendments and changes.

“We’re a busy government and we’ve got a significant amount of work underway in the Local Government portfolio … overhauling the Dog Control Act is not something that we have capacity for this term but we are working through right now.”

Watts said with the time left before November’s election, “passing laws in that timeline is unlikely”.

“To date my focus has been on non-legislative options that can assist councils more quickly, and that work will continue,” Watts told RNZ this week.

Watts said that among those interventions were improving the quality and consistency of national dog-related data, working with the local government sector to refresh and improve dog control enforcement guidelines and creating updated guidelines, which are expected to be issued by the beginning of the third quarter of 2026.

Northland MP and cabinet minister Shane Jones. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii

What are other politicians saying?

NZ First leader Winston Peters told NZME that dog attacks like the Kaihu incident were “facilitating murder” and manslaughter charges should be considered, while Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has called Te Rore’s death “unacceptable”.

In an interview with Morning Report earlier this week, Northland MP and cabinet minister Shane Jones called for “severe” punishment.

“When I grew up in Awanui if there were wild and dangerous dogs around, my father’s generation just shot them. That was the end of that problem.”

However, the SPCA’s Vaughan said culling wild dogs would not stop the bigger issue.

“We do know from overseas examples that indiscriminate culling of roaming dogs doesn’t find a sustainable solution, so it may reduce numbers temporarily, but if we don’t address the irresponsible breeding and roaming, we will see population quickly rebound.”

Officials at the scene of a fatal dog attack in Kaihu, Northland this week. Photo: RNZ

Just how worried are people about dog attacks?

This week’s fatal attack unleashed a stream of testimonials to RNZ from other people who are complaining about wild dogs.

“We have been complaining for years about these wandering frigging dogs,” one person wrote about the Kaipara District attack.

There have been several accounts of people afraid to go for walks without weapons.

“I now go for walks with a brick in my hand and will not hesitate to kill one,” one person wrote on Reddit after claiming an unleashed dog killed their cat.

Another RNZ reader wrote in to say they have complained to their local council numerous times and “have seen dogs and people attacked and injured, provided video and photographic evidence, witnesses, you name it… and we’re still waiting for action”.

“All we get are lame, pro-forma excuses, while the local emergency vets tell us these sort of incidents are happening on a weekly basis.”

One local at the scene of the fatal attack in Kaihu this week told an RNZ reporter that Mihiata Te Rore’s death should never have happened.

“There were so many warnings before that happened and nothing had been done,” he said.

Source: RNZ