Dogs
Our friendly Animal Management team encourages care and control of animals in the Whanganui District.
Whanganui District Council has a capable and experienced Animal Management team that works hard to prevent animal inconvenience, nuisance or safety issues for the community.
The Dog Control Policy 2021(PDF, 899KB) and Dog Control Bylaw 2021(PDF, 499KB) were introduced in June 2021. They aims to improve community safety by reducing the number of unwanted dogs, roaming dogs and dogs likely to attack people.
Our team issues dog registrations, provides advice about the housing and welfare of animals, responds to calls about wandering stock, patrols suburban streets, maintains the dog pound and deals with incidents involving aggressive dogs.
We have an Animal Management Education Officer who takes a preventative approach to community safety by educating people, especially children, about caring for animals and interacting with them safely.
Sheep measles prevention for dog owners
Ovis Management Ltd is a non-profit organisation 100% owned by the Meat Industry Association (MIA). We promote the control of sheep measles and aim to reduce the risk that sheep measles poses for farmers, due to infected sheep and goats.
Sheep measles is the term used to describe small blemishes in the muscle and offal of sheep and goats. These blemishes are unsightly and can disrupt our sheepmeat market, as well as affecting our farmers' bottom line. The cause is Taenia ovis, a tapeworm, hosted by dogs. Infected dogs defecate leaving tapeworm eggs on the ground; nearby sheep and goats graze the area and ingest the tapeworm eggs. These eggs travel through the bloodstream and embed into muscle where they die and calcify, damaging the meat. One tapeworm can produce up to 250,000 eggs daily and some dogs can carry 3-4 worms. Tapeworm eggs can survive on the ground for up to 300 days and can travel 10kms (mainly via flies).
The method of prevention is simple. All dogs residing on sheep farmland must be dosed every month with Praziquantel, as Taenia ovis develops to maturity within 35 days. If you are not regularly taking dogs near farmland, you can still do your part by dosing all dogs with Praziquantel at least 48 hours prior to arrival.
Find out more here
Hours and contact details
The Animal Management team is based at the Animal Pound, Airport Road, and can respond to a variety of requests around the clock. Full cover is provided from 8.00am to 5.00pm, seven days a week. We also provide a limited range of after-hours services for issues with dog attacks, serious aggressive animal behaviour, stock wandering on roads, roaming dogs secured on private property and incidents with police involvement.
You can contact us on 06 349 0001 at any time.