Kaipara not gone to the dogs

 

BY JULIA WADE

The leash around Kaipara’s canines may be pulled a little tighter soon as council plans to harnesses in the four-legged friends’ freedom with proposed new bylaws. 

Under their policy ‘Dogs and Dog Management Bylaw’, Kaipara District Council (KDC) have outlined a new draft proposal for the districts dogs. While the policy aims to keep dogs as a positive part of Kaipara by maintaining they have access to public places, council have also modified some measures to ‘minimise any inherent problems caused by dogs’. 

Council also state they recognise that the majority of Kaipara dog owners are responsible and most interaction between canines and the community is positive, and are looking to the community ‘to make sure we have the balance right’. 

Three types of dog access rules around public areas are being imposed – off-leash and on-leash both with dog under control, as well as total prohibition from certain areas including Mangawhai Holiday Park on Alamar Crescent, corner shops on Wood Street and Fagan Place, Mangawhai Sand Spit Beach, and within 10 metres of all public playgrounds unless dogs can be separated by an approved fence. 

Under the new draft, the season and time zones where dogs were previously allowed to be unleashed have been removed, redefining Mangawhai’s estuary and Picnic Bay as a ‘leash-on’ area all year round. 

Shared public areas identified as suitable for off-leash canine activity ‘to provide for the well-being and recreational needs of dogs and their owners’ are Mangawhai Community Park along Molesworth Drive, the northern part of Mangawhai Heads surf beach, and a Kaiwaka reserve on the corner of Settlement Road and State Highway one. However the list council states is ‘by no means exclusive’. 

The new bylaws have already sparked conversation on social media with dog owners and their canines, with one user saying council is ‘barking up the wrong tree’.

Local border collie, Tui says her and her friends, accompanied by their watchful humans, love their early morning, unleashed romp along the estuary, running free and getting up to all sorts of doggy pastimes including ‘sniffing friends behinds’. 

‘Most of the time we have the whole place to ourselves… our humans clean up after us and others and we are all gone by 9am, it would be so sad if you stop us doing this’. 

Neighbouring dogs Paco and Breeze also joined the pack saying as ‘avid cafe dogs’ how much they enjoy a walkabout to the Mangawhai Head shops and dog-friendly cafes with their humans. 

‘Please don’t take away our dog and human enjoyment in life by proposing to make Wood Street/Fagan Place a totally prohibited dog area. We are never off the lead in this area and accept that this is the only way it should be’.

The dog’s human counterparts agree, saying to ban unleashed hours from respectful dog owners who socialise, control and clean up after their dogs along the generally empty estuary, is ‘farcical’. One owner also points out that the Heads beach is not suitable for all dogs to swim in due to the surf unlike the calm waters of the estuary. Another canine lover says she’s happy to have her dog on a lead throughout the day all year, ‘but to take the small freedom away that our dogs have outside these times is not serving anyone’. 

KDC state they welcome feedback from the community especially around the new rules. The proposal is available on the KDC website along with consultation documents and further details. Submissions can be made online through the online portal, sent by e-mail, dropped into a council office or posted. Deadline for submissions is 4.30, April 10. 

To email: bylaws@kaipara.govt.nz or post to Kaipara District Council, Private Bag 1001, Dargaville 0340 or visit kaipara.govt.nz

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Three types of dog access rules around public areas are being imposed – off-leash, on-leash, and total prohibition from certain areas. Local Tui (pictured) likes to be off the leash!