Auckland Council rejects resident’s help with roaming-dogs app
• April 14, 2025
A Manurewa man developed an app for the public to report roaming dogs after his own cat was killed by them, but Auckland Council has said it has only caused confusion about reporting processes.
An Auckland resident is at odds with Auckland Council after developing an app through which he hoped people might report dogs on the loose.
Manurewa resident Al Christ says his system would speed up the reporting of roaming dogs, but the council says it will risk causing confusion among Aucklanders. It has asked Christ to remove any link with the council from his app.
The Manurewa pet owner first developed the idea after his cat Malibu was killed by two dogs in October.
Manurewa has the highest number of roaming-dog reports in Auckland, followed by Papakura and Ōtara.
A private roaming-dog reporting app went live in Auckland last week. Photo: Justin Tuburan
Christ proposed to the council a system by which people could pinpoint a roaming dog on an online map, as well as upload a photo of it.
He says this would help free up the council’s animal-management phone lines for emergency dog-attack calls, while non-emergency situations involving roaming dogs are diverted to this new system.
“[To report a roaming dog, you’ve] got to call Animal Management, and go through the call centre, and Animal Management wants to come out and see you and talk to you more … people just don’t have that kind of time, and so they don’t do it,” says Christ.
Christ helped develop a similar system at Auckland Transport several years ago. Members of the public could upload a photo of a stray traffic cone for AT to collect.
After proposing such a system to Auckland Council in December, Christ says he had no follow-up communication from the council for months, and decided then to develop the app on his own. The app went live this week.
In a statement issued to TWN, Auckland Council’s general manager of licensing and compliance, Robert Irvine, says this app is "not an effective tool for the public to report roaming dogs”.
He says the app is "not integrated with Auckland Council’s systems”.
“In the worst-case scenario, a dog reported through this app could go on to commit an attack which could have been prevented had it been reported through the correct channels," says Irvine.
He also says the council is concerned the app may breach the Privacy Act, because it doesn’t disclose that information would be shared with the council.
Christ says he had hoped the council would adopt and integrate the system into its own animal management processes.
“Even if there was a problem [with the app], why wouldn’t they take what I’ve done and build upon it?” he says.
"It’s something to help them deploy their resources more effectively and get better results."
He says the roaming-dogs issue is “out of control” in South Auckland and needs to be addressed more effectively than it is.
There were 20,500 reports of roaming dogs to Auckland Council in the 2023/24 financial year, a 19% increase on the year before, with numbers projected to rise again this year.
The council is encouraging Auckland residents to report any sighting of a roaming dog by calling Animal Management on 09 301 0101.
