A dog runs free in Kaihu, Northland. Photo: RNZ
Hefty jail terms should be considered for owners of dangerous, roaming dogs, Northland local and cabinet minister Shane Jones says.
His comments come after a woman was mauled to death in Kaihu this week.
Her death is the third in Northland in the past four years.
Emergency crews were called to a Kaihu home just before midday on Tuesday but the woman was dead by the time they arrived.
Jones said the current laws were "not fit for purpose" and "homicidal dogs" were scattered around Northland - with the problem worsening over years.
Very few owners of such dogs were held accountable - meaning there was no deterrent in place, he said, adding a "severe level of punishment" was needed - including heft jail terms.
Shane Jones. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Jones said the problem had been going on for "years". But roaming dogs wasn't so much an issue when he was growing up in Awanui, saying his father's generation would shoot any wild and dangerous dogs.
Jones said he felt the issue had moved past a soft approach and would support any options Local Government Minister Simon Watts brought forward.
On Tuesday, Watts said he was asking officials for urgent advice after the death.
He said the Department of Internal Affairs is working on the issue with local councils to improve dog control.
Watts expected new guidelines in the second half of this year.
Kaipara District mayor Jonathan Larsen called the death tragic and a sad situation for the families.
The Kaipara District Council would not say if the dogs that attacked and killed the woman were known to animal control.
First dog-attack manslaughter in NZ last October
Dog owners can face a fine of up to $100,000, five years in prison or both if they deliberately mistreat a dog resulting in death, serious injury or permanent disability.
The first sentencing for manslaughter involving a dangerous animal in New Zealand was in October 2025 when Abel Wira was jailed for three-and-a-half years after his aggressive dogs fatally attacked his close friend Neville Thomson.
Wira lived on Thomson's property but on 4 August 2022 left Thomson alone with the dogs.
Wira put some of the more dangerous dogs inside a rundown caravan on the property.
The dogs had not been fed for two days and escaped mauling Thomson to death.
"Mr Wira's conviction at trial for manslaughter was on the basis that he failed to take reasonable care to ensure the dangerous dogs did not endanger human life; his failure was a gross one; and his failure was a cause of Mr Thomson's death," a court summary of facts said.
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