4 August 2026: Dumped and abandoned dogs

Media: NZME (Rotorua Daily Post and BOP Times)

Topic: Dumped and abandoned dogs

Enquiry

I am writing a story about the how animal rescue charities such as Vada's Angels Animal Rescue Trust and RRR are coping with the increased demand for their services to care for dumped/abandoned pups and dogs, including those which end up in the pound.

Vada's Angels' Animal Rescue Trust founder Kat Thompson said tthe trust was struggling financially and desperately needed more volunteers and foster care spaces, because of a surge in dumping of puppies and so on.

I understand from Ms Thompson she works closely with three councils, including Rotorua Lakes and takes on the care of some of its impounded dogs and puppies.

Here are my questions for Rotorua Lakes Council

Q1. Has Vada's Angels been taking any of RLC's impounded adult dogs or dumped puppies into its care? If so, how many this year and last year? Does the council provide any funds to assist with caring for these animals until new homes can be found? If so, how much?

Q2. Has the RLC noticed a recent upsurge in puppy dumping cases this year, compared to the numbers last year?

If so, please elaborate on the numbers and where these animals are being found? For instance, dumped in parks and waterways?

Please provide me with couple of recent extreme examples of dumping and what are main drivers for this ?

Q3. What is the council's message to the community about this type of cruel behaviour?

Q4. Do any other animal rescue charities such as RRR take any of the RLC impounded pups/dogs? If so, which charities and how many animals this year?

Q5. What is the total number of dogs and puppies that end up being impounded in the 2026 year-to-date and in the 2024/2025 year?

Q6, How many impounded pups and adult dogs have been euthanised this year, and how does that compare to the 2024/2025 year?

Response

From Manager Community - Safety and Regulatory Services, Mihikore Owen:

We always do our very best to re-home dogs and it’s heartening to see so many happy outcomes. However, when all options have been exhausted or if dogs are not suitable for re-homing, we’re left with an unenviable decision and it’s devastating for our animal control team.

Sadly, not every dog can be rehomed. This can be due to behaviour, health, or legal restrictions and our team faces the very difficult decision of euthanasia. This is never taken lightly and is deeply upsetting for our staff.

There has been a decrease in euthanised dog numbers with 531 in the 2024/25 financial year and 492 in 2025/26.

It’s important to note that our situation is different from other councils. Many of the dogs we deal with are classified as menacing, meaning they can’t be re-homed. We’ve also seen more dogs being surrendered, picked up roaming, or seized for offences.

We ask anyone thinking about getting a dog to carefully consider the commitment, responsibilities, and costs involved. By making informed choices, we can reduce the number of dogs needing our care and give more animals the chance of a safe and loving home.

From speaking to people who surrender dogs, this is mostly because they can’t afford to keep them or simply don’t care. The rest have generally been impounded for roaming and/or are menacing and some owners won’t pay what we have to charge them for the cost of looking after their dogs at the pound.

Unwanted puppies also contribute to the problem, so we strongly recommend owners have their dogs desexed to avoid this. One particular upsetting incident was 10 puppies dumped in Ngongotaha in a public bin the mother dog was tied to the bin. Sadly, all the puppies passed away due to fading puppy syndrome.

The total number of dogs and puppies that end up being impounded has fallen with 1189 in the 2024/25 financial year compared with 1069 in 2025/26.

Vada’s Angels Animal Rescue is the only charity we work with to help rehome dogs. The number of dogs rehomed through Vada’s increased from 45 in 2024–25 financial year to 64 in 2025–26.

These dogs include a mix of surrendered, roaming and unclaimed dogs, and as we do not report these separately, it would not be accurate to describe all dogs rehomed as abandoned. We do not provide funds to Vada's to assist with caring for these dogs, but we ensure they are desexed and vaccinated.