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Speaker 1: Listen to tell you what I am off of you,

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Speaker 1: that it is time for authorities to start cracking down

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Speaker 1: real hard, like really hard on bad dog owners. When

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Speaker 1: I was on maternity leave, apart from trying to ignore

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump, I was trying very hard not to read

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Speaker 1: too much news because I was just trying to get

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Speaker 1: away from work a little bit. But there was one

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Speaker 1: story that I saw pop up on the Herald, a

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Speaker 1: news alert that I actually had to click on, and

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Speaker 1: I did, and that was the news report about that

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Speaker 1: Cutzy cutty dog attack about three weeks ago where the

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Speaker 1: three dogs killed the four year old boy and all

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Speaker 1: three of those dogs were unregistered. Now, I clicked on

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Speaker 1: that news report because frankly, dog moulings freak me out

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Speaker 1: at the moment in a way that they never have

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Speaker 1: because it's too close to home. Because I'm constantly trying

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Speaker 1: to keep my three year old boy away from dogs

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Speaker 1: that look like that grumpy including this morning at our

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Speaker 1: local park, because they're everywhere. Now. I don't know if

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Speaker 1: you've noticed, I've certainly noticed, because I've started to see

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Speaker 1: a pattern here that we've had a space of moulings

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Speaker 1: in the last couple of years, and we very clearly

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Speaker 1: have a massive dog issue on our hands, not only

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Speaker 1: dogs that are mouling, but dogs that are roaming, dogs

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Speaker 1: that are unregistered. It just feels like it's kind of

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Speaker 1: exploded a wee bit and I am not seeing a

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Speaker 1: corresponding urgency from authorities to deal with this particular issue. Now. Absolutely,

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Speaker 1: we've had the announcement today that the government's going to

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Speaker 1: crack down on owners that teether their dogs too long,

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Speaker 1: but I still feel like it's a bit wet wet bustikety,

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Speaker 1: isn't it. What's the punishment for them if they teether

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Speaker 1: their dogs too long? Oh a fine, just a fine?

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Speaker 1: And at what level do they get cracked down on? Well?

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Speaker 1: Quite clear, dog abuse is what it takes to get

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Speaker 1: a cracked down. You know. It is like the worst

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Speaker 1: extremes of what you would see with dogs that copper fine.

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Speaker 1: I don't think that's good enough. And sure, you know

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Speaker 1: at the local government levy you've got councils like Auckland

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Speaker 1: Council currently having a crackdown on the unregistered dog owners

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Speaker 1: and warning them that they are on their absolute last

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Speaker 1: legs and they've got to register their dogs. But the

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Speaker 1: punishment for failing to do so after repeated warnings remains

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Speaker 1: pretty lame. It's a fine or it's going to court.

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Speaker 1: They get to keep the dog. Not be that lenient.

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Speaker 1: If I was in charge of the situation, I would

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Speaker 1: just be turning up and saying, yeah, twenty eight days

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Speaker 1: to register your dog. You didn't register your dog. Dogs

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Speaker 1: coming with me and I put the dog down, simple

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Speaker 1: as that, Because, as the council says, there is a

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Speaker 1: link between unregistered dogs and dogs that end up roaming,

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Speaker 1: roaming and dogs that attack people. And I think we

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Speaker 1: are well past the point where we need to get

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Speaker 1: tough on these dogs. Sure the dog owner is not

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Speaker 1: going to be stoked about it. They're not going to

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Speaker 1: be happy they've got a dead dog. But that's a

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Speaker 1: better outcome, I would say, than having a dead kid.

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Speaker 1: Don't you think My patients with these dogs ran out

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Speaker 1: a long time ago, and these owners in particular, and

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Speaker 1: I for one, want to see a hard crack down

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Speaker 1: coming because frankly, I don't know how many more incidents

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Speaker 1: like the one in Kutti Cutti we have to have

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Speaker 1: before we start taking this problem with our dogs seriously.

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Speaker 1: For more from Heather Duplessy, Allen Drive. Listen live to

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Speaker 1: news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio