Council vets Dog Rescue

Dog Rescue Dunedin handler Keryn Aitken walks rescued dogs in Forrester Park last week. Photo by...
Dog Rescue Dunedin handler Keryn Aitken walks rescued dogs in Forrester Park last week. Photo by Dan Hutchinson
An animal rescue charity has been told it must not speak about the Dunedin City Council without prior approval or it could lose access to condemned dogs at the pound.

Dog Rescue Dunedin (DRD) has been forced to check all of its public communications with the council before releasing them to the media or any other third party, under the terms of a memorandum of understanding. The Star became aware of the clauses in the memorandum last week when Dog Rescue co-ordinator Dr Jo Pollard was preparing a press release about a potential influx of abandoned dogs.

She said at the time she had to check all communications back with the council, before presenting an altered version of the statement to The Star.

When questioned as to why an independent charity had to check its statements with the council, she said she did not want to raise the issue publicly, for fear of the council withdrawing its support.

''Being able to openly talk to the media isn't something that is core to our functioning, whereas getting the dogs in the first place is ... Their power is too great and we have got too much to lose.''

Animal control team leader Ros MacGill said the memorandum was ''private'' and not something The Star should be commenting on.

''We have to be comfortable about anything they release about our business. We need to make sure that is correct.''

Council communications and marketing manager Graham McKerracher said clauses 13 and 14 were added to the memorandum for the purposes of ''constructive dialogue''.

''We are not preventing them talking to the media. It gives both parties the chance to discuss any issues that need to be resolved first, so that we can try and reach agreement.''

He said the council had a statutory responsibility for unwanted dogs and waited until they had been in the pound for nine days before they were put down.

In the memorandum, the council is responsible for telling Dog Rescue about dogs once they have been in the pound for six days. Dog Rescue is able to take them on the ninth day, at a cost of up to $100.

Clauses from the memorandum of understanding between Dog Rescue Dunedin and the Dunedin City Council.

Responsibility 13: ''DRD are not permitted to make statements to the media or any other person about the council without the prior consent of the council.''

Responsibility 14: ''The council may terminate this agreement immediately and without prior written notice to DRD if anyone associated with and authorised by DRD makes untrue, misleading or incomplete representations of the council to the media or any other person.''

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