"It’s a challenge to actually keep a track of it. It’s also a particularly hard area to recruit to. We are having a few struggles there at the moment," council group manager consenting and environment Jonathan Shaw said.
"We are aware of it. We do our level best."
His comments followed concerns raised by Cr Ian Pottinger that the number of unregistered dogs was an unknown.
Cr Pottinger had recently paid his own dog’s registration fee but said it would be easy to slip under the radar if your dog was not causing any trouble.
Mr Shaw said the council did rely on the community to comply.
"We have seen something of a drop-off in compliance, which we can possibly attribute to hard times," he said.
The report showed unpaid registrations totalled $62,155 for 634 dogs, as at May 31.
That sum would likely soon increase, council group manager finance and assurance Patricia Christie said, noting annual registration bills were typically sent out in June.
Ms Christie said it was difficult for the council to "collect" the fee because of the possibility a dog had died.
The number of dogs registered with the council was 9257.
Last August, missing data on the number of euthanised dogs from a control report irked deputy mayor Cr Tom Campbell.
The council later revealed 38 dogs were put down from 2023-24 — an increase from 25 for the previous reporting period.
■LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
