Auckland Council is hoping recent tragic dog attacks, including a fatal attack, will make the Government step in and make changes.
On Tuesday, 62-year-old Mihiata Te Rore was killed by dogs while visiting a home in the Northland town of Kaihu.
Then on Saturday, three people were injured after two dogs attacked people in the Christchurch suburb of Bryndwr.
The attacks have sparked calls for an overhaul of the Dog Control Act - with Te Rore being the fourth person killed by dogs in the past four years.
Speaking to Morning Report, Auckland Council general manager of licensing and compliance Robert Irvine said the council had been calling for change for almost a year.
The issue of roaming dogs - with a number of attacks on young kids - was "really, really bad and it just keeps on getting worse", Irvine said.
In Auckland alone, Irvine said there were 17,000 reports of roaming dogs every year - putting the community at risk.
"We want people to be out and about, enjoying our parks, going for walks and having the fear of being attacked by a dog is not something that we want."
More than 1000 Auckland children were attacked by dogs last year. Little Azaiah needed surgery and months of recovery after being attacked. (Source: 1News)
The Dog Control Act was nearly 30 years old and very outdated, Irvine said.
"We've been calling for change on this for almost a year and the key things we are looking at is changing it to be more proactive.
"We need greater powers for those that just aren't actually listening to the current rules. So things like getting on top of the problem, more powers around desexing - we need more dogs desexed out there and we need the dog control act to give us that power to do that."
Irvine said the council impounded about 10,000 dogs per annum - releasing most of them - and being able to desex them before release was a power the council wanted to help control the issue of breeding.
The council also wanted the power to cease dogs if necessary. He said in one case, more than 20 dogs were found on a residential property and it had no power to take them - having to go through a "lengthy" process before it could disqualify the owner for having too many.
"Up to now, we've been told the changes aren't on the Government's agenda but we're hoping after, sadly, these tragic events that the Government will now actually step in and make some changes."
Auckland Council had upped its dog control spend by about $10 million last year - needing extra animal management officers among other initiatives - meaning its spend was now about $25m per year.
But its initiatives were not enough - and changes were needed to the Act, Irvine said.
Local Government Minister Simon Watts previously said he was seeking advice on how central government could respond to the attacks and the Dog Control Act.
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