Dog rego numbers are taking the lead

The number of dog registrations in the Far North hit almost 90 per cent in the 2025/2026 financial year – that’s a total of 7808 dogs.

The impressive result comes after a proactive approach by Far North District Council’s Animal Management Officers (AMOs), who issued more than 2000 infringement notices between January and April 2026. That is a 242.6 per cent increase on the previous year.

The spike in infringements was driven by AMOs actively following up with owners who had failed to register their dogs. This approach led to a significant rise in registration numbers, but with many infringement notices waived once the dogs were registered.

There were 8703 known dogs in the district in 2025/2026, a drop from the previous year following a significant effort by the council to clean up its data, including removing deceased dogs from the register and updating changes in ownership details.

Hilary Sumpter, Group Manager Delivery and Operations, says getting the message out around dog ownership and responsibilities was a key focus for the council.

“We are working hard when it comes to engaging with people in our communities around dogs and incrementally improving on what we are doing and getting better results for everybody,” she says. “We are also going into schools to educate children about dog safety so they can be more aware and conscious of what they are doing around dogs and that’s having a really great response from people.”

During the financial year, the AMOs responded to 5845 dog control customer requests which included proactive work and school education requests. The team aims to respond to urgent requests for service - those involving public safety concerns - within 1.5 hours, and non-urgent calls within three days.

A total of 569 dogs were impounded in council shelters during the 2025/26 financial year, a drop of more than 9 per cent from the previous year. Nearly 40 per cent of those were either returned to their owners or successfully rehomed.

Dog registration for this year is still open and comes with the added benefit of a free text reunite service through the council’s partnership with Doggone. For all you need to know about registering your pet, head to our dog rego page.

Far North District Council also continues to partner with the SPCA to provide affordable desexing across the district. Read more here.