A Tauranga dog owner who had to cut her holiday short thanks to an administrative error by the council claims she is ready to quit the region because of the city's dog laws.

Jo Dempsey's Staffordshire bull-terrier Bo ran away from home after becoming frightened by neighbourhood fireworks last Saturday night.

Bo the staffie.

And according to Jo, Bo became a victim of the city council's non-rehoming policy which applies to the breed.

The nine-year-old dog is registered, microchipped and has two phone numbers on collar tags.

He was found in a distressed state by a resident who called the council and Bo was picked up at around 11pm. Owner Jo was out of town and didn't find out he was missing until the following morning.

Repeated calls to the council came up against the same denial - Bo was not impounded. Then they said he was, but it was the wrong dog.

Jo eventually had it confirmed that Bo was in the pound, but according to animal control team leader Brent Lincoln, council staff didn't know he was there because of an ‘administrative mix-up'.

She explains: 'I am now moving from Mount Maunganui to Hamilton where my partner lives as I do not feel safe having my two dogs living under the TCC dog laws.

'As a homeowner and rate payer for 17 years, a dog owner for ten years of which registration has always been paid, I am utterly disgusted at the blatant negligence and prejudice of our TCC.

'The fact is my dog is micro-chipped, registered and has a name tag, and not one person bothered to advise me he was in their care.”

Her claims that authorities are blocking owner access to certain breeds of impounded dogs is being denied by the council's animal control team.

'In this incident, the phone numbers attached to the dog were phoned but there was no reply and the dog was impounded,” says Brent.

'The dog had been entered into the pound's system but that information had not been updated into the overall council system. Once the situation was clarified, the owner was contacted and the dog was returned with an apology and without charge.”

It was described as an 'administrative break down” and Brent admitted he would be 'absolutely gutted” if the same situation reoccurred.

'We had a really robust discussion with everybody that had to deal with that situation, and we've re-tweaked everything so it won't happen again.

'The pound is a separate building, so the impounds are done and the information is then transferred to the mainframe and when the information is in there the call centre can access it.

'Unfortunately, the right button wasn't pushed at the right time.”

Jo, however, remains convinced it's because Bo is a staffie. The same thing happened last time Bo was impounded four years ago, when the delay in owner contact was put down a faulty microchip reader.

The city council does have a non-rehoming policy for bull breeds says Brent. But the council has to obey the law.

Under the Dog Control Act 1996, the council is legally required to hold dogs for seven days from the day they are impounded. If it's a registered dog, Tauranga City Council holds the dog for a further seven days.

'If the council cannot contact an owner by phone, we write to them at their last known address and the seven days process starts from that letter, not the date of the impound,” says Brent.

'The provisions apply to every dog that is impounded and unclaimed bull terriers are not re-homed.

'They just feature so high in the bite attacks that we can't take a risk of that type of dog being adopted to someone and becoming an issue.

'After seven days, if there's no contact from the owner and if it's unregistered, that dog will be assessed and if it's of those bull breeds it would be euthanased.”

With some councils 40-50 per cent of the dogs that go in don't come out. Tauranga City Council's rehomes about 85 per cent of impounded dogs or returns them to their owners, adds Brent.

Jo says she had to pay $700 to change her flights because she was concerned she would not get Bo back from the pound.