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Christchurch City Council is sending dog registration reminders out to all dog owners at the same time this year. The annual registration reminder contains a customer number and payment reference needed to process payment.
Dog owners with RDO status, who are eligible for a reduced rate, usually receive their reminders in May, with a due date (for that rate) of 30 June. However, they will now receive their reminders with all other dog owners, from 1 July, and have until the standard date of 31 July to pay their registration fee, while still qualifying for the reduced rate.
Head of Regulatory Compliance Tracey Weston is assuring Responsible Dog Owners not to be concerned.
“If you’re one of our Responsible Dog Owners, your registration reminder will be a month or so later than usual,” Ms Weston says. “However, we’ve also pushed out the due date by a month to make up for it – and the discounted rate still applies.”
“We don’t want people waiting for their reminder in May and wondering where it is and what’s going on. Our community of RDOs is very passionate and onto it with these things. We expect that many may have this on their calendar, and so we just want to put the word out that it will be a bit later this year.”
There is also a small increase to the fees, which Ms Weston says will make a big difference to what dog-related services the Council can continue to provide for the community.
The RDO registration fee is proposed to increase from $59 to $60, and the standard registration fee for spayed and neutered dogs is set to increase from $82 to $83.
Dog registrations fund and support several services across the city, such as free dog microchipping, free education programmes, dog shelters, dog parks, dog control investigations, and patrols of beaches and prohibited areas.
Last year, all dog owners received new lifetime metal dog tags, so yearly ones will no longer be issued as part of the registration process.
Find all information on dog ownership and services here.