Impounding Act 1955

Establishment of pounds

3: Establishment of public pounds

You could also call this:

"Local councils must provide a safe area to hold animals, called a public pound."

You need to know that every local authority has to provide and maintain a public pound. This public pound must be properly fenced and enclosed, and it must be able to keep stock with contagious diseases separate from other stock. If you are a local authority, you can work with another local authority to provide and maintain a public pound, or you can provide more than one public pound if you want to.

You can also work with other local authorities to provide a public pound, and you can agree on the terms and conditions for doing so. If a Minister of the Crown is the local authority, they do not have to provide and maintain a public pound. The rules for public pounds were changed by the Local Government Act 2002, which replaced some of the old rules on 1 July 2003.

As a local authority, you have some flexibility in how you provide public pounds, but you must make sure that any public pound you provide is properly fenced and enclosed, and can keep stock with contagious diseases separate from other stock.

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This page was last updated on 19 July 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM294128.

Topics:

Government and voting > Local councilsEnvironment and resources > Farming and fishing

2: Interpretation, or

"What special words mean in the Impounding Act 1955"

4: Provisions as to joint pounds, or

"Rules for sharing costs of a joint animal pound"

Part 1Establishment of pounds

3Establishment of public pounds

Every local authority shall provide and maintain a public pound, which shall be properly fenced and enclosed and so adapted as to keep stock infected with any contagious disease separate and apart from other stock: provided that—
any 2 or more local authorities may jointly provide and maintain a public pound upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed upon:
any local authority may, if it so desires, provide and maintain more than 1 public pound:
if a Minister of the Crown is the local authority, nothing in this section imposes on that Minister any obligation to provide and maintain a public pound.

Compare

1908 No 79 ss 29, 30; 1941 No 26 s 33(2)

Notes

Section 3 provisio paragraph (c): replaced, on 1 July 2003, by section 262 of the Local Government Act 2002 (2002 No 84).