Adopt a dog

Find out how to adopt a dog in Hutt City.


About our dog rehoming programme

With the help of SPCA, HUHA and other rescue organisations, we've put together a successful rehoming programme that helps place dogs into suitable homes within the Wellington region.

All of our dogs are temperament tested to ensure they are suitable for rehoming and fit them with the right type of long-term home. Adoption dogs are vaccinated, microchipped, registered and desexed. All dogs go out on a trial basis and adoptions look to be finalised after 3 weeks.

Our adoption team primarily operate as full-time animal control officers, because of this, we don't have the capacity to operate primarily as a rehoming centre. Therefore, our rehoming services are limited, and our temperament testing criteria is detailed. Hutt City Council have an obligation to ensure that a dog is placed where its particular needs will be met, and it will not cause a nuisance to anyone or get itself into trouble. Therefore, some dogs require very specific homes. Please be understanding if we feel you are not the right fit for the dog, we have both the dog and your household's best interests in mind.

If you're interested in adopting a dog you can visit our Facebook Page to see our dogs who are currently up for adoption.

To adopt a dog

  1. Fill in our online form and let us know what dog you are applying for
  2. Email us at Adoptions@huttcity.govt.nz with a detailed description of your current situation (What's your address, do you have any pets, do you have any kids, what are you looking for) and previous experience with dogs.

We're not always able to get back to everyone who applies as we are primarily full-time animal Control Officers and are a small team. If you apply and don't hear from us, keep an eye on our page for updates.

Adoption dogs can cost approximately $350 this covers:

  • Vaccinations
  • Desexing
  • Adding the dog to New Zealand Companion Animal Register
  • Registration

Contact details

Telephone: (04) 570 6666

Email: adoptions@huttcity.govt.nz