DOGS IN CITIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 29, 4 February 1935, Page 6

DOGS IN CITIES

A POLICEMAN'S EXPERIENCE.

(To the Editor.)

During the course of my duties, extending over a very long period, the dog question was one of the moet vexed. Examine the files in any police station and cross-examine the officer in charge; he will tell you. The complaints about dogs, their depredations and their mysterious deaths, outnumber all others. If the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals can get anything done that will stop poisoning, then they have accomplished something worth striving for. In the counties poisoning js legal. A farmer can advertise it, or put a notice on his fence and lay as much as he likes within certain boundaries. His neighbour, who happens to be in a town district, breaks the law if he does the same, but their troubles are identical. Summarising the complaint side of investigations, I found animals savaged, sometimes so injured that they had to be destroyed; this on the larger holdings. In the residential areas, cats and other pets are often killed or injured by do<*s. Poultry runs are raided and much damage done. Dogs burrow under netting and let the poultry out, with subsequent damage to gardens. This is the most frequent complaint. A few dogs will do a lot of damage to suburban gardens in their night wanderings. A howling dog will disturb a whole neighbourhood. Mothers complain about their children being kept awake, sick persons become worse and normal persons become upset for want of sleep. There are people who dislike animals of all kinds. Some children are genuinely terrified of dogs and they seem to be the ones that get bitten. The pet dog often leads a Jekyll and Hyde existence and can be a <reat nuisance when out of sight. Farmers°and drovers seldom loose dogs. They look after them, and that brings me to the cause of all the trouble. Dog owners will not look after their pets, but fanners and drovers do; they take no risks. When dogs are loosed at ni<»]it to fend for themselves they do damage their owners know nothing about. As it stands at present, the city and suburban resident has remedy, and until he gets some protection poisoning will go on, as it always has in the past. Wholesale poisoning cannot be defended, but I think there is a prims, facie case against the dog. x.P.C.