VALUABLE DOG KILLED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 146, 22 June 1945, Page 8

VALUABLE DOG KILLED

OWNER'S UNSUCCESSFUL CLAIM

O.C. NEW PLYMOUTH, this day.

It was no ordinary working dog that was killed by a passing car on the main road near Pungarehu on the morning of March 10. Her name was Stretto, and she was a trial champion of renown. For these reasons, and because she could bear puppies with all the good qualities of a proved strain, her value was high. Special interest lay, therefore, in the owner's claim for £105 against the motorist heard in the Magistrate's Court at New Plymouth.

Holding that it had not been proved that the motorist was negligent, Mr. W. H. Woodward. S.M., dismissed the suit, whereupon counsel for the defence announced that as an "expression of sympathy for the loss of such a valuable dog," he did not ask for costs.

Stretto belonged to Richard Joseph Fleming, farmer, Pungarehu. She was described as "one of the most valuable sheep trial dogs in New Zealand," and was stated to possess the comparatively rare quality of being a "good nick," which meant that she could hand on the qualities of a famous foundation strain of headers and pullers. Stretto was nine years old. The Court was told that five of her offspring had been already trained with highly successful results as trial winners. One, aged four, won the Taranaki championship this year., thus greatly enhancing the value of its mother. She had five or six years of breeding before her, and it had been her owner's intention to exploit her potentialities by retiring her to the stud. She could have had three litters a year, and the owner had been inundated with orders for six weeks old pups at £10 10/ each.