SYDNEY’S ALSATIANS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXV, Issue 12256, 20 February 1937, Page 3

SYDNEY’S ALSATIANS

I’BOI’AGA NDA DISTU KBS OWN MBS Sydney, Jan. 30 Three hundred of Sydney’s Alsatians have met death in the lethal chamber or the Dogs’ Home at Waterloo. Many of them cost their owner; £2O as puppies. Apparently alarmed by reports of the breed’s ferocity, or unable to provide sufficiently for their care in cramped suburban yards, many owners turned former pets on the Greets. Tho R.S.P.C.A. patrol waggon and the lethal chainer was their inevitable fate. The secretary of (,he R.S.P.C.A. (Mr Lord) said to-day that a large number of the breed had been destroyed during the past 12 months. “The whole history of the dogs habeen a tragedy',’’ be said. “When they yvere first introduced in Sydney, anything that resembled an Alsatian brought £ls. They were bred in large numbers, and everybody rushed them. “People Disturbed" ■ “Then people became disturbed by the antLAkatian propaganda. They realised"also that it was impossible to exercise such a large and active dog in the confined spaces ot suburban home-. “The Alsatian was no longer wanted.” The real Alsatian was a beautiful and sagacious dog, Mr Lord continued, but there could be no doubt that it would be a menace. Property owners outback had a good reason to fear the breed. Crossed with Australia’s hunting dogs, ii could do immense damage to stock as the, progeny would inherit the high Alsatian intelligence. “The real tragedy is that the Alsatian should have been introduced at all in Australia. The Australian kelpies and cattle dogs are the finest of their kind in the world,” he continued, “and cannot be shown any points even by the Alsatign.”