Man The Major Obstacle

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31131, 6 August 1966, Page 10

Man The Major Obstacle

“Information should be gathered by probing the basic motivations of dog owners in their approach to the campaign. Council is aware that there is a lack of co-operation on the part of many dog owners. What is not known is why this is so. Is it because of ignorance, antagonism to some aspect of the campaign, or to a lack of conscious responsibility?” This is an excerpt from the annual report of the National Hydatids Council.

“Undoubtedly, the major obstacle to progress is man. It is frequently said that: *hydatids is a problem of people not of dogs.* Even at this stage of the campaign only a small proportion of dog-owners is wholly co-opera-tive and responsive to all essential precautions. About the same proportion is non-co-operative and largely unresponsive concerning methods of preventing infection, although aware that it is

an offence to feed dogs raw offal.

“Between these two small groups is the very large section of relatively co-operative dog owners, who agree that hydatids is a disease worth eradicating, who readily present their dogs for dosing and testing and actively engage in some preventive action, such as offal and killing facilities and carcase destruction, but still do not appreciate fully the extent to which control measures must be pushed to be effective. “Many dog-owners have yet to realise that even perfect control of raw offal on their own farms is useless without proper control of dogs to prevent access to offal on properties several miles away. “Such education is the main purpose of the campaign. Dosing and testing of dogs remains a means of finding where infection is occurring. Each infection indicates a failure in preventive methods applied by the dog-owner and a need to intensify such work. “Progress is slow but is constantly evident, and although council is confident that hydatids disease can and will be eventually eradicated, only a greater effort by all concerned will bring this about”