Dogs at yards

Press, 21 August 1979, Page 16

Dogs at yards

Sir, — Last Sunday while out walking my route took me over the Blenheim Road overbridge. Pausing to look out over the Addington Saleyards, I was surprised to hear dogs barking within the confines of the stockyards. From my vantage point at the top of the bridge I was able to see a row of kennels about 50 metres inside the northern gates. Surely these dogs are not penned up only to be taken out on sale days to help? Their bark was more a plea for human companionship, a friendly pat on the head or maybe a joyous frolic in Hagley Park. Please, someone, tell me that this confinement will not be their lot until they become too old to work and the inevitable end. — Yours, etC " K. E. JONES. August 14, 1979. [The secretary of the Canterbury Sale Yards Company, Ltd, Mr W. S. McCallum. replies: (1) The dogs are

not owned by the company but by some of its employees. (2) Each employee is responsible for his dogs. (3) Each employee feeds his dogs daily and all of them are allowed out for a run every day. (4) Normally the dogs are comparatively quiet but the sight of a dog on the Blenheim Road overhead bridge usually gives rise to much barking. (5) Your correspondent can rest assured that the dogs are highly valued by, and well looked after by their owners. They do not suffer the fate which he or she might imagine to be the case.”]