STALLIONS REGISTRATION BILL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1224, 5 September 1911, Page 10

STALLIONS REGISTRATION BILL.

TIIE MBASUEE'SUJIMARISED. The suggested Stallions Registration Bill which is proposed as a means of dealing with hereditary unsoundness in liurses has be'tia summarised and commented oil as follows by Mr. C. ,T. Eeakes, Director of the Live - Stock Division of tho Agricultural Department.:—The Bill is not to apply to stallions over two years old at tho tiino it becomes .. lav.--Thus, wlien it is passed, only those stallions which, arc - one or. two years old nt tlw tiiiio would be subject to its operation,'ami, seeing that in practical work- , ing it is unnecessary to examino horses' for.hereditary unsoundness until they are three years old. time would be given to arrange the necessary machinery for carrying out tho provisions of tho Bill before tnu'se aaimflls reached the ago of three years. Provision is mado for the owner of 'Uny animal over three years old to fjubWt voluntarily to examination' if hewishes. - Thus, a year after l-hc Bill is passed, all three-year-old horses will have to submit to examination, the following year thesp horses will again come up for examination as four-year-olds, .together with tho three-year-olds of Hint year, and a year later three, four, and five-year-olds will have to bo examined, and so on. It is proposed that the license shall have to be renewed yearly up to six years, the horse being subjected to examination eacli lime; that a license granted at six years old shall remain current for two years, the liorso being again submitted for examination nt eight years of ago; then the certificate of License granted to eight-year-olds shall remain, current for'the rest of the animal's life, unless epecial circumstances should render it necessary to later call it up for examination. '/.-■■ ■ ■ • . Provision is made under which. animals imported from.Great Britain, Ans; tralia, or other countries may be examined before purchase by veterinarians especially appointed for tho purpose, whoso certificates will bo accepted here as being equivalent to the certificates of New Zealand Government veterinarians. All examinations in New Zealand are to be conducted by two.Government,veterinarians acting in concert. Provision is also made for a right of nppcal iu the event of an owner being dissatisfied with the decision of tlio examining veterinarians. . • , Tho schedule of diseases classed as being of an hereditary nature is -as un-der:—Bone-spavin. ring-bo.no, side-bone, navicular arthritis, laryngeal muscular atropy causing roaring or ivhistling during the act of respiration, string-halt, shivering, and any inferiority . in tlio structure or quality oi tho hoof which impairs or is likely to impair the anima\'s usefulness, and is, inthe examiners vuiuioa transmissible to the progeny.