Dogs and Sheep-worrying

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 50, 22 November 1932, Page 11

Dogs and Sheep-worrying

Sir, —I am impelled to write this letter by the report published in “The Dominion” the other day that a dog had been caught which was believed to have been responsible for the killing of 500 sheep. To the ordinary reader that is just glanced at as an ordinary news item, but the question of sheep-worrying is a very serious matter. Farmers, and particularly sheep-farmers, have, enough trouble on their hands without having their sheep killed and mangled by some useless cur. harboured but underfed, by some irresponsible person. Sheep rearing is one o.f our most vital industries, quite apart from the horrible cruelty incurred through these worriers. Years ago I had a small sheep farm near the town. I was much troubled by dogs, especially when ewes were heavily in lamb, or lambing, when, of course, they are an easier prey to the brutes. A favourite method is for the dogs to hunt the sheep until they jam them into a corner, and there they wfll tear pieces out of the sheeps’ legs or rip their throats open. I have even seen a ewe disembowelled with her lamb at her side. I only wish some “tail-wagger” friend had been there to catch that sheep and put her out of her misery instead of myself. I saw someone blaming bad sheep dogs for the trouble. Well, that was not my experience. Without exception any dogs that I shot were town mongrels. of the worst packs I discovered was a Fox Terrier, a Spaniel, and a Greyhound. I remember calling on a friend once who lived two miles from my paddock. While talking, I noticed that her dog looked as if he had had a night out. So I asked her if she chained him up at night, and told her I had just buried seven sheep which had been torn about by dogs, some dead, some so mutilated that I had to kill them. “Oh!” she said, “darling Ponto” wouldn t hurt a fly, and never goes beyond the gate.” Well, a day or so after that, I got two shins of beef, lined them with strychnine, and wired and staked them down a quarter of a mile from the road fence. Next morning I went along, and at the first-bait was darling Ponto, sitting back on his tail, a very dead dog. Which goes to show < This is not a pleasant letter to write, sir, but I claim it is a matter of more importance than many of the subjects I see discussed in your columns, and I wonder someone has not taken the matter up seriously before now. I_ am not a dog-hater; I can admire their wonderful sagacity at dog trials, their marvellous scent. I recognise that a farmer on hilly country is absolutely dependant on ins dogs. Also drovers, but I have no time for useless town dogs. I have been driving a motor-car for seventeen years, and the nearest approach to an accident I have experienced was in swerving to avoid running over a dog, and I am sure that is the experience of others. The remedy is simple: Increase the tax on any dog not kept for use, and destroy all unregistered dogs.—l am,- etc., dad Wanganui, November 17.