Taxing Sheepdogs

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 187, 7 May 1934, Page 11

Taxing Sheepdogs

Sir, —I would be grateful for a little of your valuable space to say a few words re the practice of registering working dogs. Your correspondent “Farmer” maintains that nearly every breed of dog will worry sheep if given the opportunity (with which I agree), and points out that a registered dog can be identified; Now, Sir, no experienced shepherd leaves his dog's collars on while working, for obvious reasons, so any dog found worrying could not be identified. A blacksmith or carpenter’s apprenticeship and tools certainly cost as much as a shepherd’s dogs and saddles, but the comparison is fatuous. A working dog's life is a short, hard one, and six or seven years is his allotted span of usefulness. A pup may prove a useless dog (as three out of four do), and this is only found out after much training and time wasted. To keep any certain strain is an expensive business as there is no demand for pups. The initial outlay of a Shephard may be a mere £6O or £7O, but the upkeep of a team of dogs is a continuous drain on, the musterer’s financial resources. A month ago that “Mysterious Terror,” distemper, accounted for many valuable dogs; some lost their whole pack and had to start afresh, and as the. busy season was on had to pay high prices for brokenin dogs. On top of this additional expense comes the d.og tax. How' on earth the shepherd can pay his wa_v under such handicaps is not clearly” seen. Perhaps “Farmer” can pierce the veil. I see no reason at all why the' various councils should add to the burdens of a shepherd by taxing his dogs. Furthermore, the collars supplied by most councils are no better than brown paper. In conclusion, I would like to point out to “Farmer” that shepherds may “bud” but will certainly not “blossom” into a runholder on the wages they receive nowadays.—l am, etc., MAC. Martinborough, May 4.

Sir,—ln reply, to '‘Sheep Farmer” re taxing sheep dogs. He says, if sheep dogs are registered they can be identified if found worrying: they can if they have a collar on. Now, I would like to ask “Sheep Farmer” how many experienced shepherds take their dogs out mustering with their collars on, or even let them go for a run when not working? Probably his embryo shepherd out of the cowbail would, and maybe “Sheep Farmerr” did way back in the ’seventies. Would he like to run all day with a collar and tie on? When he compared the initial costs of starting shepherding with carpentry and blacksmithing he did not compare the wages after apprenticeship, and I would like to ask him about how long a dog lasts compared with a saw, plane or anvil, and are those tools subject to that fell disease, distemper, which more often than not wipes out a full team of dogs. I suppose he will say that it would be ex-., travagance to buy three dogs to carry on with. Maybe he would like the shepherd to run anil bark himself until the pups, if he should get any without paying for (hem, were old enough to start work. _ As for the little the tax collectors and county councils make out of the tax, the little in just a few years would help the poorly paid shepherd to bud. even if he never blooms, into a runholder.—-I am, CtC ” GULLYRAKER. Martinborough, May 4.'