Tax on Alsatian Dogs

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 252, 21 July 1934, Page 9

Tax on Alsatian Dogs

Sir, —At the last meeting of the Farmers’ Union, a resolution was carried that a £5 tax be put on Alsatian dogs. When one realises that there are people who are not capable of keeping these dogs under control, it is certainly time something of the sort was done, as these animals, when kept in towns on the chain, are apt to become over fit and cause trouble.. The person that can manage a terrier or the usual type of house pet is not always capable of keeping an Alsatign under control, and when these animals show a tendency of becoming savage, it is put down to “the wolf strain.” ' /

Let us take, for example, a young, unbroken thoroughbred; put this animal in a box, feed him well, teach it to lead, and take him for a walk once a week, in a matter of two months it starts to bite, then kick, and if any one is near its heels as it leaves the box, they are in danger; mudh of this treatment, and it is a savage, bad-tempered brute—perhaps it is another' animal with “wolf strain,” or is it just confinement, and want of work? The members of the Farmers’ Union would say “want of work,” and it is not more so than in the case of the Alsatian dog. The £5 tax would certainly put'an end, in the majority of cases, to the keeping of Alsatians simply for pets, but what of the man who uses these animals in his work? As an Alsatian owner I must say that they are splendid-heeling dogs; as a retrieving dog in water they are in a class with the brown retriever, and as a rabbit dog are second to none. Worked with a pack, they are exceptionally fast carriers, having a nice mouth, none of the skins are spoiled; frozen poisoned rabbits, which often the retriever objects to carrying, are quite in order with these dogs. To the rabbiter, with a winter’s work ahead, this sort of dog is of, value, wonders if he, being one of the many unable to pay such a tax, is to hand his dog over to a friend to shoot for him, and then spend two years training another which will never be as useful. If this is to be a yearly tax of £5 per dog. it will mean that the man who could work them, and put them to be of use in a country where rabbitskins are among the chief exports, will be unable to do so; they will still be kept by the moneyed few, who will have ,no use (or them, and we wijl still have an animal with a'■bad reputation. If it is a tax covering the period the owner has the dog in possession, it would give the person to whom the dog is of value, also the breeder, a reasonable opportunity of keeping a good animal. The Farmers’ Union members would also have the satisfaction of doing away with the worriers, and giving the capable owner a sporting chance.—l am, etc., ALSACE. Naseby, July 17.