Stray-Dog Menace

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 156, 17 June 1936, Page 8

Stray-Dog Menace

(To the Editor.l Sir. I am very pleased indeed to see that the Hawke’s Bay County Council are taking up the question of stray dogs, but unfortunately the trouble does not stop with the strays. The .Maori Pas are not by any means the only homes of mongrels and dogs not under control that worry sheep. .Mani people who should know better keep these brutes and do not even go to the trouble of shutting them up nt night Only last Saturday morning at 2 o’clock 1 followed two of these dogs to their, home, d'here a third joined them, also running loose. One was a stray, the other two belonging to the house and all were well fed and carad

for. Needless to say the two I followed are now beyond more mischief. Foi the last eight nights 1 have been out nearly the whole time, on three occasions till alter 7 o’clock in the morning. It is now more than 2o years since I had to begin this war on dogs, and it starts nearly every year in June or July. There is also the dog working alone which takes live newly-born lambs To my knowledge there have been three in this locality, oue being still at large. The pack working here just now consisted ol live dogs, out I have got three of them up to the present. Two of these were registered and all were wellfed animals. Poison is practically useless us they are not looking for food and no dead sheep is touched by any of them. So lar the visible damage done to my stud sheep amounts to Weil over £lOO and the harm to the ewes m iamb cannot be estimated. In most cases a bitch is included in these packs and is generally the hardest to get, but once sue is put nut of the way things improve a lot. I think the tax on all bitches should ue made much higher than on dogs, then only those worth breeding from would be kept and mostly by owners who really understand how to take care of them. Perhaps the County Council would be prepared to consider tins point. Thanking you, sir, for taking up so much of your space, but when one has had to attend as many mauled sheep as I have in the past, feeling gets fairly strong and something really should be done to help put a stop to this menace. —Yours etc. ALLEN H. SMITH. Poukawa, June 15, 1936.