S.P.C.A. Discusses Bobby Calf Transport

Northern Advocate, 23 July 1943, Page 2

S.P.C.A. Discusses Bobby Calf Transport

A considerable amount of business was transacted at the monthly meeting of the Whangarei S.P.C.A. committee on Wednesday evening, when the president (Mr F. A. Farmer) presided over Mesdarr.es Patterson, Henderson and Friclcer, Miss Abbott (secretary) and Messrs Woods, Patterson, McKenzie and Inkster,

The inspector's report was dealt with in detail and considerable discussion took place regarding a statement that bobby calves loaded on trucks at the Whangarei railway station on Wednesday afternoon had been placed in uncovered trucks. This was the result of a regulation which prohibited the placing of covers on trucks where calves had to be carried a distance less than 50 miles. It was resolved to have the matter of amending the regulations brought under the notice of the Railway Department, the opinion being expressed that duration of transport rather than distance covered should be the governing factor.

Inspector’s Report In the course of his monthly report, Mr. McKenzie detailed the cases with which he had dealt. Tnese ranged from releasing a noise which was held up oy its snoe Doing entangled in a wire fence, to the destruction of horses and cows wnich had suffered broken legs. In between these major calls the inspector had had to deal with a number ci cases in whicn cats and dogs had had u> be destroyed. In one instance a dog, struck by a car on Kamo Hill, had laid lor a night and a day unaDle to move, .apparently its back had been broken, as ns inna legs were paralysed and there were signs of internal injuries. But for a passer-bv reporting its plight, the untortunale animal's sufferings might have oeen prolonged. The dog was painlessly destroyed.

Another dog, which had its back broken by a car in Dent Street, was subsequently destroyed.

On receiving a message from the police that a cow had been injured by a truck on the Three Mile Bush Road, the inspect tor found the animal suite-ring iroin oroken legs, abrasions and internal injuries. This call came at 9 o’clock at night, and the animal was thus saved the agony n would have suffered if left till me next day. The inspector reported that he had gone to Waipu to inspect cattle which, it was reported, were being starved. He found acme actually dying of starvation. The owner undertook to sell some of the stock, which was accordingly done. "On June IS,” said the inspector, “I got a ring just before dark that a cow had fallen down in Russell- Road. I rang several auctioneers and drovers and got in touch with the drover responsible. He said there was nothing wrong with the cow, which had just laid down and refused to get up again. He therefore left her and said lie would pick her up the next day. I called on my way from the sale and found that the cow was jammed in the rocks and, having been unable to get up, had died.”

On July 8 the inspector went to Kamo Springs to see a cow which it was reported had been hit by an army truck. "When I arrived oil the scene,” said Mr. McKenzie, •’rain was falling heavily and the cow was more than half submerged in water as she was lying in the roadside ditch. She was totally incapacitated and I had to destroy her.”