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WOLVES IN NEW ZEALAND

Sir, —In zoology the wolf is canis; the domestic dog a variety canis familiaris. In nature all forms of life, both animal and vegetable, broken in from the wild, when relieved from restraint revert to the savage state. Fifty years of breeding is as nothing, and it is but a short step for these huge and ferocious brutes to form a most dangerous scourge in the back country. Even in their domestic state and supposedly under control, they are but little removed from wolves —and a particularly massive and fierce kind of wolves. It is sufficiently unpleasant to have them about the streets, where help is at hand, but once they get into the bush heaven help the settlers and their sheep, and even cattle. Their presence would take millions off the value of New Zealand. 1 have had some experience of ordinary wild dogs, and for cunning and destructiveness they have no rival in this country. However, if we want a terrible example we have only to look to Australia, where the wild dog has driven all sheep off the country west of the Darling und is invading the country on the eastern side. E. Earle Vaile.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19360422.2.182.2

Bibliographic details

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22400, 22 April 1936, Page 17

Word Count
202

WOLVES IN NEW ZEALAND New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22400, 22 April 1936, Page 17

WOLVES IN NEW ZEALAND New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22400, 22 April 1936, Page 17