SHOOTING OF DOGS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19985, 18 December 1934, Page 14

SHOOTING OF DOGS

To the Editor of “ The Timaru Herald “ Sir—The following lines appropriate to the season may also serve as a hint to some of your readers —“While shepherds watched their flocks by night, all seated on the ground.” the modern man jumps out of bed and wildly shoots around according to a statement in the “Timaru Herald,” in connection with sheep worrying. A modern sheep-farmer broadcasts several hundreds or thousands of sheep over the landscape, and then trustfully goes to bed. and leaves his flock to take care of themselves. In the majority of cases, as the travelling public well know, the only protection that the unfortunate sheep receive is a few strands of slack wire, a sagging post or the clipped stumps of a gorse fence, about a foot high. In view of the above why should any law be passed in the interests of any class of person who neglects to safeguard his own property? Why should a dogowner be compelled by law to tie up his dog, on his own private property, in order that the sheepowner could have a peaceful and unbroken night’s rest? Why not tie the sheep up at night, or place them in a fold with a watcher beside them? Why should sheepfarmers whose fences are often practically nil, and whose sheep can often be seen grazing cn the public highway be allowed to shoot any dog? A dog may be lost in travelling or in a new town or home and may follow any other dog through any broken fence. In the interest of sheep and dog all fences and gates should be sheep and dog proof, and a law should be passed to that effect. No compensation, whatsoever, should be allowed to any sheepowner whose fences are not dog and sheep proof, and who does not employ a watcher for his flock. The public has suffered too long at the hands of the sheep-farmer both by gun and poison, and it is high time that a stop was put to his indiscriminate shooting, and that justice was dispensed more evenly between the sheepfarmer and the public. The sheepfarmer does not own the earth or other people’s property, and the Kennel Club, and the Society, for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, ought to see that his powers are kept within bounds inside a dog and sheep proof fence, by law —I am etc. CAVENDO TUTUS