KILLER-DOGS.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18849, 20 January 1933, Page 2

KILLER-DOGS.

SHEEP MARAUDERS

CUNNINGLY EVADE DETECTION. I SOME CURIOUS FACTS. The several cases which have recently been reported from widely separated districts in England of dogs which have suddenly turned from a peaceful and innocent life to become mad and wholesale killers of sheep have led lo a good deal of theorising on how and why tills should happen (writes Boyd Gable). There are some who assert that the killing mania is first developed in a dog by its lasting of blood by chance and from this tasting turning lo the deliberate slaughter of the sheep which make its easiest prey. But we have evidence in one of the recent cases of these killer-dogs which goes against this theory, and . we find further proof against it in Australia. Caught at Dawn. Three dogs were caught at dawn the other day in the act of chasing the sheep, driving them helterskelter, but instantly leaving one to lie where it fell and dash on after the others, without any pause or any attempt to slop and oat the victims. In Australia, too, where the dingo, or wild dog, is. the most murderous of killers, sometimes slaughtering scores of sheep in a single night, the black trackers can read the signs left by sheep and dog as plainly as if they were in print; and the trackers have found that the dingo kills right and left, often at full gallop, and races on, almost without checking its stride. While it is at the killing the dingo stops for nothing else. And, unlike the home dogs, which often worry and bite the sheep without actually killing them, so they have to be _ destroyed when found, the dingo is a skilled and scientific slaughterer who seldom fails to kill with his single throat-slashing snap and wrench. There is evidence that both with the dogs caught at it in England and the dingoes it is life sheer lust of slaughter that drives the killer, and neither hunger nor a thirst for blood. fine thing is only 100 certain, that Ihe dog which turns killer develops as a rule at the same lime an amazing degree of cunning in evading delection or capture and even in averting’ the slightest suspicion of ils guilt. Almost invariably these dogs work at night, sneaking out from their homes, slipping quietly and secretly to the (lucks, killing swiftly and silently, and then returning before dawn to their apparently innocent lives.

All Treated as Suspect. More dogs turn killer than might be supposed, but it is usually in the wild and out-of-the-way hill country of Scotland and Wales, and such affairs find little publicity in the press, unlike these recent cases near populous centres. In such districts It Is, of course, easier for the possible killers to be suspected and steps taken to prove their guilt. It Is when the dogs live in or near towns, where any one of dozens might bo the killer and where their masters have little knowledge of dogs, except as innocent, tame pets, that the culprit Is the most difficult to catch out. In sheep country, either here or in the Dominions, the moment the tale goes round of a killer at work every shepherd treats all his dogs as suspect, and, no matter how innocent they may appear, lie will examine them morning after morning for the most minute signs of blood or for tiny scraps of sheep's wool on their muzzles. The cunning that comes with the killing mania may defeat detection for a time, but seldom beats the skill and cleverness with which the shepherd matches The most curious fact is that firstclass sheepdogs of the best and purest strain, with a clean and honourable heredity of generations behind them, and with the years of training and discipline which make the care and guarding from harm or the master’s nocks a first principle in their lives, will l'or some unknown reason suddenly turn killers. And such dogs, while their career of crime continues undetected, will keep in the daytime to their regular and wonderful sheepdog duties without showing one sign of their depravity. They will work the sheep under the shepherd's eye (or anybody else’s) ; they will even go far out and away beyond sight, in obedience to an order to find and bring In the flock, without a single attempt to inflict the slightest bite ol to rough-handle their charges. But at night they will slip out—-travel perhaps for many miles to distant flocks either of their own or another master’s —to satisfy their unaccountable lust for slaughter.

Can Never Be Cured. Klost sheep men will tell you that a 'dog turned killer can never be mired that there is nothing left for it but’ to destroy him, no matter how trained, how valuable, and how pure bred. So linn is Ibis belief that 1 have heard it quoted in sheep enunIry of I lie Dominions as the last word in scoundrelly meanness Hint a man wis so low-down Unit “he’d sell a killer-dog.” This simply means that it i S regarded as a more impossible sin than “stealing pennies from a blind ivian's tray" lo give a killer any chance of living and passing on his criminality. And in sheep country the value of any descendants of such a dog—even though lie had turned killer long after the offspring had been born anil grown up and proved excellent and unexceptional in their work —would immediately drop from pounds lo pence. . 1 have heard of a remedy which is said to have been proved in Scotland. This cure consists of tying the killer securely down in a runway of hurdles and ihen hustling a mob of sheep over ills helpless carcase, an ordeal from which the dog is said lo emerge bruised and battered, cut and bleeding, but cowed and for ever cured. The logical reasoning for (lie cure seems sound enough. The dog lias always regarded the sheep as a helpless and defenceless quarry lor bis bunting. Then the painful discovery how capable Hie sheep are of in 11 ic liu g pain, punishment, and liiunilia|ion Hie lasi being by no means 11,,. b-.ist suffering which can be inllic'ed -in any decent dog’, logelher wild his fear Dial tlm sheep may I ill’ll and repeal I heir mass “ullack." turns Hi,- hog for ever from bis killing. But sound and -ill a- such logic may be. I pave never met a sheep man who bad ever proved, or even tried, such i, ,-iu-c. Ml the slu-phi-nls I luxe known have stuck lo Ho- simple rule of '-once a kiH-T. alwi.'s a kib-’i'. ami tin- oilier simple rule Hut -i killer is only safely cured when ho is dead.