DISTEMPTER CONTROL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20111, 4 December 1939, Page 11

DISTEMPTER CONTROL

USE OF VACCINE DOG TRIALS’ REQUEST NO GOVERNMENT ACTION Following a decision reached at the annual meeting in Gisborne, a deputation from the North Island Sheep Dog Trial Association, comprising Messrs. R. J. McDonald, 11. Slpnne, Leo Lopdell and W. Cuthbertson, waited upon the Minister of Agriculture recently with a request that vaccination of sheep dogs be undertaken by officers of the Livestock Division of the Department of Agriculture. A letter lias been received from the Minister bv’the secretary of the association, Mi-. Cuthbertson. Takapau, in which he states that it is regretted that the vaccination of dogs cannot be undertaken by the department.

“The reasons for tins." says the Minister, “are, firstly, because the disease in dogs does not come within the scope of the Stock Act. and consequently anything relating to it is properly the concern of the private veterinarian.”

“Secondly, the private veterinary practitioners took very strong objection to any suggestion that the vaccination of dogs should be done by departmental veterinarians, as it is held by the private men that suitable arrangements could be made by them to carry out vaccination of dogs in groups even in remote places, which could be visited for this purpose, provided a sufficient number of dogs are forthcoming in the area.”