TREATMENT OF SHEEP-DOGS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 41, 4 March 1937, Page 4

TREATMENT OF SHEEP-DOGS

-Fresa Aasociation.)

• >. "Blot on Farmers," Says The S.P.C.A. G00D FEEDING ESSENTIAL ,

(By Telegraph-

WELL3NGTQN, Last Night. _ Farmers say that if they gave their dogs a lot of food they would not work," said the ehairman of the Wellington S.P.C.A., in disciissing the general treatment of sheep dogs. Mr B» F. Bridge. "I do not believe it. But I ^ do believe that if the dogs were treated r kindly, and well fed, owners would get far more work out of them than by starving or ill-treating them. Thif matter is a blot on the farming community," The suggestion that sheep dogs will not do their best work if they are treated too kindly or fed too well wa# scouted by the committee as a faljacy. Mrs G. J. Smith said that she had been brought up in the Highlands and could testify to the good treatment of , dogs there. "If our New Zealand , r- * dogs work hard, how much harder do you think the dogs in the Highland# have to work?" she asked. ''There is scarcely any comparison. And yet those dogs in the Highlands get their regular ration of porridge. They do not get much meat, but, like their owners, they do get plenty of porridge. . . , They are beantifnl dogs, too, and I have seen them arrive out here in as fine Y fettle as when they left their homeland, But after a few weeks on a New y Zealand sheep rnn they began to look like boot-laces." The ehairman: Oue wonld think that self finterest would dictate a saner ^ poHcy.