SHEEP-WORRYING DOGS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 77, 23 December 1937, Page 4

SHEEP-WORRYING DOGS

Not only in Hawke's Bay but from other parts of the Dominion also we are pretty constantly hearing of serious losses sustained by farmers through sheep-worrying by stray dogs. In a country such as this, where there are so many urban communities, big and little, each with numerous doglovers. scattered about among farming areas, this is an evil for which it is very difficult to find a remedy. Tlie tendency to sheep-worrying is not peculiar to any partiular canine breed or type, though there are some, of course, that are open to graver suspicion than others. Indeed, even among farm dogs this primitive thirst for blood has been known to develop. But as a rule it may be said that it is among idle town dogs, kept as friends or pets, that the majority of culprits are to be found. Unfortunately, too. it very generally needs only oue to contract the habit for him to secnre many followers or imitators of all kinds, each. of course, growing bolder and extending its range with immunity from punishment. Indeed, most farmers will contend that there is no sure cure for the sheep-worrying dog except a lead pill or the lethal chamher. On the other hand, the only reliable preventive is to deprive* the dogj of the opportunity of indulging the instinct which he inherits from his far-back forbears, which had to gain their living as hunters of the helpless among the animal world.' It should thereiore not be too much to ask of town-dwellers anywbere in the proximity of sheep-farms to see that their dogs are securely precluded from roaming abont overnight, when, of course, the damage is almost invariably done. 1