By ANN THOMPSON, Federated Farmers Golden Bay
Recently, Pax Leetch spoke at Tasman District Council’s hearing on the draft dog control policy and bylaw.
Pax is Golden Bay’s Federated Farmers’ chairperson for Meat and Wool and was giving the farmer voice to the federation’s submission.
It’s this hands-on experience that adds weight to all their submissions.
Pax and his wife Ellie have eight working dogs. They, like all rural farm dog owners, know that all their dogs must be registered with the council and $45 paid for each, per year. That’s $360 for them.
The council, in its draft policy, stated that it uses this money to manage the regulations around where dogs can be taken and enforce the rules on dog and owner behaviour.
At the hearing, Pax backed up our submission by emphasising that farm dogs rarely, if ever, require any of these services. They work on the farm, are exercised on the farm and go to town mainly on the back of a ute, where they stay until back at their kennels. Therefore, he argued, farm dogs don’t cost the council anything and farmers are subsidising urban dog owners.
A fairer way, we suggest in the submission, would be for the council to establish a farm working dog category.
A working dog is already defined in the Dog Control Act 1996 (S2) as, amongst other purposes, those being kept solely or principally for the purposes of herding or driving stock.
Having established this category, we further suggest that the registration fee be decreased to 50 per cent of the set registration fee and a further reduction for dogs in excess of five.
This recognises that multiple dogs in rural areas, while they may bark, are unlikely to annoy neighbours and require the services of the dog control officer.
On a sheep farm, both types of working dogs are required: huntaways and heading dogs.
Most places have young dogs being trained, plus a surplus dog to ensure there is still a good working team in case of illness or injury.
This explains why the number of farm dogs registered is high and why Federated Farmers is requesting a more reasonable fee to register these vital members of the farming team.
Paying the full registration fee for all their dogs adds a cost to farmers that is unnecessary and not required, given they do not use any of the services council provides with this money.
Belonging to Federated Farmers makes you part of this team that adds value to farming businesses.
