Dog curbs rile farmers

Farmers claim Waikato District Council's proposed bylaw regulating the number of dogs a person can own is barking up the wrong tree.

Under the revised dog control policy, on which the council is seeking public submissions, a permit will be required for people with more than two dogs on a property under 12ha and five dogs on a property over 12ha.

As well as charging farmers for extra permits, the council also plans to drop its prompt payment rebate and introduce a 25 per cent late payment penalty.

Beef and venison farmer Wendy Finlayson, who has several working dogs on her farm near Te Kauwhata, said the proposal was unjust for responsible dog owners.(...)

Waikato Federated Farmers president Peter Buckley said the proposal was impractical for many farmers.

"We have got big sheep stations with 12 or 13 dogs. It's going to cost them something like $800 to get a consent," he said.

Mr Buckley said legislation was already in place to deal with people who did not look after their dogs or had dangerous animals.(...)

Submissions close at 4pm on Thursday.

When a law is imposed because of a minority group, it's a bad law. Same example applies to the Anti-Smacking Law that NZ wants to adopt. You can't legislate bad people!