Point missed

Before getting on to the main purpose of this letter, I would like to acknowledge the bravery of Ron Brewer in selflessly defending his dog from a lifethreatening attack.

After reading that lead article today in the Northern Advocate (September 19) I was struck by two other issues in particular. The first is that the spokesmen for both the WDC and the FNDC seemed to miss the point regarding rising dog attacks.

The health and bylaws manager, after a waffle about statistics, regretfully and philosophically predicted that “as . . . dogs increase, so will dog attacks . . . ” while the compliance manager offered the opinion that “to effectively tackle the problem we need to ensure our . . . database is up to date”.

As important as it is to register dogs, so that there is some chance of identifying dogs and their owners, and of increasing council revenue, surely it is more important to keep people, with and without pets, safe. I think Darren Edwards deserves recognition for best use of bureaucratic euphemism when employing the term “nuisance dogs” to describe what are in some cases, killers.

“Nuisance dogs” are those that wander without control, defecating on neighbouring properties and/or chasing other pets, or those that bark, sometimes for hours on end, while their owners are either away or ignoring them.

Secondly, they minimise the level of stress and pressure on those affected by the apathy of negligent dog owners.

My sister lives in a small urban street where there is a high ratio of dogs to human residents. She is often driven to distraction by the five to six dogs in one small section across the road barking at every person, vehicle or other animal that comes into their view.

These dogs appear to never be taken for walks and are often barking well into the evening.

On one of her fairly frequent but never satisfactorily resolved calls to the noise control

employees, she was told proudly by someone on the phone, “Whangarei DC has just voted to have no limits on the number of dogs allowed by any one owner”, or words to that effect.

If this is the case, let’s have some real control by councils and some consideration for the mental and physical wellbeing of ratepayers and residents in general.

MARYELLEN CHANDLER

Parahaki

Sharon Rider, for a female student undertaking a trade upon leaving school.

The movie, The Divine Order, documented a campaign by the women of a small Swiss village for women’s right to vote ahead of a crucial 1971 ballot in that country — when New Zealand women already had the vote for 78 years, being the first country in the world to give women the right to vote.

As we celebrate 125 years of suffrage, we are proud to be part of an international organisation that encourages, enables and empowers women and girls to reach their full potential.

BPW Kaitaia meets on the third Tuesday evening of each month, for dinner and a speaker, at the Orana Motor Inn, Commerce St, at 5.15pm, and welcomes guests and

prospective members. Please contact Pam Dawson for further details Phone (09) 408-0556

RAEWYN PENNELL Business & Professional

Women Kaitaia