Thread: Review of the Animal Welfare Act regarding Tail Docking

This matter is rearing its ugly head again and those of us with gundogs breeds which are historically docked may wish to participate in this debate.


Important Notice!

Tail Banding

This week the Government begins a series of workshops on the review of the Animal Welfare Act with
an event in Auckland. We know that the Companion Animal Society of the Veterinary Association
sip rearing to mount a serious assault on tail docking with the intention of having it banned. They
are collecting grisly photographs and horror stories of botched dockings and there is little doubt that
they will assemble an argument that will look pretty convincing to those who are not educated about
the true situation.

Executive Council is formulating a communications strategy that will be publicised shortly.

Please be aware that this is a serious situation for docked breeds and those of you with them face
the real possibility that docking will be outlawed. We can win the day though, if we work together to
educate those who need to know about tail banding as a safe and painless procedure when carried
out by a competent person under the auspices of the Accredited Banders’ Scheme administered by
the Council of Docked Breeds in conjunction with the NZKC.

If you do nothing however, then nothing will happen to stop the anti-docking lobby from succeeding.

So what to do? The immediate priority is the Auckland workshop which is happening on Friday the
3rd. You should write letters to the editors of the Herald and any other newspaper in the region,
both as Clubs and as individuals. By Thursday and Friday we should aim to have the subject of
docking making the ‘letters’ columns and promoting the view that

•
Docking is a legitimate process to protect breeds prone to tail injury
•
Irrefutable evidence exists that it is totally painless when performed by banding within 72
hours of birth
•
Dogs suffer no inconvenience or discomfort for lack of a tail
•
The bad-news stories told by the critics of banding are based on blade dockings and are irrelevant
to the present discussion, which is about safe and painless banding performed by accredited and
audited NZKC members
•
We respect the views of the sincere individuals and organisations opposed to docking but would
respectfully point out that their concerns about the procedure cannot be applied to banding
within the first three days of life when properly performed as this procedure has been proven
worldwide.
•
Be concise, be polite, and be persistent. Write yourself, help your club secretary to write on behalf
of the club, then get all of your friends to write.


Watch this blog and the NZKC web site for further details as the workshops move south through the
country. They will be held in Hamilton, Masterton, wellington, Christchurch and Invercargill.

Owen Dance

NZKC President