Wonderful, wonderful news

THERE has been a major change in the New Zealand court system. A change for the better and one launched by the chief District Court judge.

A man who tied a rope around the neck of his German Shepherd dog and pulled it behind his truck at 80kph was in mid-March banned from owning any kind of pet for seven years and jailed for nine months! Luckily there were many witnesses and the truck was stopped before the dog was too badly hurt - after a time of care and repair by the SPCA he now has a new home with a loving and appreciative family.

This must be such a relief for the SPCA that for too many years has seen its precious donations paying for court cases where the outcome is a $200 fine that the convicted person does not even bother to pay.

And it will also be a relief for most right-thinking people, pet owners or not. It has long been an established fact that a person who is cruel to an animal is just as capable of killing or torturing a human. Anyone given a really hard sentence at the first sign of such a psychological defect is much less likely to offend a second time, so everyone benefits.

This first adequate sentence handed out by the NZ court system for animal cruelty is a landmark one and hopefully will be an indication to other judges to follow suit and a warning to any such pathetically inadequate pet owners that the New Zealand court system is not about to forget their criminal acts or let them off with a warning.

Owning a pet is a privilege, not a right, and those who are too uncaring or too stupid to treat their pet with love and dignity should not have a pet at all. They would be happier with a stuffed toy - perhaps the only type of pet they are capable of looking after!