DEAR Editor,-
Your report on pets being caught in snares (South Coast Herald, November 8) clearly showed how brutal the method of snaring animals is.
For that reason, I patrol areas close to home and have removed many snares, however, snares are set for game and not pets, and the question arises, what was the dog doing in an area where game should be? Such dogs are usually dogs that hunt precious game.
If no guarantee can be given by the owner, (if such a person can be found), that a dog freed alive from a snare will never hunt again, then they should rather be euthanised and not be given to a new person by the SPCA. Any dog that had the opportunity to hunt will carry on doing it.
Unfortunately we have far too many dogs, regardless of size, that are not confined to a property and will consequently hunt whatever they can get hold of, be it the chicks of francolins, guinea fowl and young fledglings, which are around this time of the year, or any buck from blue duiker to female bushbuck.
Your newspaper has covered many stories about the problem of game being hunted, cornered and killed by dogs. The killing of guinea fowl chicks by, especially by Jack Russells, I have witnessed myself.
NORBERT GINTNER
