PM rules out gap for tags in farm dogs

Farmers are growling about it, but the Government won't give them an exemption from rules that dogs first registered from July must be microchipped.
The Cabinet considered a request on Monday from Agriculture Minister Jim Anderston to take a new look at the microchipping rules, but Prime Minister Helen Clark later said there would be "one law for all dogs".
"It's very hard to make exemptions for some (farmers)," she said.
Under the Dog Control Act, all dogs will need a microchip implanted under their skin to enable instant identification after a dog attack.
Federated Farmers estimates the move could cost up to $110 for each dog or a total of $7 million annually.
It has been likened to the infamous "dog tax" which triggered armed confrontation between European authorities and Hau Hau sympathisers in the Hokianga in 1898.
A top Northland dog trialist, Murray Child, said yesterday that microchips were not foolproof. Farm dogs constantly bumped gates and rails, and damaged microchips had been detected in dogs heading for the World Sheep Dog Trials in Ireland last year.
Mr Child, who has nine dogs on his Maungakaramea farm, said microchipping would be a costly waste of time.
"There's already a good system of dog identification through registration, but it will only work properly if it is policed properly," he said.
There are believed to be 700,000 dogs in New Zealand, but only 500,000 are registered.
Mr Child said farmers used to get hydatids pills for their dogs in the past, but now they got nothing for their registration fees - not even policing to make sure dogs were registered.
Northland Federated Farmers head Bill Guest wanted present dog registration fees to cover the cost of microchipping, with special training for staff in district council offices so they could implant microchips in pups presented for registration.
"This Government has made it plain it wants better dog identification. The system it introduces should be effective and affordable and not create a feeding frenzy among vets," he said.
Veterinary Association chief executive Murray Gibb said microchipping was a blunt tool to address a big social problem with "poorly socialised and poorly managed dogs".
Kennel Club president Lesly Chalmers, of Christchurch, said microchips would not prevent attacks or even enable a dog to be identified during an attack.
People who owned vicious dogs usually didn't care about registration or breaking the law, she said.
New Zealand Federated Farmers president Charlie Pedersen said farm dogs did not bite members of the public because they stayed on farms. Microchipping to identify vicious dogs was required only for urban animals.
A Taranaki farming leader has suggested farmers could take their dogs to Parliament to protest and South Canterbury farmers have urged Federated Farmers to mount a civil disobedience campaign.
? Dog tax fired armed protest in Hokianga
Controversy over dog microchipping has been compared to to the "dog tax war" after the Hokianga County Council imposed a tax of half a crown (25c) on each dog in the 1890s.
Many people, particularly around Waima, refused to pay and 13 of them were arrested during the "war" in 1898.
The Pai Marire or Hau Hau movement was involved. It developed in the 1860s and spread throughout the North Island seeking the total eviction of all Europeans from New Zealand.
Maori around Waima, mainly Mahurehure people, had been accumulating firearms and ammunition, mostly sold to them by European settlers and merchants.
At the centre of Maori discontent was the increasing marginalisation of the Maori people and the wholesale loss of their land.
On April 28, 1898, the sole police officer in the Hokianga, Constable McGilp, went to Waima where he found armed men led by Hone Toia refusing to pay the dog tax. They announced their intention to march on Rawene, the Hokianga administrative centre, to continue their dispute with the county council.
The constable telephoned Rawene and advised the evacuation of women and children. Further threats led to total evacuation and an appeal to the government for military assistance.
A police inspector and five constables arrived by boat from Auckland and set up a cannon on the wharf. The well-armed war party duly appeared, and the outnumbered police sensibly fled, leaving their cannon behind.
Rawene was deserted apart from a few neutral Maori and two Pakeha - the Rev William Gittos, who soon left, and local publican Bob Cochrane, who illegally opened his bar on a Sunday, served the warriors with beer and persuaded them to return to Waima the same night.
Four days later the authorities had assembled an army of 120 men, soldiers, constables and sailors together with a machine gun and were prepared to battle the warriors.
The rebel Maori had prepared an ambush at the crest of the hill between Waima and Rawene, but the soldiers were allowed to carry on and set up camp at Waima School, with Toia and his men camped some distance away.
The situation was defused by the timely arrival of Northern Maori MP Hone Heke Ngapua, grand-nephew of the original Hone Heke, who persuaded the Maori they had nothing to gain from the insurrection.
On May 6 the Mahurehure men agreed to submit to the troops who arrested only five leaders, allowing the rest to disperse.
Another eight men were arrested and some arms were confiscated.
The arrested men were subsequently fined and heavy costs imposed, but these were later remitted. However, they were apparently required to pay the dog tax.
Caption details: Mahurehure leaders under police guard after surrendering at Waima on May 6, 1898, are, from left, Romana te Paehangi, Hone Mete, Hone Toia, Wiremu Makara and Rekini Pehi. Picture/New Zealand Electronic Technical Centre