Editorial: $1m dog pound? Because they're worth it ...

Mark Dawson, editor of Wanganui Chronicle

Happy new year. If you are Chinese, that is.

In time-honoured fashion, the Chinese are celebrating new year a little after the rest of New Zealand - or several months earlier depending on your perspective.

For the Chinese community, this is the year of the dog - and that is certainly true here in Whanganui.

A new $1 million pound set to be built out by the airport was approved by the district council last week, proving that every dog has its day - or, in this case, its year.

Many people have queried how a pound for stray pooches could cost so much. Does each inmate get a fur-lined basket, the finest cuts of meat, and will each cage have air-conditioning and a spa?

As our front page story today shows, the costs are realistic rather than exorbitant. It is the cost of bad dog owners, so don't blame the canines for falling into the wrong hands.

And when the rates bill increases a little more to cover the cost of this facility, remember the money is going to man's best friend ... and man's best friend is really quite remarkable.

Here are some paw prints on the positive side of the ledger:

Research from the University of Bristol showed dogs can be life-savers, sensing the low blood sugar levels in diabetes sufferers before they reach danger point. They have also been trained to sniff out both bowel and lung cancer, and in America are being trained to detect ovarian cancer.

The more than 220 million olfactory receptors in their noses (more than 40 times the smell capabilities of humans) has, of course, seen them playing important roles in sniffing out drugs and bomb detection.

On the home front, dogs are helping their disabled owners get dressed or undressed, open and shut doors, and have even loaded and unloaded the washing machine.

A golden labrador made the news last year putting its disabled owner's bank card into the cash machine and taking the money out.

And a dog can win Britain's Got Talent!

Editor's Declaration of Interest: I have a dog.