Letters: Close the gate, in the doghouse

In today's letters to the editor, why people should leave gates as they find them and a warning to all new dog owners.

Shut the gate

When I arrived in New Zealand, now nearly 50 years ago, I was told of some rules.

One of those was, if you went somewhere, found a gate closed, you closed it behind you. If you found a gate open, you left it open. What has changed?

It is something courier firms in Whangarei apparently are not aware of. Or, if they are, nobody implements it.

Like today, a parcel was delivered, but upon checking this afternoon, I saw to my dismay that the gates were open. They were all closed before and with good reason.

So thank you to the careless courier concerned. I now have sheep running all over the place.

C Jenezon, Maunu

Treatment unfair

I recently arrived home to my 68-year-old elderly friend very distraught and in tears.

Her shitzu/maltese dog slipped out of the gate behind her and within five minutes she realised he must have followed her out. She quickly retrieved her dog, which was sitting outside her garden gate, and thought no more about it. A few minutes later a dog control officer showed up on her doorstep adamant that her dog was roaming. He gave her a warning about the roaming puppy and said that he would have to give her a fine for the dog not been registered. My friend later received a $300 fine, despite the fact that she had registered it immediately the following morning .

It has occurred to me that there may be many other owners out there that think they have up until six months to register. The dog control officer said he had a legal obligation to follow up all complaints received. Perhaps councils priorities should be given to real problems rather than just revenue collecting.

I hope this letter will make the public aware of council requirements to register their dogs at 3 months old.

Ultimately my friend, a pensioner, has acted in are responsible manner. She has had her dog neutered and micro-chipped.

She registered it immediately after receiving her warning from the dog control officer. Her dog being her sole companion is treated with the greatest of care.

I feel the way in which she was treated is unjust. How about a bit of compassion and how about giving more respect and care to our elderly. P Mason.Whangarei True debt levels10 out of 10 to the Advocate for publishing the previously not reported complete level of debt. Zero out of 10 for the council effectively saying "we will report on a debt level of our choosing, if you want to know the true level then check out page 134 of the annual report"

Ratepayers deserve better treatment than that. In the earlier report (Advocate, October 26), council advised that the debt levels were higher than planned and made reference to a debt level of $155 million ... but wait a minute ... through the Advocate we now know that there was additional borrowing (not reported in the previous article) of $18 million.

My request to council is very simple: when you report on debt then you should report on all debt not a selective figure that suits your purposes. - If it doesn't happen in future reports or annual plans then it is quite obvious to me who is actually running the council, certainly not the majority of elected councillors.

Bill Harris, Maunu