MP leads dog law protest

Wairarapa MP John Hayes, has rallied the troops and will be leading a united delegation at Parliament today to fight the new microchipping law for dogs.
The delegation includes five mayors as well as Roger Barton from Greytown, representing farmers, and Masterton district councillor Rod McKenzie, who sparked the hue and cry against rural dogs being microchipped.
Mr McKenzie called the law, stupid and a pack of nonsense. The Masterton council has followed his lead and has passed a resolution taking a "low priority" stand on enforcing the new law.
Mr Hayes spent yesterday assessing where the political parties stood on the issue, and arranged for the Wairarapa delegation to meet Associate Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta, who oversees dog control, as well as United Future's Gordon Copeland and Maori Party's Pita Sharples.
Mr Hayes said he was excited about today's protest.
The mayors taking part in the talks at parliament are Tim Gilbertson from Central Hawkes Bay, Maureen Reynolds, Tararua district, Gary McPhee, Carterton district, Adrienne Staples, South Wairarapa district and Bob Francis from Masterton district.
"It's great to see the Wairarapa protesting as a combined force," Mr Hayes said.
"Microchipping will not stop dogs biting people and it's just another example of a wasteful bureaucratic process imposed on councils."
He said the costs of paying for the creation of another dog database were huge.
He was told of a rottweiler weighing 70kg microchipped seven years ago.
"The chip could not be found by a vet and the owner was advised that chipped dogs needed to be checked by a vet each year. There's another cost not clarified to dog owners"
"This is an inferior and expensive government policy," Mr Hayes said.
He said this type of law is what causes rate rises.
"The culprit imposing rate and tax increases is the Labour government. It alone is transferring the burden of endless new regulations via councils."
Ms Mahuta stands firmly behind the new law. She has repeatedly said the success of a nationwide system for electronic identification relied on as many dogs as possible having a tiny microchip inserted under their skin.
Yesterday she stood by that claim saying an exemption regime would be difficult to manage.
"We've got to have a regime that's even handed across the board in terms of the way it treats dogs," she said.
"We need to really consider the changes as a whole suite to improve responsible dog ownership and to be able to protect public safety. No one measure by itself, we've got to have the whole regime working in unison."
Ms Mahuta said before seatbelts, helmets for cyclists and fences around swimming pools were made mandatory, some people had thought them "silly" ideas, but now they had proven their worth.