What a dag - SPCA blows whistle on woolly tackle bags

They have helped hone the skills of our All Black greats, but the durable sheep is finally getting a reprieve from the role of tackle bag.

In the Wairarapa today, the final whistle will be reluctantly blown on the popular annual fixture of children versus sheep as the local branch of the SPCA objects to the practice.

Up to 100 children will be trying to tackle five costumed sheep to entertain the crowd at rugby's National Provincial Championship third division final at Masterton between Wairarapa Bush and Horowhenua-Kapiti.

"It just makes me feel sick to my stomach, to be honest. I thought we had grown up and got past this sort of thing," said Wairarapa SPCA branch manager Val Ball.

"It seems like an absolutely pathetic waste of time. For me the biggest thing is that kids get the message that it is okay to chase sheep and to be a bully. The sheep have no choice but to run.

"They are being put in an unnatural environment. Get the belly-girls out there with their bellies showing if that is going to give [supporters] a turn-on."

Tackling sheep has long been a tradition on New Zealand farms.

In an interview published in a test match programme in August, rugby star Richie McCaw admitted tackling sheep as part of his training when growing up on a North Otago farm.

"Yeah, I used to do that a little bit," McCaw said. "You'd try to catch them in the yards, bring them down, stuff like that."

Wairarapa Bush rugby union chief executive Phil Taylor said today's run-around with the sheep would probably be the last because of the SPCA stance.

But the union disagreed with Ms Ball's view. "We have been doing it for four or five years and it is a very light-hearted entertainment in a rural country that has one or two sheep around the place.

"It seems slightly over the top. We will deal with tomorrow and go from there."

Wairarapa Bush supporters' club chairman Charlie Meyer called the SPCA's view "bloody ridiculous".

"We live in a rural community and if the day comes where kids can't have a go at tackling a sheep, we have to have a serious look at ourselves," Mr Meyer said.

"No sheep has ever been injured. And there would be more risk of the kids being injured in the lolly scramble than chasing a sheep. It's political correctness gone mad."

Wairarapa farmer David McKenzie is supplying the sheep for today's event and he has no fears for them. "They are valuable animals and there's no way, if we thought it was risky, we would be putting them out there.

"There is no harm done to the sheep. They come back out and start eating again."

Mr Meyer said people had not heard the last of the issue.