Regulation a cost burden

STAYING NEUTRAL: Cattle dog authority, Paul Wroe.

Daniel Burdon

AS the man who paid a record $5700 at auction for a cattle dog, Paul Wroe knows how vital they are to Central Queensland graziers.

The Middlemount-based president of the Queensland Working Cattle Dog Trial Association said the new regulations could cost cattle properties a small fortune if they complied.

“There are a lot of operations that have 10 dogs or more, and if they are all registered that’s a lot of money,” he told The Morning Bulletin yesterday.

Asked what the association was advising working dog owners to do about registration, he said it was officially neutral.

“We are not rebellious people and don’t encourage people to break the law,” he said.

“But this is a real puzzle for all of us. Different shires in the State are handling the issue differently, so it’s difficult to be specific.

“All I can say for certain is that our livelihoods depend on dogs and there was never a requirement to register them before.

“I don’t think owners were ever properly consulted.”

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Register your working dog, or not