1 thought on “Hounding the Headlines: Cricketgate”

  1. John Mc Cormick

    I came across this story on US News channels. My Name is John McCormick. I am a New Zealand sheep and cattle farmer who for all the years I have worked on farms I have a team of working dogs. It is nonsense to compare the story of the dog Cricket to a woman. let me explain. the writer of the item Here clearly has no experience or knowledge of how to handle working dogs. When I left school in 1969 to work on Dad’s farm I had a 2 dog team 3 years Later my team was 4 dogs. The biggest mob of sheep I had to muster and bring into the yards for shearing or drafting was 2500. The biggest mob of cattle I moved was 500 on a high country station was in the south Island . I did those jobs on my own. So I think that shows I know how to train and work dogs.
    Everything I have heard Kristi Noam say on radio in New Zealand and US TV news showed her to be a person who knows how to train and work Dogs. She was the second owner of the dog. It was given to her because the first owner could not handle the dog. So Kristi had a problem dog from the start. She did her best, but the dog would not learn . When a dog attacks and animal be that a chicken, sheep, goat, chicken or a tame pig and won’t stop when commanded then that is called worrying. Most rural states in the USA and New Zealand have laws that allow owners of the molested animals to protect them by shooting the attacking dog on site. The obligation is also on the dog owner to take action to protect animals from attack.
    I have had one experience of this. I was given a dog by friends living in my home town. The dog was a lean black crossbread who could run like the wind. The townspeople’s property was too small for the dog. He was an intelligent dog watching what was going on around him. I took him with me when working with my dogs but he did not want to learn. He would chase sheep trying to catch them which is not on. One day he got off his chain at lunch time. I found him missing after lunch and went looking for him. 2 hours later I found him up the farm in a paddock of sheep. The mob was in a corner as far away from the dog as they could get. I found the dog eating a live sheep’s back left leg. He had chased the sheep until it collapsed in exhaustion then started eating it. I caught the dog took it back to the kennels, tied it up and went and got my rifle and shoot it dead. That is what I had to do.
    So Kristin was right to do what she had to do. She Is an experienced owner and trainer of dogs. Your writer should reconsider her position. I am happy to respond to any comments about what I have written. I am a retired farmer now in my 70’s .

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