Two local veterinarians are vexed about the debate on amendments to the Dogs Act, claiming they were presented to the House of Assembly without proper consultation.

Hannover veterinarian A. M. Ware-Cieters wrote a letter to The Royal Gazette in which she said the opportunity to present careful legislation had been "botched''.

And she stated that "despite almost 20 years of service to the public, at no time were the veterinary surgeons of our Hospital contacted with respect to the drafting of this legislation''.

She said although she served on the Animal Control Committee, "it should be clarified that the committee did not address legislative changes with respect to dogs in any depth at all -- a fact which is abundantly clear when reading the resulting report''.

In her letter, Dr. Ware-Cieters listed 12 suggestions which her hospital would have put forward if they had been given "the courtesy of a brief telephone call''.

Her suggestions included fines of no less than $25,000 and mandatory prison terms for organised dog fights, micro-chipping for all locally bred pups and mandatory identification, including a tattoo, if no collar was worn.

And Andrew Madeiros, chair of the SPCA and vet at Ettrick Animal Hospital, has penned a letter to Environmental Minister Arthur Hodgson objecting to his name being used at the House as a consulted source -- since Dr. Madeiros had no input into the amendments.

When amendments to the Dogs Act were debated at the House, Mr. Hodgson said a wide variety of people had been consulted when the report was initially compiled in 1994.

And he said: "Having had that report, with that amount of consultation, was it then necessary for me to put it to the public?'' But Dr. Madeiros said he "took exception'' to the Minister's suggestion that he had been consulted -- because although he was once chairman of the now-defunct Animal Control Committee, the report was a general one which had very little to do with the Dogs Act.

"That report has been floating around for about six years now -- the other Government did nothing with it, either,'' he said.

"But the committee was formed to look at all the animal-related issues -- from chickens to turtles to horses.

"There was only one side of paper specifically about dogs, because the Dogs Act was quite powerful at the time -- but at this point, it's certainly a much bigger problem than it was six years ago,'' he added.

The new law, still to be passed by the Senate, makes it an offence to have a dog unleashed and the fines for offences are increased from $5,000 to $10,000 with the option of six months imprisonment for offenders.

And Dr. Madeiros added that he had "no problem'' with the amendments themselves -- but he was concerned about whether the new laws would be enforced.

"Introducing these rules sounds wonderful, but unless you've got the necessary manpower to back that up with the legal system, it's a waste of time,'' he said.

"Are the courts going to be able to deal with these new cases? If the dog is taken away and held in a facility, the dog is taking up that cage for (possibly) seven months (until the trial) -- and we're at the stage already where there's no space for these animals,'' he added.

"Being in a cage 24 hours a day isn't fair to the animal, and we've got to move these cases through quicker.

"I'm not opposed to the amendments... but it's kind of a band-aid for a bigger problem.'' When contacted, Mr. Hodgson said the legislation had been prepared with the report in mind -- but added that it was still a "work in progress'' and he was open to suggestions.

"I got a report where there appeared to be full consultation -- I studied the report, prepared the legislation and I don't know what more we could've done,'' he said.

He explained that the reason a $10,000 cap was suggested for Dogs Act fines was because disputes of more than that amount become Supreme Court matters -- which entails, among other things, a jury trial.

"We came into office in 1998, the report was done in 1995, we've spent the past 18 months discussing it, and this was the result,'' he said.

"But this is still a work in progress -- my phone is open and I think that's known.'' ANIMALS ALS