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Farmers again to evaluate livestock damage Veterinarians weren't jumping for the job We could see it coming. In rural areas, when dogs or wild predators kill domestic livestock, the farmer is entitled to compensation. The Province pays for wild animal damage and the municipality picks up the tab for losses caused by the neighbour's dog. For years the person who decided whether the culprit was of the wild variety or the neighbour's pet, was a livestock evaluator, usually a local farmer who had seen it all, and whose knowledge of livestock valuations was extensive. City Council, in their wisdom, decided that the person to make the judgement call should be a veterinarian. Obviously at $50 a pop we weren't going to get a lot of veterinarians taking time away from busy practices to visit critter crime scenes at the lower end of the back forty. So a committee has quietly recommended to Council that the position be opened up to allow applicants from the farming community. The future of predator damage evaluating is (wait for it...) the past. There was some silly talk (no names mentioned here) about expanding the length of the training program for the evaluators, or doing the training "in-house" (just what we need: a city department to train livestock damage evaluators). But in the end, common sense prevailed. Incidentally, last year, critters on the provincial payroll did about $38 thousand of damage. Rex, Fido and Spot chilled about $4 thousand worth of barnyard animals..‡ Reprinted from The Red Rock Eye Opener |