Problem: Black-legged ticks, which are carriers of Lyme disease, are entering the island of Newfoundland on dogs.
Proposed solution: Declare a state of emergency and ban dogs from leaving the island. This would instantly stop perhaps 90 per cent of all dog traffic coming to the island.
Dogs that show up at entry points to the province should need a letter from a veterinarian stating that they have recently been treated with a strong anti-tick drug such as Advance. If there is no such letter, the dog should be quarantined until it has been certified by a veterinarian or other qualified person to be tick-free, and treated with an anti-tick drug.
If a black-legged tick population shows up on the island, containment and eradication efforts should be implemented, even if there is only a small chance they will succeed.
The purpose of the following poll is to give Newfoundlanders a way to say how important they feel it is to stop the spread of the black-legged tick to Newfoundland, and to see if this is in sync with how the government is currently handling this threat.
Please email your responses to [email protected] and I will send to each individual respondent the results of the poll when the responses stop coming in. To protect your privacy I will respond individually to each person, and not via a mailing list.
• Has the Newfoundland government taken any measures at all to stop the spread of the black-legged tick to Newfoundland? Yes or No?
• Should strong measures be put in place to stop entry of black-legged ticks to Newfoundland on dogs? Yes or No?
John White,
Ottawa
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