Beef and sheep producers up around the Black Mountain, Gelantipy and Buchan regions are warning of a disastrous situation, where they say wild dog populations will ‘explode’ and affect everyone, not just livestock but campers too.
The region’s number of wild dog trappers are declining. The concerned group says of the three dog trappers in the district, one has retired, and his job hasn’t been advertised, one is on casual wages which they worry makes him more easily dismissed, leaving just one for the entire area that stretches from the coast to the New South Wales border.
Meanwhile, as recently as last week, lambs were killed at South Buchan, wethers maimed and euthanised five kilometres north of Buchan, and a koala killed near Karoonda Park with the dogs eating everything but its head.
“The Snowy River is the home of wild dogs and the Department is shooting deer and leaving them there, which is a free feed for the dogs,” Peter Sandy said.
That in turn makes for a greater survival rate of wild dogs, something that Andrew Sutton believes is one of the greatest concerns.
“Back in the day if a bitch had five or six pups there wasn’t enough food to keep them all alive,” he said.
IMAGE: Gordon Moon, Black Mountain, Andrew Sutton, South Buchan, Peter Moon, Black Mountain, Peter Sandy, Canni Creek, and Paul Sykes, Gelantipy. The livestock farmers are worried about the lack of dog trappers in their region and the impact that will have on the burgeoning wild dog population.
