WILD dogs are terrorising livestock in the Wallabadah area, with stock workers concerned the hounds are bypassing baits in favour of a fresh kill.
Contractor Geoff Fitzsummons lives his life on the land and believes the dog problem plaguing landholders surrounding national parkland at Wallabadah is getting out of control with the animals effectively “stepping over” 1080 baits.
With stock losses mounting, Mr Fitzsummons says up to 500 sheep have been lost from one property alone in the past year with another reporting losses of up to 600.
“The property where I live is bordered on to the National park, we have been losing a heap of sheep,” he told The Leader
“On the property I work at it has been up to 500 sheep and it’s getting really bad.
“Because they (wild life authorities) have been doing a lot of baiting, the dogs don’t seem to be wanting to take the 1080 baits now because they’d rather kill the sheep because it’s fresh.”
Mr Fitzsummons says while landholders undertake pest control on their land and trapping appears to be working, the animals are becoming more cunning and venturing onto low-lying land where farmers are facing stock loss into the tens of thousands of dollars.
“They’re starting to travel into lower country, there has been one dog in particular that in the last 60 weeks nearly 300 baits have been thrown out and he didn’t take any of them – he could have killed 60 to 70 sheep alone,” he said.
“He was eventually trapped by another landholder on Wednesday night.”
Mr Fitzsummons said most of the sheep mauled by the dogs were wool producers, which meant farmers were effectively losing four to five years of wool supply for each sheep.
He believed more needed to be done in addition to baiting to stem the issue.
“I think the information has to be put out there so people know this is getting to be a bigger problem,” he said.
“I’m not against baiting at all, but I don’t think it is the be all and end all of it.”
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