Wild dog baits becoming ineffective

Vic Country Hour
Kath Sullivan ABC Radio

Tue 27 Aug 2013

Farmers from Gelantipy in Victoria's High Country
discuss wild dog management in the region.

Audio: Have baits for wild dogs become ineffective? (ABC News)      

Gordon Moon farms at Black Mountain, north of Buchan.

He and his brother have lost 100 sheep to wild dogs this year.
He says the dogs in that area are no longer taking baits and it would be better to employ more trappers.
"I do know of one particular bitch that had pups out there and was able to keep her pups away from baits. And those pups all grew up," he said.
"I eventually caught some in traps.
"I thought that was pretty amazing that hungry dogs could go past something to eat - be taught to go past something to eat and not take it. The dogs are not stupid."
Mr Moon says already this year, 24 dogs have been trapped on or within a five-kilometre radius of his farm.
Keith Davies farms just south of Moon's property, at Gelantipy overlooking the Snowy River National Park. He's also worried that the baits have stopped working.
"They've saturated the area with so many baits... and we've also got fox baits, which have half the poison of dog baits. I think they (the wild dogs) have been educated to keep away from these bait stations," he said.
Both farmers says they can see how the baits have been effective in the past, and continue to be effective in other communities, including Benambra and Omeo in Gippsland. But they want more money spent on trappers to manage the wild dog problem.
It's not just livestock that is being attacked. Just down the road from Davies' farm, Paul Sykes found the remains of one of his calves, which had been destroyed by a dog attack this week.
"We had a calf that got trapped down a wombat hole and the dingo had pulled it out and eaten most of it. But when we looked a bit further, he'd in fact killed a koala too. He'd eaten most of that as well. So they do have an impact on the wildlife," he said.