Tuesday, 1 August 2023

Wild dog control

Bill TILLEY (Benambra) (19:21): (259) I wish to raise a matter for the attention of the Minister for Agriculture in the other place. The action I seek is for the minister to visit the Tallangatta Valley to meet with landholders with lived experience of wild dogs about the success of the 3-kilometre buffer that is currently under her review. The buffer gives the state wild dog controllers the authority to bait and trap wild dogs on public land within 3 kilometres of the farm fence. The orders relating to this buffer will expire on 1 October this year.

Those who have lived through the torment and the terror pre the buffer zone say it has proven to have saved livestock and protected humans. They tell stories of sleeping in swags for six weeks to protect their livestock. One farmer lost 200 sheep in a six-week stretch – animals torn apart, others left with their insides dragging along the ground, livestock slaughtered for the thrill of the kill. You need to hear these stories; you need to hear the voices as they tell of the brutal night-after-night attacks. They can show you the pictures. I can show you the pictures. I can show you live footage.

A member interjected.

Bill TILLEY: What? Listen up. I met with landholders last month who say it is not just the stock losses; the removal of the buffer would reduce their ability to patrol and protect their livestock, cut their working land in half and decrease productivity and viability. They will tell you about an increasing presence of wild dogs howling through the night, six shot on one property in a fortnight, while the remnants of deer culls are scavenged within two days. One former trapper that I know was worried when his dogs were staying unusually close to him through a bush section of his property. He stopped and called out to the wild dogs. There were nine responses surrounding him. These landholders will talk of mental health toll issues – studies like, you know, you name it, first responders, Vietnam vets with PTSD. They can speak with authority of Neospora caninum carried by these wild dogs, which leads to cattle aborting calves.

Already you will be hearing opposing voices – the Australian Dingo Foundation and others – talking up non-lethal methods of wild dog control that include additional fencing, maremmas and alpacas. Landholders will tell you that they do not work; they can provide evidence of alpacas killed by dogs and video footage of dogs navigating around fencing and traps. Some will argue that these dingoes are whelping once a year and having about three to four pups. The lived experience is that wild dogs have three litters every two years, with some recently shot bitches carrying seven and nine pups respectively. I have seen it personally.

These are previously domesticated dogs – perhaps part dingo but well and truly under the 80 per cent that is required to prove dingo – that are a constant threat to livestock and humans. Without the buffer the trappers will be limited to private land and the dogs will be free to attack from the bush boundary at will. Please, Minister, these are your dogs coming from your land – our land. We need the buffer to maintain the status quo, and these people can tell you why.