The National Wild Dog Management Advisory Group deputy Chair and SAFF Livestock Committee member Geoff Power is outraged at any suggestion that the Dog Fence should be torn down and challenges any scientist who thinks differently to join him in a debate.
“There is an epidemic of wild dog attacks across Australia and every mainland state has areas where they are so bad that sheep cannot be run”.
“It is preposterous that wild dogs should be allowed to roam free across the country killing and mauling livestock, wildlife and potentially domestic pets. Scientists advocating pulling down the Dog Fence don’t know what they are talking about”, Geoff said.
“The Dog Fence has been a valuable asset to livestock producers south of the fence in keeping wild dogs in check. If the fence was torn down it would mean the end of the sheep and wool industry in this state”.
“If you take the fence out you would have wild dogs in the Adelaide hills killing native fauna and pets and no doubt wild dogs would reach the parklands surrounding Adelaide”.
In Queensland there are wild dogs adjacent to the CBD in Brisbane which threaten to disease pets, with fears of wild dogs following children close to residential areas. Around 80-90 wild dogs are trapped near Brisbane CBD every month.
Wild dogs are not selective about what they eat or ravage. They will kill anything they can catch, be it a feral rabbit or native marsupial. It was recently reported that a wild dog attacked and killed 20 sheep on a station near Broken Hill.
“Replacing sheep with cattle is not the answer. Where this has been done in Queensland, there has been up to 40% of calves attacked in some herds by wild dogs.
The SAFF will lobby Minister Paul Caica to maintain the Dog Fence as this is the only way to secure the future of the South Australian livestock industry from wild dog attacks. If the fence was removed, wild dogs would easily and quickly move south. It will be too late when there are wild dogs in metropolitan Adelaide.
