Bounty to help wild dog control, support drought areas

Among a new range of measures, announced today under an expanded drought support package, another full-time wild dog trapper will be employed.

SA Dog Fence Board chair Geoff Power welcomed the funding for another full-time trapper and expansion of the baiting program saying when the mammoth rebuild of the ageing dog fence was completed it would be "just as big, if not bigger" task to eradicate dogs already inside the fence.

"There are three ways we can get these dogs, the first one is to bait and secondly to trap the cunning dogs that don't take the bait," he said.

"The third one, shooting, is opportunistic - a lot of times you don't see the dogs you only see the damage.

"If you drove around looking for dogs you would run out of fuel first but having said that, landholders shot a lot of dogs in 2019 so $120 would be handy in their pockets."

Mr Power said for a wild dog bounty to be successful it would require some "safeguards".

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Peterborough grazier Craig Philp monitors about 10,000 hectares for predatory pests, such as wild dogs, and welcomed the state government's announcement to introduce a bounty and additional trapper to help manage populations.

"The bounty will definitely encourage landholders to manage wild dogs on their property, particularly the station country further north of here," he said.

"It will benefit landholders further south of the dog fence too because the dry seasons seem to be changing the behaviour of foxes and dogs, they are moving further south in search of food."

Mr Philp said recent upgrades to the dog fence had helped manage numbers but prior neglect had caused southern populations to increase.

"There are definitely more dogs south of the fence because there were too many years that dogs snuck through - hopefully the new initiatives will help fix that," he said.