Battle Against Wild Dogs Shifts To All-out War

[lillim]

http://www.news.com.au/national/battle-aga...r-1225876314602

CHARLIE "Brick" Gilbey is a rare foe to the wild dogs blamed for empty shearing sheds across Western Australia's northern goldfields.

He finds them by their telltale scratchings in the dirt, and their small, neat paw prints, The Australian reports.

Sometimes, they announce their presence dramatically with up to 40 dead kangaroos by a waterhole.

The 64-year-old killed 120 wild dogs last year - mostly dingoes - with strychnine-laced traps. "If you feel sorry for them, you don't for long," he said.

"You just need to look around where they've been and you'll see a half-dead lamb with it's head chewed in - they're not hungry, mate, they just kill."

Already this year, almost 80 dogs have died in the 40 traps Mr Gilbey sets each month on pastoral stations - including Yundamindra, where he lives - north of the mining hub of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

It was once sheep country, but pastoralists say they shifted to cattle after the fall in wool prices in the 1990s. An explosion in dog numbers is the reason they give for not moving back into sheep when the price began to improve.

The Barnett Government will now use $8.8 million from the Royalties for Regions scheme to employ eight additional doggers across the state and to join big gaps in a barrier fence originally built to keep out emus.

The help cannot come soon enough for pastoralists who want to restock their properties with sheep.

Jeff Carter, Leonora's Shire President and owner of Clover Downs Station, said he kept a lonely 19 sheep from the station's heyday because he could not bring himself to sell them. A recent increase in baiting in the area has led him to contemplate buying 600 ewes next year.

"The decline of sheep is a sad thing," he said."There is something about being in the shearing shed where you can see the year's work coming to fruition."

Read the full story about Charlie "Brick" Gilbey and his battle with wild dogs at The Australian.

[lillim]

The article from the Australian, just has a bit of extra stuff at the end

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/natio...f-1225876205978

CHARLIE "Brick" Gilbey is a rare foe to the wild dogs blamed for empty shearing sheds across Western Australia's northern goldfields.

He finds them by their telltale scratchings in the dirt, and their small, neat paw prints.

Sometimes, they announce their presence dramatically with up to 40 dead kangaroos by a waterhole.

The 64-year-old killed 120 wild dogs last year - mostly dingoes - with strychnine-laced traps. "If you feel sorry for them, you don't for long," he said.

"You just need to look around where they've been and you'll see a half-dead lamb with it's head chewed in - they're not hungry, mate, they just kill."

Already this year, almost 80 dogs have died in the 40 traps Mr Gilbey sets each month on pastoral stations - including Yundamindra, where he lives - north of the mining hub of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

It was once sheep country, but pastoralists say they shifted to cattle after the fall in wool prices in the 1990s. An explosion in dog numbers is the reason they give for not moving back into sheep when the price began to improve.

The Barnett government will now use $8.8 million from the Royalties for Regions scheme to employ eight additional doggers across the state and to join big gaps in a barrier fence originally built to keep out emus.

The help cannot come soon enough for pastoralists who want to restock their properties with sheep.

Jeff Carter, Leonora's Shire President and owner of Clover Downs Station, said he kept a lonely 19 sheep from the station's heyday because he could not bring himself to sell them. A recent increase in baiting in the area has led him to contemplate buying 600 ewes next year.

"The decline of sheep is a sad thing," he said."There is something about being in the shearing shed where you can see the year's work coming to fruition."

About 40km from Clover Downs, there is not a single sheep on Glenorn Station which once had 18,000. There, Trent Stillman tried breeding goats but the program was ruined by wild dog attacks.

Mr Stillman now runs 1200 cattle and grows sandalwood.

He has a licence to kill wild dogs with the poison 1080.

He thinks wild dogs are at least as prevalent as ever, despite his laying of 13,000 baits on four stations earlier this year.

"There's enough in the shed out there to kill the whole town of Leonora," he said.

Mr Gilbey said the government had done "nowhere near enough" to combat wild dogs over the years.

After 50 years of trapping, he is thinking about retirement. "Sometimes I think there's got to be a better way to make a quid."

[Kirty]

Feral dogs fair enough. But dingoes? :rolleyes:

[persephone]

:rolleyes: nasty way to do it - poor dogs.

[Luvmy4]

Why not trap with the cage things see what you get then shoot??