Farmers in western Victoria now banned from killing dingoes on their farms

[DogsAndTheMob]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-16/dingoes-protected-wild-dog-control-ends-in-north-west-victoria/103591516
 

I have mixed feelings about this. I would hate it if dingoes became extinct but I remember how devastating it was when my sheep were mauled by wild dogs. I chose not to keep sheep any longer but that’s not an option for some farmers whose livelihood depends on their livestock.

 

Here’s an industry article on the topic.

https://www.sheepcentral.com/silence-on-research-and-advice-behind-victorian-dingo-decisions/

[Diva]

We recently have had wild dog/dingo sightings. Local govt people who should know tell me the wild dogs  around here are 75%-85% dingo by dna research.

They have only come since the feral pig and deer numbers have kicked up. And I have decided to resist peer pressure and not let ‘my’ shooter go after them. Only cattle on our place, and hundreds of kangaroos, wallaroos and wallabies. I reckon the dingoes are doing their bit to control total grazing pressure. We abut hundreds of hectares of state forest and national park.  Closest neighbour with sheep is several kms away and has great double fencing all round. I don’t know if I am doing the right thing or how long I can hold out, if neighbours start losing stock I will have to shift probably. But it’s an ecosystem out of balance, and a top predator has its place. 

[DogsAndTheMob]

1 hour ago, Diva said:

We recently have had wild dog/dingo sightings. Local govt people who should know tell me the wild dogs  around here are 75%-85% dingo by dna research.

They have only come since the feral pig and deer numbers have kicked up. And I have decided to resist peer pressure and not let ‘my’ shooter go after them. Only cattle on our place, and hundreds of kangaroos, wallaroos and wallabies. I reckon the dingoes are doing their bit to control total grazing pressure. We abut hundreds of hectares of state forest and national park.  Closest neighbour with sheep is several kms away and has great double fencing all round. I don’t know if I am doing the right thing or how long I can hold out, if neighbours start losing stock I will have to shift probably. But it’s an ecosystem out of balance, and a top predator has its place. 

What a wonderfully thoughtful response!

 

The few wild dogs I’ve seen here have looked like dingoes. My sheep used to take refuge among the cows when I walked the dogs in the paddock (not that the dogs would have chased them) and the wild dogs left the sheep alone until I put them in a paddock away from the cows, so perhaps running a mixed mob of sheep and cattle might provide protection for some herds.

[dingoresearcher]

Hi All,

 

New here but I have done significant research regarding the Big Desert dingo population and they are very close to being wiped out. As for the rest of Victoria, the most recent genetic research released last year in May by Dr Kylie Cairns suggests that close to 90% of "wild dogs" in Victoria are actually pure dingo and the remaining are more than 55% dingo (6.5% tested were 93% or over, 6.5% were between 55 and 93% dingo and 87% were pure)

 

People need to remember these animals are a native species at federal level in every mainland state (regardless of whether or not they're a declared pest species). They are also culturally significant to many First Nations peoples. They play an important ecological role as the country's apex predator. This is the first time since colonisation that dingoes have been protected on private land!!

 

Dingoes are responsible for less than 0.5% of livestock losses! With exposure being one if the biggest killers of livestock! While I understand that livestock producers individually can be affected significantly, their trauma is only in the form of losing money, not the actual damage done to their livestock - which is pretty clear to see from their comments in the newspapers. 

 

Also, please remember when Greg Mifsud says there's 3.1 million hectares where dingoes are protected in Victoria, majority of that land dingoes have already been locally extinct for decades! There are NO dingoes near Hamilton or Bendigo there are quite litterally the population in the high country/eastern Vic and the population in Big Desert/Wyperfeld National Park. Even Murray-Sunset and Hattah-Kulkyne National Parks in North West Victoria have NO dingoes!