I knew wild dogs were a large problem in Qld. My family living in cane country outside of Mackay daren't go jogging or walking without some sort of stick or large plastic tubing for defense. Their own dogs have been attacked.
I didn't realise how large the problem was, though.
Could sheep be an endangered species in Australia?
A wild dog researcher suggests at the rate sheep numbers are declining wild dogs could force sheep out of Australia's rangeland grazing areas in the next 30 to 40 years.
In the past 20 to 30 years Queensland has seen about a 70 per cent decline in the numbers of sheep, the national average is about 40 per cent.
Biosecurity Queensland's wild dog officer Ben Allen says a co-operative strategic approach like the project fencing project in south western Queensland will be crucial to stopping the decline.
"Fences are important because the lethal control tools will kill something once it gets there but it doesn't stop them coming back in and so fences stop area that are cleaned out from being reinfested."
"Anyone who has seen the dog fence in outback Australia know it's a 10 foot high mesh fence and nothing's getting through it."
"We don't need that on our properties, we only need the sort of fencing we would use to keep in goats or sheep, such as a ring-lock or hinge-join fence."
"The strategy is not to stop all of them, the strategy is to slow down the reinvasion to allow the baits, traps and guns over time to get on top of the population."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-28/sheep-endangered/4787530
careful, don't open the link if you're squeamish about seeing dead animals.
