MEMBER for Benambra Bill Tilley says North East farmers will lose out when the wild dog bounty is axed at the end of June.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Tilley points to the previous Coalition government’s record on fighting the wild dog scourge including the renewed use of Lanes traps, the introduction of aerial baiting and the wild dog bounty, as well as its overturning of Labor’s ban preventing farmers from doing dog control measures outside their boundary.
But shooters and farmers now believe there will be a significant increase in wild dog numbers with the abolition of the $100 bounty.
Since its introduction there have been 1550 dogs killed, a figure almost 10 times the number of wild dogs shot and trapped by the government’s dogmen in 2014.
One property owner, Ken Haywood says the number of dogs killed by those claiming the bounty is only “touching the edges” of the number in the region.
Farmers and Mr Tilley are now calling for the retention of the bounty as part of what the Labor government says should be an integrated approach to pest management.
They fear the progress made will be lost if the bounty is not funded in next month’s state budget.