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Fears for child safety as feral dogs close in,
video By ASHLEIGH GLEESON June 25, 2014, 10 p.m.
UNDER SIEGE: Neil Jones says he has lost more than a dozen sheep this year to wild dogs.
UNDER SIEGE: Neil Jones says he has lost more than a dozen sheep this year to wild dogs. Pictures: Peter Stoop
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LARGE and savage wild dogs, many with streaks of dingo in them, have been edging closer to the township of Branxton.
Residents believe it’s become dangerous and it is only a matter of time before a person is attacked or killed.
Property owner Neil Jones has footage of a large wild dog devouring a sheep carcass that he had left out on his land last week. He’s on Elderslie Road at Branxton.
“We’re right on the doorstep; there are a lot of small acreages moving in and around us, too,” Mr Jones said.
“The cameras were very good and it is a concern when you’re seeing dogs like that coming in this close.
ON FILM: A wild dog devours a sheep carcass on Mr Jones’s land.
ON FILM: A wild dog devours a sheep carcass on Mr Jones’s land.
“I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t saw it on film but to me, they looked as though they had some dingo in them.”
Mr Jones said the situation with wild dogs had “gotten out of hand” over the past 10 years.
“I’ve lost over a dozen sheep this year,” he said. “There was an attack three months ago where six sheep were just slaughtered.
“When you see your animals absolutely disembowelled and ripped to pieces, it’s not good.
“The only way of catching them is the trapping and baiting program – these feral dogs hunt at night.
“I have no doubt these dogs would attack kids; they are savage.”
Hunter Local Land Services biosecurity officer Mark Watson assessed an image from the footage taken at Mr Jones’s property.
“To be truthful, it is hard to tell with the quality of the photo,” he said. “It’s pointing towards the signs of being a wild dog to me.
“That dog does look to have a great bit of size in him, meaning he is too large to be a dingo.”
Ross Garland, also a biosecurity officer for Hunter Local Land Services, said he had seen wild dogs with “dingo genes in them” in the area.
“They’re not purebred,” he said.
“The best thing we can do is raise community awareness about where these dogs are.
“As has been noted, these dogs are not very far from the major towns.”
Branxton resident Kylie Roberts lives near Mr Jones and let him borrow the night-vision camera to use on his property. She said they bought it after their family’s mini pony, Bam Bam, was drowned then mauled by dogs in March.
“In the middle of the night, they drowned him [Bam Bam] in the dam, I thought he was missing the whole of the next day,” she said.
“After that, they pulled him back out and they must’ve been hungry because they ate his chest out.”
Ms Roberts said they had also captured footage of dogs hassling horses on their farm and she now held concerns for her children.
“We have footage of the dogs hassling a yearling [young horse] in the middle of the night,” she said. “He was all right because the bigger horses came and scared them away.
“There was one occasion where one of our children was walking down our driveway and came back saying that something had growled at them.
“We’ve lived in Branxton for five years now and it’s a bit concerning when you can’t send your kids down to the front gate.
“They took a pony, what’s not to say they won’t take a kid?”
Ms Roberts called for more resources for Hunter Local Land Services. At present, there are two biosecurity officers employed to service the Lower Hunter region.
Ernie Bendeich, who lives close to Greta, has been working with one of the officers and it had led to him trapping 14 dogs in seven months – some of them pups.
“I know there are dogs still down there; I just went to the river bank and saw footmarks there,” he said.
“It’s a very serious issue; I’ve never seen dogs here in my life and I’m 72.
“One of the dogs we caught, I’d say was 80per cent dingo. Another fellow has shot four of them.
“If you don’t get on top of them straight away, they increase and multiply very fast.
“I think there are a lot more outthere than what we know.”
Secretary of the North East Singleton Wild Dog’s Association Heath Brock said there were a number of reasons behind the increase in dogs.
“Over the last 10 years, it has become more of a problem because you have more and more acreages getting subdivided and splitting up into smaller lots,” he said.
“There are more households and more dogs that can stray.
“A lot of these smaller holdings cannot carry out proper baiting programs because their acreage is too small.’’
Mr Brock also noted there was a rise in absentee landholders who had bought land in the Hunter Valley but lived in Newcastle or Sydney.
“It’s very important if people do see or hear wild dogs they contact their local biosecurity officer and notify their local wild dog association. The more reporting we receive, the more we know what’s going on.’’
http://www.theherald.com.au/stor ... se-in-video/?cs=303 |
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征文活动 (2008-5-2) Anihc 
发表于 2014-6-26 11:21
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