![Alan Bennett, Lawloit, says the state government would have further planning and foresight to help protect livestock. Picture by Rachel Simmonds Alan Bennett, Lawloit, says the state government would have further planning and foresight to help protect livestock. Picture by Rachel Simmonds](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/206453486/cc0ff8ce-1afd-44f3-8c7b-042d60830dae.JPG/r0_0_6000_3373_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Wimmera farmers are holding out hope for permission to control wild dog populations, as the state government plans to use existing resources for management.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
While there was no new funding announced for wild dog control in last week's state budget, a spokesperson for Agriculture Victoria confirmed to Stock & Land that the Wild Dog Management Program would continue regardless.
They said existing resources within the department would be used to deliver "targeted" wild dog management.
In the north-west, a targeted $550,000 pilot program would be delivered over the next 12 months.
This fund was aimed at supporting farmers in the region who were dealing with wild dog attacks on their livestock.
It was also designed to help build awareness of non-lethal control options to protect these livestock from all vertebrate pests on private land.
Alan Bennett, Lawloit, has been battling wild dog populations at his property which neighbours the Little Desert National Park.
He said he hoped the state government would have further planning and foresight to help protect livestock.
"Previously we've had a wild dog management plan that allowed a three-kilometre buffer zone around the perimeter of the big desert." he said.
"Within that zone, the dogs were unprotected."
He said under that plan, they were able to employ trappers, poison or shoot wild dogs.
"We had been getting dog attacks at that time," he said.
"I put the application in to control one wild dog.
"After about three weeks I got a letter to said they were thinking they would deny my application unless I could provide more evidence."
Mr Bennett said he believed they had lost about 30 grown Merino sheep in about five separate attacks.
He said he was now concerned the dogs were working on their lambing ewes.
"The only realisation you have is in retrospect, when you do your lamb marking, and it's not uncommon to have lamb marking percentages down to 30 or 40 per cent," he said.
Mr Bennett said he had supplied photos to the relevant state authorities, and they requested putting a dead sheep in a cool room for DNA testing to prove whether a wild dog had killed it.
"They got someone to come down and set up cameras to see if they could find a dog, which they didn't," he said.
"They said at the end of the day, wild dogs were so close to extinction they couldn't allow one to be trapped or destroyed."
Mr Bennett said he believed it would be near impossible for any farmer to get authority to control a wild dog on the property.
"It's like having the wild dog come into your house, and you just have to stand there and watch it eat the chooks," he said.
He said he believed the situation had become a "political hot potato", and they had been abandoned by the state government.
"Any sort of half-decent boundary fence would keep dogs out, but once there's a hole the dogs pop straight through," he said.
"If we did all our blocks there would be 38 kilometres [of perimeter]."
Mr Bennett said it would cost about $15,000 a kilometre to fix his fencing.
"I don't think the state government have thought through the implications [of the removal of a dingo order]," he said.
He said he hoped the Victorian government would communicate with the South Australian government, which allows farmers to destroy wild dogs.