⁕ I had to write after reading the articles about the effect of dog attacks on sheep in the past few months (in particular, News, 29 April).
My partner and I farm sheep and cattle in the Monaro district of New South Wales, but we read Farmers Weekly each week as we find the information, markets and global features of tremendous help. Your publication gives us a “sticky beak” into how other farmers run their operations and what challenges they have to cope with. It is interesting to compare commodity prices and the seemingly staggering price of your land (perhaps someone can explain how the maths adds up?).
One of the major challenges we have had to manage – aside from the weather and our slide into a very dry period – is the horror and despair that dog attacks have caused us and many of our neighbours since 1975.
The dogs are predominantly “wild dogs” or dingoes that come out of the neighbouring National Park and decimate any flock in their sights. So this is different from the UK experience with unmanaged domestic dogs, but just as heartbreaking for the stock owners.
As landowners with a 12km boundary with the National Park, it is a daily worry that somewhere on our property we may have sheep that have been attacked and left to die with horrific wounds and gaping holes in their flanks.
This problem has multiple effects on farmers. The animal welfare issue is foremost. I am haunted by the sight, early one winter morning, of a young weaner sheep (less than a year old) standing away from the mob on a hill with a huge, bloody hole in his side and up to his neck. It was a forlorn and stark reminder that dogs are indiscriminate killers – once they have killed sheep they will keep on killing sheep.
The financial impact is, of course, an issue, but that isn’t what keeps us awake at night. We have spent nights out in the paddocks trying to watch over our sheep, but the size of the area we have means it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Although it is important to note that tens of thousands of sheep are killed each year across Australia by wild dogs, they have also battered the native fauna, as well as killing many calves over the years in the north of Australia. It is a national endemic problem that no one has managed to stem.
The other effect of note is the relationship we have with the neighbour that allows the breeding of these dogs. The Kosciuszko National Park is a state-owned venture that over many years has seemingly failed to understand how the wild dogs affect stockowners.
As a consequence, farmers adjoining the park have stopped running sheep over the years as nobody can watch the animals they have bred die night after night.
Anxiety, stress, anger and many other mental health issues affect all of us that have stock. We have such a responsibility to keep them healthy, safe and well nourished. It is a tremendous privilege and brings at times laughter and joy at the antics of our animals. Although the trauma of dog attacks makes it easy for me to understand why farmers move out of sheep, it is an issue that makes even the tough old bush farmers shed a tear. So we understand what your farmers are going through and wish them all the best.
Bill Brewis and Sarah Woodhouse New South Wales, Australia