By Aston Brown
Dozens of sheep have been killed in another gruesome dog attack in Freestone, northeast of Warwick.
Landowner Matthew Collins woke to “screaming sheep” in the early hours of the morning two nights in a row last week as a pack of dogs savaged his flock.
In June, he lost close to 20 sheep in another bloody attack. A few days later, his neighbours, Jim and Debbie Dieckmann, lost at least 34 sheep.
“It’s emotionally damaging not being able to defend innocent things that you’re meant to be protecting,” Mr Collins said. “It’s gotten to the point, am I good enough to be a farmer? Do I continue being a farmer?”
Mr Collins said bite marks on the carcasses suggest some of the dogs that mauled his flock were feral domestic dogs, while others point towards dingoes or dingo-wild dog hybrids.
He said the prospect of domestic dogs being responsible has stoked “fury” in the community. “The feeling is, if it's on your land, no matter what kind of dog, if it has a collar, you should have killed it already,” he said.
Farmer and local councillor Ross Bartley stopped grazing sheep on his nearby property about a decade ago after suffering severe attacks. Speaking as a producer, he said “nights of attacks would wipe out your profit margin completely, so it’s just not worth it.”
Freestone is vulnerable to dog attacks because it backs onto conservation and state forest areas on the foothills of the Scenic Rim, which is where wild and feral dogs breed and roam.
To protect his surviving flock, Mr Collins has installed kilometres of dog netting along his fence lines, laid poison baits, and has purchased a thermal scope for his rifle.
Mr Bartley said the only way to feasibly run sheep in the area is to pen them at night, but added that can negatively impact production. He said changes in gun legislation, reduced wild dog management, and the subdivision of commercial properties into smaller lifestyle blocks has made for a “very active” and growing population.
“It’s hard if people in adjoining blocks don’t have livestock, they’re not much interested [in dog control]” he said. “There are risks these days that people don’t understand.”
The Centre for Invasive Species Solutions national wild dog management coordinator, Greg Misfud, said the break-up of large commercial properties along Australia’s eastern seaboard has caused a “breakdown of coordinated management programmes”.
“We’re now seeing dogs more into those areas and causing more harm,” he said. Shifts in land ownership has also led to greater densities of domestic dogs into rural areas which can prey on neighbours' sheep.
“There’s a necessity to educate people and landholders, when they move into these areas about the responsibilities of dog ownership,” he said.
