One sheep grazier has blasted the Victorian Government’s effort in managing wild dogs after attending the final day of consultation with DEECA representatives in Mansfield on Friday, September 6.

Gary Breadon is a second-generation grazier north of Mansfield who has seen the number of dog attacks rise in the past 40 years and said the government’s responsibility on its ‘own’ land was negligent.

“At the end of the day, the government is a public land manager, and they have to manage the animals on that public land,” Mr Breadon said.

“We farmers are required to control any pests on our land, so they should as well; it’s as simple as that.”

Mr Breadon’s frustration has stemmed from his involvement with the north-east Wild Dog Management Group, which he was a founding member of in 2000, and the data collected over many years.

“It’s interesting – we’ve had dogs here forever, but it’s getting worse,” Mr Breadon said.

“Back then, you’d deal with a dog and there would be no troubles for about another five to 10 years.

“Now, it’s every 12 months.

“Years ago, we were looking out for foxes, and wild dogs never entered the consciousness; now they are more and more prevalent.”

Mr Breadon said the former management group had been successful in managing different strategies because of the access to the agriculture minister of the day.

“We would meet monthly for about 10 years and there were department reps there, landholders — all the major stakeholders,” he said.

“And a direct line of communication with the minister’s secretary.

“That has ceased to occur.”

Mr Breadon said the group’s disbanding had been a ‘political decision’.

Australian Wool Innovations later formed a wild dog management group and approached Mr Breadon to be involved.

“That was then succeeded by the state government’s wild dog group, but I simply got frustrated,” he said.

“I thought ‘I’m just going to do it myself’.”

Mr Breadon’s property borders native forests which are the habitat for wild dogs and dingoes and he is a supporter of the three-kilometre buffer zone which is currently managed by professional trappers.

He said managing an access corridor on the forest side of his fence required any fallen timber to be removed via his property.

“In some parts, my fence is on a very steep hill, so I have to move timber uphill over my fence,” he said.

“And of course, land clearing approval is needed.”

Mr Breadon was critical of the government’s acceptance of recent genetic data that suggested most wild dogs were dingos and that earlier population data and other research was being ignored.

“I cannot believe that a scientist to do his job right would disregard the data from so many years,” he said.

“My cynicism is that the scientific research has its own agenda for dingo control, and I question how DNA evidence can be relied on after just one paper.”

UNSW geneticist Kylie Cairns published a report in 2023 showing evidence that very few pure feral domestic dogs existed in the wild, with the majority of ‘wild dogs’ being dingoes.

“Call them whatever you want, they are still going to prey on livestock,” Mr Breadon said.

Mr Breadon now spends the first ‘two or three’ hours of every day checking his boundary electric fence for damage.

“If I ever go up the paddock, I always have a firearm with me now,” he said.

“And it’s frustrating, because you can’t sleep not knowing the fences are okay.

“You have to do it so you can actually sleep at night.”

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