As a wild dog coordinator, my role is to bring landholders together so they can plan the best approach to minimise the impacts of wild dogs in their area. I work with and educate producers and other stakeholders, like local council staff, to implement best practice management control techniques so they can control wild dogs in the most humane and effective way possible.
A single dog can travel vast distances in a night, meaning they are everyone’s problem, so it is imperative that communities work together to control them. Landholders are recognising the benefits of joining together and many have teamed up with their neighbours on broad scale control programs, as well as exclusion cluster fencing projects.
Landholders are constantly encouraged to work together with their neighbours to control the wild dogs that are both inside or outside their fence and to consistently monitor their fence lines to look for any areas that wild dogs may be somehow getting through the barrier.
When I started in my role six years ago, I was told it was a waste of time. “Coordinators don’t kill dogs, we need someone who will kill dog”’ they said. But now those people who stood up at those meetings are some of my and the project’s biggest supporters. They understand there is more to it than baits and traps on the ground. We need to work together on a larger, coordinated scale.
There are three wild dog co-ordinators in Queensland. I am based in north/north west Queensland and can be contacted on 0428 730 533, while Skyela Kruger is based in St George servicing the shires within the South West Regional Economic Development Board area and can be contacted on 0429 232 089.
In Central West Queensland, Rohan Dent is supporting and assisting stakeholders and local wild dog committees in the Remote Area Planning and Development Board (RAPAD) area. Rohan can be contacted on 0437 116 875.
