A petition calling for the reintroduction of a wild dog scalp fee in the Dalrymple shire is gaining traction among landowners with some saying dog numbers are swelling in the region.
Novice trapper Riley Saunders was tiling a house in Greenvale recently when he overheard the homeowners talking about their wild dog problem.
“I offered to trap while I was working on the house. Over five afternoons I buried 50 traps and in the five weeks I was tiling I got 62 dogs on the 80,000 acre property,” Mr Saunders said.
“This is an extremely alarming number on a block that baits twice a year,” he said.
“There is a petition going around the shire to bring back a scalp fee which might encourage farmers to dig out their old traps and get stuck into the plague of dogs running rife through the region.
He said some farmers are paying for and placing traps themselves which “takes some time to do”.
“They should be getting paid for their efforts, what they’re doing is helping out everyone in the region.”
He said trapping would give council a better idea of sex ,size, maturity, breeds and numbers from data obtained from scalp DNA.
Ray White Rural livestock agent Kevin Currie said reintroducing a scalp fee would have to be made worthwhile for trappers.
“To get anyone to trap a dog, scalp it, dry the scalp and bring it into council, you’d need to offer at least $50/scalp to make it worth their time,” Mr Currie said.
AgForce North (West) regional manager Dominic Burden said the council supports programs that reduce wild dog numbers, but a scalp fee system would have involve a coordinated operation across shire boundaries.
“To work effectively, scalp values need to be set at an even dollar amount across the shires, or as we’ve seen in the past the system will be rorted,” Mr Burden said.
Charters Towers Regional Council deputy mayor Sonia Bennetto said the petition hadn’t been put to council at the time of going to press, though a scalp fee is being investigated as an option.
“I’ve spoken to graziers in the region who’ve been monitoring wild dog numbers, but they don’t think there has been a huge increase in numbers,” Cr Bennetto said.
“We’ll be doing a review of the Biosecurity Act soon, so we’ll have a better idea of how we’ll be managing the situation after that,” she said.
CTRC conducts a wild dog baiting program throughout the entire region every six months targeting adults during breeding season (April/May) and pups and juveniles (September/October).
“We think the next round of controlled baiting will help keep wild dog numbers under control.”
