Shane Knuth MP attended an urgent meeting in East Palmerston last week in response to wild dogs wreaking havoc on farms. 

The issue is costing Queensland more than $22m a year, causing massive economical and personal impact – one local property is losing a calf every two days on average.

 The wild dogs roam in packs and are not necessarily eating their prey. They are not only killing calves, but also maiming, biting and tearing ears off weaners, birthing cows and other cattle – they are also threatening cassowary chicks and other native animals in adjacent national parks.

 Mr Knuth is keen to work with the community and seek government support to help reduce the devastation to the environment and farms.

 “It’s acknowledged that the threat caused by wild dogs is a serious issue. Areas in the East Palmerston and adjacent to national parks are copping it much worse. We all agreed at the meeting that all departments, from National Parks, landowners and Council, will all work together.

 “It’s a loss to landowners financially and personally – especially when losing calves and domestic animals,” Mr Knuth said.

 Meeting instigator Ashleigh Hatfield, along with partner Neil Bartlett, moved to the area two years ago on a 950 acre farm bordering national park land at East Palmerston, and have already lost more than 20 calves this winter.

 “Before we moved from Cape York we sent cattle here to fatten, now we live here with our breeders and are constantly losing calves. Anyone who is running breeders here is experiencing the same problem, some are even having to leave farming because the loss of calves is too great – you invest all this time into the cattle, then you have the dog packs come in at night to tear them apart,” Ashleigh said.

 “You can’t sell them to live export, and meatworks will deduct it if it’s a bite on the rump or other, we lose financially if there’s a missing tail or torn ear.

 “The personal loss is also awful. The calves that are maimed and not killed, we’ve had to put them down. We’ve got four girls, this is a family business, for them to see the cows they’ve been looking after dead or torn apart is terrible.

 “We are forming a committee to pull in all the different agencies and landholders in the area together and make it a coordinated program. National Parks are also on board as they can see the damage happening to neighboring properties and are keen to work with us.

“We all discussed different methods of control, not just baiting or shooting. Trying to find out what is the most effective – not every dog will eat bait, but we may get them in a trap,” Ashleigh said.