Farm ravaged by wild dogs

Bob Kerle, of Wilsons Creek, calls his sheep into a purpose-built pen to prevent wild dog attacks.

Jay Cronan

BOB KERLE has fought tirelessly during the past few years trying to combat the increasing number of wild dogs that ravage his property and animals almost weekly.

But it was a long-running battle he recently and regrettably lost.

Mr Kerle, who lives at Wilsons Creek, used to have 30 to 40 sheep, but is now down to 11 due to wild dog attacks on his stock.

“We had five dogs here on Tuesday night right near the house,” he said.

“Someone is going to get killed.

“Our neighbour is afraid to walk home at night because the dogs are walking the street.”

Every night Mr Kerle locks up what is left of his herd into a pen, where two fluorescent lights are turned on and a radio is played throughout the night.

While the music and lighting proved successful, the wild dogs started to attack in broad daylight, he said.

“We don’t get much trouble at night time. It’s the daytime killing that is getting them,” Mr Kerle said.

He recently came home to find one of his sheep gutted by a wild dog only moments before the feral animal turned on him.

“It would have had me if it was not for my dog. It was that quick and he was coming straight for me,” Mr Kerle said.

“If it had been a child, it would have been killed.”

Mr Kerle can’t use 1080 baiting to eradicate the problem dogs as he lives too close to a public school and has close neighbours.

Instead, the Wilson Creek resident of 30 years gave up breeding further sheep.

“We don’t bother breeding any more because they are just getting killed,” he said.

“The sheep get gutted and the dogs don’t even kill them.

"The sheep crawl back down to the house and we have to kill them.”

Byron Shire Council agreed yesterday to allocate $20,000 to a wild dog, cat and fox control program in next year’s budget.

Mayor Jan Barham said biodiversity protection was one of the council’s core responsibilities.