More than 300 wild dogs have been eradicated under a program designed to protect livestock in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales.
Over the past three years three full-time professional controllers have assisted sheep producers to target and remove problem dogs across the district in conjunction with an extensive aerial baiting program.
The program was developed after sheep properties reported an increase in dog attack numbers which had affected confidence in the local industry.
Frank Bragg, chair of the Hunter Valley Combined Wild Dog Association, said it had been a joint effort between his group, Hunter Local Land Services and several other stakeholders.
"It's been a very successful program; there's been 340 dogs taken out of the system so far," he said.
"The [professional controllers] have really taken out those dogs that we thought were bait-shy and elusive, so it's an amazing result."
Mr Bragg said the reduced dog numbers were a relief to producers across the region.
"For some landholders that still have sheep, it's taken the stress and worry away of having predators out there," he said.
"For those who want to go back into sheep production, [they] can knowing that something is being done about the dog problem."
'A real saviour'
Scone producer Simon Deery had more than 40 dogs removed from near his property in the past two years.
"We were pretty much getting a dog attack every six to eight weeks and that was consistent until the problem dog was removed," he said.
"Trying to build sheep numbers and be diverse on the farm was proving very difficult because we just couldn't keep the numbers up and we couldn't afford to buy them to have them killed.
"The program has been a real saviour here, not to the point our numbers have increased massively yet, but the attacks have decreased and that's the biggest thing."
Despite numbers going down, Mr Bragg said there was still work to be done to eradicate wild dogs in the region.
"There's definitely more dogs out there causing problems that the program is working towards," he said.
"We are also doing some strategic work to see if we can pick up some dogs that aren't causing problems just yet to clear them out too."
