A current news story written by
By Matt Bachl, ninemsnPacks of wild dogs with a taste for blood are menacing rural properties in the country's south, attacking stock and leaving farmers fearing they "may be next".The animals, believed to be mix of wild and domestic dogs gone feral, have been killing lambs, goats and kangaroos in eastern Victoria's Gippsland region.
Local farmer Sharon Pendergast said the dogs hunted in packs of about half a dozen and killed for killings sake.
"These dogs aren’t scared anymore — they'll stare humans down without flinching," Mrs Pendergast said.
"They're on the prowl and people are now being followed," Mrs Pendergast said.
"I wouldn't want to break down in the bush at night-time and have to walk home on my own without a gun."
Her husband Louis said the dogs were about the size of a German shepherd and wouldn't stop their killing spree because they had a taste for fresh blood.
The Department of Primary Industry and Department of Sustainability and Environment have joined the crusade against the animals, laying poisonous baits and traps in the bush as well as calling in professional shooters.
Last week thirty infrared satellite-linked cameras were set up in the Benambra area in the state's east to track the movement of the dogs and to determine where they entered farms.
Mrs Pendergast said the dogs were cunning enough to detect faults in electric fencing, allowing them to slip through and roam onto properties.
"They can work out where the electric current stops … all it really takes is a bad storm or a power failure, the fence goes down and the dogs can get through," she said.
It is believed the dogs were flushed out of the bush after fires tore through the region in 2002, killing animals they would have normally eaten.
The farming couple said they had managed to capture two of the wild dogs.
One was shot and hung on a fence while the other was run down in a 4WD as it attempted to kill a flock of lambs.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=651336