By Oliver Winn
Yellingbo landowner Mandy Sullivan heard howls emerge from the night. She didn’t know it then, but those howls were a warning for something sinister.
The next morning, she found her German shepherd’s face “ripped up” and her Maremma with a tear all the way up her front leg.
What she’d witnessed was the aftermath of a wild dog attack – something that’s happened more often over the years in the Yarra Ranges.
“It wasn’t until the next morning where I saw her and her face was all ripped up,” Ms Sullivan said.
“We didn’t see them [the wild dogs], but we heard them and we put two and two together. I’m pretty sure that she’s been attacked or went into a fight defending the property.”
It’s not the first encounter Ms Sullivan has had with wild dogs – she’d lost multiple sheep last year which saw her ram displaced three properties down the road, while her baby lambs were killed. What Ms Sullivan described was a gory aftermath.
“They were just slaughtered, not even eaten. Like it was just a game for fun.”
Ms Sullivan found her ram limping, clearly shaken up by the barbaric attack. While the ewes survived and made it home, the baby lambs weren’t so lucky. Strewn across her property, Ms Sullivan found the baby lambs’ bodies one by one.
“The ram’s obviously run the opposite direction to everybody else, and I’m hoping that maybe he saved the females by doing that.”
Out of fear, Ms Sullivan kept her animals locked up in their homes. She can’t afford a repeat of that tragic night.
Ms Sullivan’s story is one of many which detailed gory livestock discoveries, wild dog encounters and long nights keeping watch over cattle.
Steve Ross spent the last three years attending a farmer’s property in Gladysdale after the landowner reported wild dogs attacked his sheep.
The farmer, an 80-year-old man named John, lost 30 animals to wild dogs in 2022. At his age, John struggled with the aftermath as he euthanised dozens of animals and cleaned up their bodies.
“You could imagine the emotional trauma of that, you know. Every night he goes to bed, he’s just wondering if the dogs are coming back for the rest of his livestock,” Mr Ross said.
In the dark of the night, Mr Ross would keep watch over John’s farm. With his rifle at the ready, Mr Ross shot four wild dogs. But the rest got away.
“It’s just so difficult to hunt wild dogs. They’re not like deer or foxes or anything else, they’re very, very smart.”
These experiences led Mr Ross to form the Yarra Valley Wild Dog Action Group (YVWDAG) in an attempt to address the damage dealt by wild dogs in the area.
The group held a meeting at Wandin East Hall on 30 April and concluded the need to document the attacks in order to force the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) to take action.
“We need a formal group, so we can actually make some decisions to get some local action, so then we’re in control of that local action. At the moment, DEECA is in control of our action, and we’re getting nothing,” Steve Ross said at the meeting.
Ms Sullivan hoped government organisations could pull their weight in helping landowners manage wild dog attacks.
“We’ve only got farm fencing on the perimeter of our property, it’s not dog-proof fencing. A lot of it is council border as well so it’s shared with Melbourne Water and Parks Victoria as well. I’m still waiting, it’s probably been five years now, for a new fence to go up,” Ms Sullivan said.
Wild dogs include feral dogs, dingoes and their hybrids and are considered a serious pest in Australia.
But a 2023 study by the University of New South Wales found limited evidence of interbreeding between wild dogs and dingoes which meant most animals previously thought to be wild dogs are likely dingoes.
Because of this, conservationists have called for landowners to practice non-lethal management of wild dogs as dingoes are protected threatened wildlife and have a strong cultural significance to First Nations Peoples in Australia.
Regardless, landowners have bore the brunt of wild dog attacks and are desperate for help, and some see shooting the dogs as the only way to defend their livestock.
“It’s just sad that my animals can’t graze around my house,” Ms Sullivan said.
“I just feel that my poor German shepherd was out there trying to protect us, our property and the livestock – to have her little face ripped up like that, it’s pretty scary.”
