By Callum Ludwig
A Yellingbo resident awoke last week to two of her lambs critically injured after a dog attack, and found out it is all too common an occurrence.
Tamara Van Polanen and her partner woke up during the to dogs barking and didn’t think too much of it before a call from a neighbour prompted them to check on their lambs.
Ms Van Polanan said a vet came out and they had to make the decision to euthanise two of their lambs.
“There’d been lots of teeth puncture marks and tears, and they weren’t in a good way. It was definitely a dog attack, as opposed to foxes because foxes don’t attack large sheep and these guys were eight to ten months old,” she said.
“Wild Dog controllers concluded that the dogs that attacked our sheep were probably domestic dogs, not wild dogs, based on the fact that there was a lot of carrying on and barking that night and that the animals weren’t killed outright, half-eaten and dragged away. Wild dogs are apparently silent killers and hunt for survival so tend to at least eat part of an animal.”
After Ms Van Polanen about the experience on Facebook, others shared their similar experiences of sheep and other livestock being attacked in the area.
Ms Van Polanen said the fact it was suspected to be domestic dogs was heartbreaking.
“You’d think they are easy to control in the sense of you lock your dogs up at night or have them inside. They shouldn’t be roaming around and on other people’s property killing livestock,” she said.
“If people aren’t containing their dogs on their own property, particularly at night, then we are at risk. It’s really sad because animals on your own property shouldn’t be in fear of being attacked and shouldn’t be attacked. I don’t blame the dogs, it’s the people who are responsible.”
Ms Van Polanen informed her neighbours of the incident and has not accused anyone of any wrongdoing. No particular dogs are suspected in the attack, domestic or wild.
Ms Van Polanen said it’s hard to make sure livestock is protected.
“The advice I got was to get electric fences and plug any holes, but the problem we get up here is there are wombats, which is fantastic and lovely to have native animals but they are quite destructive,” she said.
“If we plug up their holes they just go somewhere else. We were also told we could get a guard animal and to be vigilant, but it’s tricky because we can’t be on watch all the time.”
There have been numerous reports of wild dogs in the area, despite the believed circumstances of this incident.
Ms Van Polanen said she never expected wild dogs to be in the area but to help report their presence as it may prevent similar occurrences from happening again.
“If it happens to anyone else, please contact Yarra Ranges council, particularly if you think it’s a domestic dog, or DELWP (Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning) for wild dogs, because the more of us who report it the less chance it is of happening,” she said.
“It’s all about helping people like us in not losing livestock, and the animals like the poor fellow that’s just gone through the trauma of losing his twin brother.”
