Wild dog, fox and feral cat bounty a good idea, SA Environment Minister says

[Flaviemys purvisi]

SA Country Hour
By Kath Sullivan
July 20, 2018

The South Australian Government will consider a bounty on wild dogs, feral cats and foxes.

(Amy Phillips)

A bounty on wild dogs, feral cats and foxes should be offered to professional shooters in South Australia, says the kangaroo industry.

Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia president and managing director at South Australia's Macro Meats, Ray Borda, has called on the state's government to offer a bounty, in a bid to supplement the income of professional kangaroo shooters.

"They're doing it fairly tough and they're in really remote areas and they've got the highest costs and charges [of professional shooters] in Australia," Mr Borda said.

"If these guys are out there already, if the Government were to look at putting a bounty on foxes, cats and wild dogs it would help the environment, help the man on the land and certainly help the shooter make ends meet."

Mr Borda said that rates of $10 per fox and feral cat scalp, and $120 per wild dog should be offered to the shooters.

Dogger, Don Sallway, adds a wild dog scalp to others hanging from a fence on a property in south-west Queensland, August 2013.

(ABC News: Giulio Saggin)


South Australia's Environment Minister David Speirs said the bounty "appears on the surface a good idea", and would be considered as part of a review of natural resource management.

"A bounty is certainly something we would look at, we're not making any commitments at this stage," Mr Speirs said.

"I've spoken to the kangaroo industry about this, they pitched it to me, the new government is keen to look at good ideas, and this appears on the surface a good idea."

"We may not implement this in all of South Australia, it would probably be limited if we brought it in, to licensed kangaroo shooters and it may be limited to particular parts of the state where those feral pests are a particular problem, I'm thinking specifically of the South Australian arid lands and that's a place where kangaroo shooters spend quite a lot of time."

In Victoria, any person can claim a taxpayer-funded bounty of $10 per fox and $120 per wild dog, but Mr Speirs said the SA Government would only consider a bounty to be paid to professional shooters.

He also said it should be funded by the Natural Resource Management levy.

SA's Opposition Environment spokeswoman Susan Close said any bounty would require careful consideration.

"There's been experience interstate that has shown negligible impacts," Ms Close said.

"Given the considerable resources required to make it work, you need to know it is going to have an effect."

 

[cris]

Interesting, someone who plays a major role in determining the pay for roo shooters says they are not being payed enough...

I'm not that familiar with South Australia but I doubt this would do much other than cost money and be good PR for the roo industry. Limiting to some areas but not only to roo shooters would make sense and might work in more populated areas. I guess as far as the government is concerned it it is more important to be seen to be doing something than working out how to use money wisely.

 

[mrhoyo]

I'm sure they tried this somewhere before and it ended up with people breeding the pest species so they could continue to make money.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[swampie]

There are bounties in place in certain states for foxes and dogs, some states have bounties for both and others have a bounty for one or the other.
The bounties seem to fluctuate in price from year to year, when the price is high you see more people actively hunting these animals, when the price drops it’s not worth the trouble for most people.
I personally don’t bother with the bounties because there is a bit of bureaucratic BS involved in claiming the $$ but I do still shoot the pests when the opportunity presents itself.
It is a shame to have to shoot them as they are all beautiful animals but they do big damage to native populations so I do my part when I can to reduce the numbers.
Wrong place, wrong time by no fault of their own.....poor buggers..