Wild Dog Management Advisory Committee terminated
Victoria’s Wild Dog Management Advisory Committee, which has advised government in various forms for more than 20 years, has been terminated.
THE farmer-dominated committee that pushed the Andrews Government to maintain 1080 aerial baiting of wild dogs in Victoria has been terminated, leaving a vacuum farmers fear will be filled by animal activists and the Greens.
The move has raised fears Premier Daniel Andrews and Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio are removing the Wild Dog Management Advisory Committee in readiness to meet Animal Justice Party and the Greens demands to ban aerial baiting and end the use of 1080 poison.
“There’s no doubt they’re clearing the decks for a Green agenda,” Victorian Farmers Federation Livestock Council president Leonard Vallance said.
Agriculture Minister Jaclyn Symes notified committee members on June 4 that “I have decided not to renew the committee”, but said she remained “committed to source advice from landholders and other stakeholders … outside the formal ministerial advisory committee structure.
“This will provide opportunities for bespoke information to be provided to the Victorian Government.”
National Wild Dog Action Plan Co-ordination Committee Member Peter Star said “I’m not sure what ‘bespoke information’ means, but you can be sure the VFF will be holding the Government to account on committing to continued aerial baiting and use of 1080 to control the scourge of wild dogs”.
“Wild dogs kill native animals, damage the environment, hunt livestock, haunt farmers and cost industry up to $18 million per year.”
Mr Vallance said the VFF was considering setting up its own on invasive vertebrate pests committee, following Ms Symes actions.
Farmers on the committee have not only been frustrated by delays in 1080 baiting and expanding the program, but by the government appointment of two academics to their ranks, who have openly campaigned against aerial baiting.
Wild Dog Committee member and Monash University labour market academic Ernest Healy actively campaigned to end aerial baiting, acting as the media contact for the “Stop the Drop” rally in Melbourne last November 24.
And fellow committee member and Deakin University ecologist Euan Ritchie joined 25 other academics and consultants — ranging from ecologists and geneticists to archaeologists — in writing an open letter to Victorian Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio late last year stating: “We strongly urge the minister to reconsider the application for 1080 aerial baiting.”
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