Last Update: Wednesday, October 5, 2005. 1:33pm (AEST)
Farmers back aerial dog baiting trial

Farmers in Victoria's Gippsland high country are supporting plans to trial aerial baiting for wild dogs.

Aerial baiting is used on public land in New South Wales but is banned in Victoria.

Concerns have been raised that predatory native animals could also target the poison baits.

But the new president of the Omeo branch of the Victorian Farmers Federation, Fraser Barry, says a trial in Victoria would answer those questions.

"Probably the hold-up is to get some research done in Victoria to see how effective that is, but the research has been done in NSW so it's about time I think on a personal basis that Victoria did its own research to prove the findings that they've found everywhere else so that we can get on with it," he said.

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Last Update: Thursday, October 6, 2005. 2:00pm (AEST)
Environmental group against aerial dog baiting

Environment groups have raised concerns at a push for aerial baiting in Victoria's remote East Gippsland.

Landholders want poison baits to be dropped from planes to help tackle the wild dog problem.

But Environment East Gippsland says the baits will threaten carnivorous native wildlife like the endangered spot-tailed quoll.

The group's Jill Redwood says the animal is on the brink of extinction and should not be put at risk.

"Whether it's Government surveys that show that only maybe 14 per cent of the quoll populations die or whether it's the non-government scientific studies that show up to 70 or 80 per cent of the quoll populations die, it doesn't matter," she said.