DOG GONE: Tamworth businessman Ross Freestone with the wild dog killed near Bendemeer.
A wild dog thought responsible for more than 300 stock losses in the Bendemeer area has been shot and killed.
Farmers say the dog had caused excessive sheep flock damage in a stretch of farmland from Congi to Rimbanda over at least the past three years.
Property owner Ross Freestone said the dog had maimed and killed hundreds of sheep and caused untold anxiety and concern for farmers.
Mr Freestone said he’d spent plenty of time tracking the dog over the past few years – but it was a Kootingal man, Sean Newlands, who had claimed the kill last week.
“I was pretty obsessed with his disposal,” Mr Freestone said.
“I had seen flocks of sheep too frightened to bed down and instead of being grouped of a night on the camps, they were scattered.
“Sheep that were not killed but maimed were yarded for treatment and lame from just lust attacks.”
He said the dog’s carcass has been sent for DNA assessment and it appeared by the colour of his black muzzle that he could be dingo with alsatian genetics, although this was only an assumption at this stage.
Mr Freestone said Mr Newlands had just unlocked the gate of a property near Bendemeer, loaded his rifle and had just moved in off the New England Highway.
“The dog had killed two sheep in that paddock and was in the process of eating one when he received his last meal,” he said.
The shooting of the killer dog was not an isolated one for the area, he said, and another dog notorious for sheep losses was despatched a couple of years ago.
