THE WILD DOG PEST AT OXFORD.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2290, 15 March 1887, Page 2

THE WILD DOG PEST AT OXFORD.

Ouii Te Awamatu correspondent writes :— I am sorry to hear of the plague of wild dogs at Oxford, as I know from experience what a pest they are in sheep districts. Thev do an incalculable amount of damage and are not easily destroyed, for they develop even more cunning than the fox. Occasionally thoy have been poisoned, but such uistances are rare, for the poison must be laid in the neighbourhood of then , haunts, which are not easy to find. To poison them the meat must bo cooked, or partially so, but under no circumstances must the hands be allowed to come in contact with it. It should be put into a, pot with a stick, and lifted nut thf. same way, the poison to be dropped on out of a bottle, it should then be carried on a stick to the spot chosen, and a shallow hole dug into which the meat is put, and then covered lightly with earth, care being taken to avoid any contact of the. hands or feet with the earth, for these dogs as a matter of course have their sence of smell! developed _to an extraordinary degree. The object in de positing the moat in the ground is to make it resemble in some measure _ another dogs "plant," and by cooking it it is more easily smelt by the dogs. I have, as I have said,' heard of some instances of poisoning, but I must confess they were extremely rare. The most successful method adopted for their destruction was one which was tried by a run-holder on a station near one I was on, on the East Coast near Castle point. The wild dogs were increasing so much that as much as ten pounds were offered for each head, and in some instances fifteen pounds for some that were well known for their destructiveness, for some of the most troublesome werefrequently seen by the shepherds, and became widely known' for their depreciations. This man sent to Australia for a, " kangaroo hound," and soon after his arrival he had the good fortune to wound one of the wild dogs. A sheep dog he had with him at once attacked it—the tame dogs exhibit the utmost hatred for their wild brethern—the kangaroo joined in, and in a short time they killed it. The man went quietly to where it was lying dead, and putting his hands under it lifted it to a standing posture, when the kangaroo hound sprang upon it with great ferocity, worrying it again. From that day out it always attacked them, and never failed to kill it if it overtook one, which it very rarely failed to do. I do not know what the breeding of a " kangaroo hound " is, or if it is bred in any particular way, but I know he sent to Australia for one, and his experiment was thoroughly successful. Bull-dogs would be utterly useless, for two reasons: First, because they are not fast enough — for I never heard of a sheep dog being able to overtake a wild one—and secondly, on account of the. savage nature of the bulldog, which will prompt it to seize the first living thing it meets. It would never catch a wild dog, and would fasten on the first animal it met, so that the cure would be worse than the disease. Mark Twain's description of the speed of the coyote would fit the wild dog perfectly. I have seen some of our fastest sheep dogs in a hill country where dogs develop great powers of speed and endurance, straining every nerve to overtake one, and although) it did not seem to gallop very fast they did not gain an inch. Presently the wild one appeared to remember that he had urgent business to attend to at home, and in a few seconds he was out of sight. I fancy a few couple of fox-hounds would clear them out, for I see no reason why they should not hunt them as keenly as a fox. The worst of the brutes is that they never stop in the vicinity of their night's work. They will kill sheep here to-night, and by daybreak next morning they will be many miles away. After making things lively for a week or two, they will clear out to a fresh place, perhaps forty miles away, for the same dog has been seen and recognised in places that distance apart. Their visits were doubly unwelcome, for they not only did mischief, but their presence entailed ooustant night watching on the part of the station hands. There is one peculiarity about them, and that is that they have never been known to do any damage in the vicinity of their lairs. For that reason it is always difficult to find their dens,. I would recommend the Oxford people to try poisoning if theyhaveany idea of where the dogs make their home, and also try whether a couple of good staghounds —there are some in the country— or greyhounds would run them down, or try and get one of the Australian dogs meutioned. Failing that, I would recommend crossing a swift female greyhound with a bull-dog. Of course, it would bo a year before this plan could be worked, and in the meantime a great deal of mischief will have been done, but the dogs are not likely to be cleared out in that time, especially if there five or six of them. It is always a mat: fcer of difficulty to catch a shoep-killer, and doubly so when it is a wild one, and if these arc not cleared out they will become a terrible soont'ge.