SOME farmers have lost 50 per cent of their livestock to wild dogs.
Assistant Minister for Agriculture Tomasi Tunabuna said some farmers left cattle farming because of this reason.
“The farmers move to town and cities after their cattle were attacked by wild dogs,” he said.
Mr Tunabuna said these wild dogs were difficult to catch.
“The dogs are not owned by anyone; they are living on farms.”
Since these dogs lived in the wild, Mr Tunabuna said their sources of food were sheep and goat.
“The difficulty we are facing is that even though we can desex them, they will continue to attack our livestock.”
As a result, he said a lot of attention was drawn to this issue as it was a common challenge raised by many cattle farmers across Fiji.
“There were high mortality of sheeps and goats due to stray dogs.”
He said many farmers had asked the ministry to use inhumane measures on such wild dogs.
However, he said they would need to conduct consultations with relevant stakeholders to come up with a solution regarding the issue.
