Pest control is our main objective, working the dogs, mostly on rabbits throughout Otago. Vineyards, Lifestyle blocks, Farms, Gardens and DOC reserves.
The dogs work in many ways, as a team or individually. The dogs will indicate where the rabbits are for ferreting or will flush them to be shot or run into longnets. We also work at night with the dogs catching rabbits in the beam of a spotlight.
The dogs and ferrets are ideal in areas that are unsafe to shoot.
A weasel trapped with a DOC 200 trap
We also run trap lines for various clients, mostly predator traps for the killing of stoats, ferrets, hedgehogs, rats and cats. At present we service over 700 traps in the area. This in turn gives the native wildlife a chance to prosper.
If you would like to enhance the wildlife on your property then a few traps would be a worthy consideration.
Night shooting is also undertaken mainly for the larger areas, an excellent method of rabbit and hare control. If the client would like the dead rabbits removed from their property one of the dogs 'Moon' rides on the back of the quad and waits until a rabbit is shot, then when given the command off she goes and retrieves the rabbit to me. She jumps back up on the quad and drops it into the rabbit container.
Wild cat trapped in a cat trap and humanely dispatched. This one had been feasting on local bird life at Mount Aspiring National Park
Another cat tracked by the dogs and humanely dispatched. This one was killing a lot of wetland birds from around a private lake.
A ferret trapped using Mk6 Fenn traps
A few Links about Billy and the Bunny Catchers
Rabbits ferreted from a warren using long nets, dogs and of course ferrets
After a night shoot a lot of walking and retrieving for Moon 'Give a dog a job and make it happy'