Call to end dingo cull
FRASER Island dingo advocate Jennifer Parkhurst has called for tougher penalties for parents and guardians of unsupervised children who get bitten.
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FRASER Island dingo advocate Jennifer Parkhurst has called for tougher penalties for parents and guardians of unsupervised children who get bitten.
It was one of many suggestions made by the Rainbow Beach resident and wildlife photographer, who is also vice-president of the Save Fraser Island Dingoes group, when she addressed a full house at the Noosa Parks Association Environment Centre recently.
She called for immediate changes to the policies of the island’s administration body, the Department of Environment and Resource Management, which had allowed practices such as dingo culling and aversion practices, including hazing (shooting with clay pellets fired from a sling shot), the use of electric shock collars and ear tagging, particularly of younger animals.
Her call for tougher penalties for parents and guardians who failed to properly supervise their children on the island, followed the latest incident when a three-year-old girl was bitten on the leg by a dingo when she wandered away from adults while waiting to board a barge.
“We want a change to the management strategy, because clearly it’s not working. We need to stop the fear campaign,” she said.
“People go to Fraser Island and react the wrong way then dingoes approach them.
“There should be rangers in key areas to better educate people about what to do.”
Ms Parkhurst also suggested introducing random food drops to the island. “Starvation is caused by human intervention, and it should be stopped by human interaction.
“Drop the food into the bush, the dingoes will go there and be safe and happy.”
Other dingo management issues included dingo pups being ear-tagged as young as three months, causing their ears to droop and preventing them from hunting appropriately.
She said in some cases it was believed adult dingoes rejected their pups once they had been handled by people.
“Stop the hazing, stop tagging pups, enforce fines for parents not paying attention to children, and make people aware that wild animals live there,” she said.
Ms Parkhurst’s story was featured in an episode of ABC’s Australian Story earlier this year.
One Parkhurst supporter said the island’s dingoes were on the verge of extinction because of government policies which had removed “60% of the dingoes’ food sources” since island management was removed from Forestry.
Originally published as Call to end dingo cull
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