Dingo plan will be on LNP hit list

PREMIER elect Campbell Newman has promised to set up an immediate independent scientific peer review of the Fraser Island dingo management strategy.

Campbell Newman says he will set up a review. Picture: CONTRIBUTED

PREMIER elect Campbell Newman has promised to set up an immediate independent scientific peer review of the Fraser Island dingo management strategy in the first 100 days of his new LNP government.

And the implementation of that action can not come soon enough for Noosa-based Marie-Louise Sarjeant following a post mortem report that Ms Sarjeant said showed a young male dingo had endured "enormous cruelty" in May last year.

She supports calls by the national dingo preservation and recovery program for Environment Minister Vicky Darling and the Department of Environment and Resource Management to answer a range of concerns.

NDPRP vice-president and veterinarian Dr Ian Gunn claims there is evidence to suggest collars were fitted to the island dingo population in May last year, three to four months before approval was granted by the DERM animal ethics research committee.

"It appears that the ethical approval for this research was granted months after the research was well under way, which raises serious questions about the legitimacy and rigour that the research proposal was subject to," Dr Gunn said.

Dr Gunn also contends that "several key animal welfare considerations" in the ethics approval application were deficient and the "application should not have been approved without significant modification".

"In my opinion the size and weight of the radio collar apparatus used in this research, weighing half a kilogram, may be excessive with the potential to interfere with the dingoes' ability to interact normally with its natural environment, including its ability to hunt efficiently," Dr Gunn said.

"Nor is sufficient consideration given to the potential for traumatisation of the animals during the capture, restraint and collaring process."

Dr Gunn said the NDRP had grave concerns about apparent "gross cruelty" to a deceased Fraser Island dingo at a time when the radio collaring had started.

He says it is unknown whether the juvenile male dingo was wearing a collar when it died, but a necropsy report indicates the animal was part of the DERM research.

Dr Gunn said the report "reads like a horror story".

"In all my years as a veterinary surgeon, I have never witnessed anything like this," he said.

"This animal died in agony while trapped and restrained."

He said the report called for a critical review of the capture and restraint procedures for dingoes and emphasised this outcome was avoidable.

"To put it bluntly, this animal was strangled to death and died in agony," Dr Gunn said.

Originally published as Dingo plan will be on LNP hit list