Mission Beach dog attack on cassowaries raises calls for tougher laws

A Far Northern conservation group is calling on its local council to become “more proactive” in wildlife management following a deadly attack on two juvenile cassowaries.

A FAR Northern conservation group is calling on its local council to become “more proactive” in wildlife management following a deadly attack on two juvenile cassowaries.

Mission Beach Cassowaries’ Liz Gallie believes Cassowary Coast Regional Council could do more to protect the endangered birds, after two roaming dogs, since captured, reportedly killed two juvenile cassowaries and a number of chickens at Mission Beach last week.

“We call on the Cassowary Coast Regional Council to take some decisive action with stronger local by laws to protect our special wildlife,” she said.

Ms Gallie said roaming dogs had long been an issue around Mission Beach and wanted the council to demonstrate it “knows how special the place is.”

“There’s a lot more we’d like to see them do. We know they’re encouraging expansion at Mission Beach and giving incentives to developments for reduced fees.

“Those fees could be used to fund better wildlife management.

“At the moment, if there’s wild dogs you can call council officers, but it will take them a while to get there and there aren’t any for the weekends.

“They could have more officers.”

Ms Gallie feared as the population of Mission Beach inevitably grew, so would cassowary incidents involving dogs.

“Dogs are often seeing walking off-leash with their owner, it’s not allowed, but they also haven’t designated any off-leash areas, and with more people moving and building here, it’s only going to get worse.

“We’d like the council to allocate more resources to animal management, and show us they really care about cassowaries and our area.”

Cassowary Coast Mayor Mark Nolan welcomed Ms Gallie’s comments on strengthening local laws, and encouraged residents to continue lobbying their councillors for changes.

“All the Far Northern mayors recently came together and called on the State Government for review of the FNQ Region Plan. This covers things like biodiversity, environmental management and animal management. So I’d 100 per cent support strengthening laws,” he said.

Originally published as Mission Beach dog attack on cassowaries raises calls for tougher laws