(Aus) Fraser Island dingoes face extermination

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

 

The dingoes on Fraser Island are some of the most

pure breed dingoes in Australia. It is scandelous that they

are being decimated in retaliation for having attacked humans.

According to the following email from

Animal Liberation NSW, all the dingoes on Fraser Island

may yet be killed.

 

 

Forward from Animal Liberation NSW (Australia)

******************************************************

The Fraser Island dingo kill is still going on, the Queensland Labour Gover

nment have adopted a 'shoot any dingo that approaches a human' policy.

 

Dingoes with territories near camp sites are being replaced by other hungry

dingoes within FOUR hours of the previous dingoes being shot. There is the

potential that every dingo on Fraser Island may be killed as the remaining

dingoes have already gone below the genetically viable numbers.

 

The good news is Friends of the Earth and some of the Traditional Owners

(the Dalungdalee people) are building a fence on their land to try to

separate the dingoes from the tourists and therefore stop the dingo

shootings.

If anyone can get up to Fraser Island please do, you can contact them in

Brisbane on ph: (07) 3846 5793.

 

Please write to the Queensland Government today to save the Fraser Island

dingo from extinction:

 

Hon Dean Wells MLA

Minister for Environment

Ph: (07) 3225 1800

email: environment

 

Hon Peter Beattie

Premier of Queensland

Ph: (07) 3224 4500

email: Premiers

[Guest guest]

Here is another update re: the dingo issue, so if you are writing to Wells

and Beattie, you should mention your awareness and disgust of the baiting.

 

FWDed from Animal Lib QLD Mailing List:

 

The poisoning has already started - we have been notified by a member of the

public who has just been there and witnessed rangers putting a warning sign

up on a tree that baits were laid in the area! We need to write AGAIN to the

Minister for Environment and the Beattie to let them know that we know they

are doing this hoping the public won't find out!

 

Their details again:

Hon Dean Wells MLA

Minister for Environment

Ph: (07) 3225 1800

email: environment

 

Hon Peter Beattie

Premier of Queensland

Ph: (07) 3224 4500

email: Premiers

 

P.S. From memory, this email address does not work for Mr Beattie, if my

hunch is right, the correct email addy is thepremier

 

And another email fwded from Animal Lib QLD:

 

Australians For Animals Newsletter

 

Dear Friend

 

In defiance of the Queensland Government, this charity has gone out to

Fraser Island and not only fed the dingoes but we have also arranged for

one of the traditional owners, the Dalungbara people, to carry out regular

food drops. AFA led a small team of activists on a field trip to the World

Heritage island.

Incredibly, we were the ONLY activists who have bothered to visit the island

since the tragic killing of a 9 year old boy and the ensuing dingo cull. So

many conservation groups sit in their air conditioned offices in Brisbane

and the rest of the country making pronouncements about the dingoes without

the benefit of a single field trip! Preferring to insist that the " purity of

the island's ecosystem " be maintained.

 

What this means in plain language is that the dingoes should not be fed but

left to starve to death. At Fraser Island we arranged to meet with

Aboriginal elder, John Jones together with members of his family who are

willing to catch fish for the dingoes and make regular food drops to keep

this 4000 year old race alive. The field trip lasted three days, and it was

an unbelievable experience.

 

Here is my first hand account. Late the first evening, our small group,

accompanied by a TV crew from Today Tonight, drove our four wheel drive

vehicle on to the beach near Happy Valley. It was dusk, and to our delight

we sighted our first dingo. The animal was young and very thin. He was

stalking a lone bird, an oyster catcher. One of those sights which stay

etched in the soul - a lone dingo and a lone bird, the only animals to be

seen for kilometres and kilometres along the desolate empty beaches.

 

We quickly stopped, I grabbed a big fish skeleton with plenty of meat on it

out of the eskies which held over 60 kg of food.... creeping up as close

as I could without frightening the dog . I threw him what must be his first

decent meal. The dingo quickly ran off into the bush with the big fish

skeleton in his mouth. Reduced to living off cockroaches, grasshoppers,

skinks and the odd scrap they scrounge, many are surviving by digging up

campers' buried faeces. We saw animals with their stomachs almost stapled

to their spines.. some had bones sticking up through their fur. Such

cruelty to wild animals is a terrible thing to witness. Later that evening

we saw two more skinny starving animalsfurther down the beach .. the empty

beach. No birds, no fish scales, skeletons.. nothing.

 

The Queensland government passed a by law some years ago which insists that

fishermen bury all their fish waste. Thereby depriving the dingoes of their

major source of food. We watched in horror as a four wheel drive vehicle

tried to run over one of the animals. You have to wonder what is wrong

with the human race! Over the last ten years the dingoes have systematically

been starved. First the wild horses went, one of the most brutal episodes

on the island. They were shot, or herded into pits and shot.. Prior to

this slaughter, the dingoes survived on brumbies. Because the horses

took in their food with copious amounts of sand, many of them died of sand

colic. Many foals were not strong enough to survive, the dingoes kept the

horse mob healthy and themselves fed. Then the government shot out the

cattle.. another food source. Then they closed the rubbish dumps where the

dingoes fed. They passed a by law forcing fishermen to bury their fish

scraps which make up around 50% of the dingo diet. Tourists were told not

to feed the dingoes - so a long chain of events set up a situation where

there was simply no food. Just humans. No wonder the dingoes attacked the

poor little 9 year old and his brother, the Queensland government has

substituted humans for brumbies. What do they expect a starving animal to

do? What does Mr Beattie expect the dingoes to eat? Air??? The cull was

so horrific that it's a wonder the RSPCA isn't taking action against the

Queensland government.

 

Many of you will have read about Socks, a four/five year old dingo who just

used to hang around the Eurong Resort reception steps, lying in the sun,

getting the odd feed. She was friendly, almost tame. The staff all loved

her. When the Queensland Premier said 30 dogs had to be killed, rangers who

were inexperienced in shooting animals were sent out with .22 calibre

rifles, a most unsuitable weapon to kill a dingo. Socks who had done

nothing to harm anyone was shot - in the head. She didn't die but suffered

for two more days before rangers were forced to bribe her with a sausage,

taking the dingo to the beach where she was put out of her misery. We were

told that at least four more dingoes were shot and wounded and left to die.

One local told us about a dingo who bled to death from its wound in the

Central Station Creek. Others told us that at least one of these animals was

still alive and wounded. We heard that most of the rangers involved in the

shooting are being counselled because of the trauma they have experienced.

 

No wonder! Instead of shooting any rogue animals up near Indian Head or

Waddy Point where the young boy was killed, rangers went up and down the

island killing ANYTHING they could find! Dogs who just hung harmlessly

around resorts or the Lake. If it was nearby, it was shot. Local experts on

dingo behaviour tell us that the social dynamics of the dingo population

have been almost destroyed by the kill. The fate of the Fraser Island dingo

is truly in balance. We desperately need help to raise funds to pay the

Aboriginal people who will fish for and drop food to the dingoes once a

week. AFA reckons it will cost around $500 a week as the boys will be

fishing for several days with a trawling net, there's petrol to cover and

then the food has to be dropped in key areas along the island.

 

The Queensland Premier has vowed to fine AFA to the maximum ($1500) for

defying the law and feeding the Fraser Island dingoes. We say - go ahead Mr

Beattie, let's argue the case in court. Let's see who really is guilty!

 

In many parts of the forest - all you can hear is silence. Or the crows.

There's no life, nothing. Everything is silent. On the beaches you can see

the outlines of heaps and heaps of plastic bottles, plastic sheeting,

containers - all sorts of shit that has been buried under the sand.

 

All we saw in three days of driving up and down the beaches were two pairs

of sea eagles, three oyster eaters and a flock of terns. Otherwise the beach

front was like the forests. Silent. Empty.

No World Heritage Area should be subjected to this invasion of tourists.

 

The orgy of people who spew from the barges every day of the week stamp

their cigarette butts into the ground, they fill up the garbage bins with

empty cans of coke are having a devastating effect. We were shocked to see

virtually no signs warning people that the dingoes might attack and to be

careful. The Queensland Government KNOWS that there is a strong likelihood

of more attacks - the dingoes have absolutely nothing to eat so of course

they will prey on humans.

 

Right now, female dogs are in season. In another few months, those that can,

will give birth although AFA seriously doubts that their malnutrition

status will allow to many animals to survive, much less be born.

Fraser Island is one big mess. The plight of the dingo is so serious that

all Australians should be concerned. This is what awaits our wildlife

heritage - ignorant vicious governments determined to stamp out these

creatures without mercy or compassion.

 

Please help AFA work with the Dalungbara people in saving these dingoes. We

are SO pleased to be working with some wonderful Aboriginal warriors who

feel just as sickened and concerned by the plight of these dogs.

 

We will be seeking a permanent solution to feeding the dingoes but in the

meantime, if they are to survive, the animals MUST be fed and at this point

in time, food drops are the only answer. And a lawsuit.

 

For the Animals,

Sue Arnold,

Co-ordinator

Australians For Animals

P.O. Box 673

Byron Bay NSW 248l

Australia

Tel: 61 2 6684 3769

Fax: 61 2 6684 3768

Email:

sarnold

 

***anyone wanting to be involved in helping the dingoes please contact sue

at the above no.

or phone kim at ALQLD 3255 9572

 

 

_______

 

Get your free @ address at