Our dingo is the only remaining large predator in Australia capable of keeping our wildlife healthy by keeping prey and pest species in check. Unfortunately, like our Tasmanian tiger in our shameful past, he is being vilified and killed off by powerful rural and hunting lobbies that clasp to an abundance of ignorance, cruelty and greed. Paying the ultimate price of insufficient action by the government to protect our wildlife, the Tasmanian tiger is now forever gone.
Our dingo is currently the only native animal to be classified as 'vermin', and is being regularly baited with the aerially dropped super-toxin 1080. In Victoria. There is even a $50 bounty in place on their scalps.
If we do not pressure our government to take immediate action to protect our dingo, he will join the Tasmanian tiger as an extinct animal our future generations will only be able to marvel at in old photographs.
As part of their campaign to exterminate our dingo, rural and hunting lobbies spread myths to mislead the public about the real nature of the animals. This makes efforts to drive dingoes to extinction easier by eliminating resistance. The following are some of the most common myths perpetuated, along with descriptions of what represent reality:
Myth 1
'Dingoes decimate native wildlife and ruin ecosystems.'
Reality: Scientific studies of ecosystem conditions on either side of the dingo fence contradict this claim. On the side where dingoes are absent, kangaroos, wallabies, foxes and cats are overpopulating and destroying vegetation and endangered small marsupials. On the 'useless' side where dingoes are present, kangaroo and wallaby populations remain healthy and balanced, allowing vegetation to regenerate; Foxes and cats are also suppressed as a result of predation by dingoes, allowing small marsupials to thrive.
Our dingo is beyond doubt Australia's keystone predator: The species which preys on the weak and sick of the most abundant prey species, keeping herbivore species from overpopulating and out competing one another. Dingoes have been doing this job successfully for thousands of years. With this in mind, it is absurd to suggest that they would suddenly pose a threat to wildlife.
Myth 2
'Dingoes are utterly devastating our sheep industry.'
Reality: The reported losses of sheep to wild dogs in a given year in Victoria and New South Wales are at only around 3,600 and 1,200. Given that Victoria and New South Wales house upwards of 20,000,000 and 35,200,000 sheep, these losses could barely even be represented by a crumb on a pie chart or a percentage of just 0.02%. Vastly more sheep are lost in just a month during live export trips. Livestock losses to wild dogs cost nowhere near as much as the continual baiting of our dingoes with the super-toxin 1080, and show that there really is no 'wild dog problem' in Australia that can't be solved by compensating farmers for losses and/or making them practice more sensible husbandry using proven protective measures such as maremma guardian dogs and exclusion fencing.
Myth 3
'Dingoes are not native, and have been proven to be just introduced feral domestic dogs from Asia. Therefore they are pests that need to be exterminated.'
Reality: Various studies on geological records and samples of dingo mitochondrial DNA have shown that our dingo has been present on the Australian continent for at least 3,500 years, probably up to about 12,000 years. This is a very long time in the context of evolution and has been sufficient for the dingo to evolve and adapt to the Australian environment. By any official definition, the dingo is 'native'.
How the ancestor of dingoes, shown to be the pale-footed Indian wolf by skull morphology studies, arrived in Australia is unknown, can only be speculated about and does not change the fact that dingoes are essential components of Australian ecosystems that must be protected if we wish to preserve our wildlife.
Because dingoes still retain most characteristics present in Indian wolves, it is also highly unlikely that they were subjected to any significant form of domestication that would warrant labeling them as 'feral dogs'. Dingoes truly are Australia's own form of wolf.
Myth 4
'Dingoes are vicious killers that attack humans unprovoked.'
Reality: You can count the number of confirmed fatal attacks of dingoes on humans in our entire recorded history on just half a hand. Compare this to about 15,000 domestic dog attacks per annum.
Dingoes, like wolves in other parts of the world, have an inherent fear and distrust of humans. They generally avoid confrontations with people and flee at the slightest hint of trouble. This is considered by some scientists to be the result of wide-scale persecution of wolves by humans that began with the dawn of agriculture.
The only incidents of 'attacks' on humans by dingoes are recorded in areas where they are habituated to humans by irresponsible people, such as on Fraser Island. In those incidents the dingoes have lost much of their fear of humans as a result of feeding, and behaved more boldly when feeling threatened. There are also incidents of habituated juvenile dingoes attempting to play with people, which are misinterpreted as attacks.
Myth 5
'Pure dingoes are largely extinct, so there is nothing left worth preserving.
Reality: Studies of wild dogs caught in Victoria have supported the notion that the act of mating between wild dingoes and domestic dogs, and consequent successful rearing of the offspring, is actually a very rare occurrence due to the harshness of life in the wild and radical behavioral and biological differences. Natural selection ensures only canines with minimal domestic dog characteristics survive.
Because of this, most so-called hybrids caught only contain an insignificant amount of domestic dog genes and perform the same crucial ecological role that pure dingoes do. Hybridization with domestic dogs is a process that has occurred for wild canine species throughout the world for thousands of years without presenting itself as a serious threat. Hybridization is frequently used to distract the public from the real threat to dingoes (man) and to attempt to justify extermination campaigns.
Please have the courage to defend Australia's endangered native wolf before it is too late!
Voice your opinion in the media and contact the federal and state ministers for the environment, demanding
that our endangered dingo be removed from the vermin list and listed s a protected native species instead.
Mr Peter Garrett - Federal Minister of Environment
Address: PO Box 249, Maroubra NSW 2035
Phone: (02) 6277 7640
Fax: (02) 6273 6101
Email: Peter.Garrett.MP@aph.gov.au
Mr Gavin Jennings - Victorian Minister of Environment
Address: Level 22, 50 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3002
Phone: (03) 9096 8830
Fax: (03) 9096 8866
Email: gavin.jennings@parliament.vic.gov.au
Mr David Templeman - WA Minister of Environment
Address: 29th Floor, Allendale Square, 77 St Georges
Terrace, Perth WA 6000
Phone: (08) 9220 5050
Fax: (08) 9221 4665
Email: david-templeman@dpc.wa.gov.au
Mr Philip Koperberg - NSW Minister of Environment
Address: PO Box A290, Sydney South NSW 1232
Phone: 9995 6750
Fax: 9995 6654
Email: office@koperberg.minister.nsw.gov.au
Donations to the Australian Dingo Foundation are highly appreciated.
Please visit our website: http://www.dingfoundation.org.au
Website: http://www.dingofoundation.org.au Download and print more up-to-date copies of this leaflet: http://www.dingofoundation.org.au/leaflet
© 2007 Dimitrije Nikic. Permission is granted to copy and distribute the above text only in the unmodified form of the leaflet found at the URL http://www.dingofoundation.org.au/leaflet, or in formatted HTML form under the condition that the text is not altered and this notice is included.
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