Native animals poisoned, trapped, shot.

Dingoes, despite their status as threatened native animals in Victoria, are being targeted and killed to appease the interests of the animal agriculture industry.

Although alternative, non-lethal options exist, the Victorian Government not only permits, but encourages dingoes to be cruelly killed by poison, trapping and shooting.

A recent investigation by our friends at Farm Transparency Project and Defend the Wild exposed the cruel treatment of this native species under threat.

Dingoes in Victorian bushland were documented with their paws crushed by jaw traps, forced to wait terrified and in pain for the arrival of government ‘wild dog controllers’. One dingo spent an agonising 24 hours trapped and exposed to the elements. The investigation footage shows the dingoes struggling in a panic – even twisting their limbs around trees while trying to free themselves. These trapped animals may never have even set foot on a farm – yet their lives would be ended due to a flawed government policy.

This indiscriminate killing of dingoes, via poisoning, trapping and shooting, contributed to them being listed as a threatened and protected species in 2007. Despite this, a government loophole called a Ministerial Order in Council ‘unprotects’ dingoes in certain regions; on private land or in buffer zones within national and state parks on the basis of ‘protecting livestock’ like sheep and lambs.

Dingoes are often incorrectly called ‘wild dogs’ to make the killing of a threatened species more palatable. Research indicates 99% of Australia’s so-called ’wild dogs’ are in fact pure dingoes or very close relatives of pure dingoes.^[1] Domestic dogs rarely manage to survive and breed in the wild.

 “Wild dog management” programs therefore are, in essence, dingo eradication programs.

Despite ecologists and wildlife advocates urging the government not to renew the Order in Council, it was renewed – and it took legal action by Animals Australia for any concern about the vulnerability of these animals to be taken into consideration.

A week out from our trial date in late 2023, the order was dissolved, sparing the most vulnerable dingo populations in Victoria’s north-west from the killing scheme. However, the Victoria Government implemented a new order that allows land managers to legally trap, poison or shoot dingoes on private land or on public land in areas near national parks, in other parts of the state. This reckless move will continue to put already dwindling populations of native dingoes at risk, while also failing to recognise the significant ecological and cultural importance of dingoes in Victoria. It also means dingoes across many parts of Victoria continue to face extreme and prolonged suffering. 

This ‘unprotection’ order has recently been extended until 2028 . We need your help to put an immediate stop to this cruelty. 

Dingoes have lived in Australia for at least 5,000 years. The traditional custodians of the land treasure the dingo as a totem species – this iconic animal plays an important part in Indigenous culture and history. 

While permitting and facilitating the killing of dingoes, the Victorian Government has made little effort to understand their role in the region’s ecosystems. As apex predators, dingoes ensure populations of other animals are kept in balance. 

Incredibly, the Victorian Government does not know how many dingoes are killed each year in total, leaving researchers and advocates with dire concerns for the continued survival of the already threatened species. The only published figure is that of dingoes who are killed through the state’s ‘bounty system‘.

The loss of sheep – bred to be killed for their meat and wool – is mostly due to farm management practices, not dingoes. In fact, studies show that sheep deaths from predation (primarily foxes) are as low as 7% in Victoria ^[2], making the ‘threat to livestock’ justification for killing dingoes deeply flawed.

In stark contrast, the deaths of 80% of lambs each year nationally are found to be the result of farm management practices such as farmers not providing shelter, selectively breeding for multiple births, starvation, and mis-mothering.^[3][4] Rather than the industry proactively addressing these preventable deaths, dingoes are being demonised and given a death sentence.

There are 15 million introduced sheep in Victoria, and estimates place the number of native dingoes between just 2,700 and 9,000 ^[5] – a frighteningly low number. This native species is being pushed further out of their habitat largely due to farming, and then targeted and killed for simply existing in some of the spaces they have left to call home.

In December 2021, the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Decline of Ecosystems led to the following recommendations being made: 

• The Order in Council that declares dingoes ‘unprotected’ in certain zones be revoked 
• The Fox and ‘Wild Dog’ bounty system be reviewed 
• Agriculture Victoria improve non-lethal strategies 
• The phase-out of the use of 1080 in July 2022, starting in national parks, be considered. 

The state government was required to respond to the recommendations within 6 months but failed to do so. Meanwhile, the Victorian Government has implemented, and extended, the new ‘unprotection order’ and continues to pour  tax-payer funding into the widespread killing of dingoes. 

These resources should instead be put into more humane, non-lethal measures to protect farmed animals from predation, such as electric exclusion fencing and supporting the use of guardian animals, as is being trialled in the north-west.

Call on the Allan Government to immediately revoke the Order in Council declaring most dingoes ‘unprotected wildlife’ and to support landholders statewide to use non-lethal management options.

REFERENCES

[1] Cairns, K. M., Crowther, M. S., Nesbitt, B., Letnic, M. (2021). The myth of wild dogs in Australia: are there any out there? Australian Mammalogy 44, 67-75.

[2] Refshauge G., Brien F. D., Hinch G. N., van de Ven R. (2016) Neonatal lamb mortality: factors associated with the death of Australian lambs. Animal Production Science 56, 726-735.

[3] King, B., Friend, M., Behrendt, R., Morant, A. (2013). Improving Survival of Lambs. EverGraze Exchange, 2.

[4] Kopp, K., Hernandez-Jover, M., Robertson, S., Abuelo, A., Friend, M. (2020). A Survey of New South Wales Sheep Producer Practices and Perceptions on Lamb Mortality and Ewe Supplementation. Animals 10, 2.

[5] Victorian State Government, Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action. Our wildlife: Dingoes (accessed 29.10.2024). https://www.wildlife.vic.gov.au/our-wildlife/dingoes