Qld Gov. Search and Grab!

Following hot on the heels of a State and Federal Police raid on the NSW Animal Liberation offices in Sydney a few weeks ago, where all their kangaroo campaign material was siezed and removed, we now have another police raid....this time in Queensland....and this time on a private home. Last week Police and QPWS staff raided the home of a woman photographer on Fraser Island...at 7 am in the morning! Her computer hard drives, her dingo paintings, dingo fridge magnets, photographs, manuscripts, even the dingo autopsy reports gathered under FOI where seized and taken. On the search warrant, they were looking for dog food.

This is Queensland 2009, under a Labor Government!

Save the Fraser Island Dingo Committee are hosting a Dingo Day at Hervey Bay on the 20th September at Apex park, Pialba. from 10 am to 2 pm. Indigenous dancers, story telling, speakers, sausage sizzle, etc. Come along and learn about the Fraser Island dingo!

Our weekly wildlife newsletter Wildlife Bytes will be a tad late next week as we will be away, but much more is yet to come out about the terrible Fraser Island dingo eradication campaign mounted by the Queensland Government against the Fraser Island dingoes....and against those who fight to protect them.

Meanwhile the Fraser Island dingo eradication campaign continues. Queensland's Department of Environment says a dingo that lunged at a child on Fraser Island yesterday (28 th October) has been destroyed. The three-year-old boy was playing at Eurong Beach at the time of the incident. He was not injured. The female dingo involved was found and killed last night.

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Dingo grids are continually overflowing with sand allowing dingoes and visitors to walk across them, says Fraser Island resident Judi Daniel. “Only one year on, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service on Fraser Island seems to have lost interest in maintaining its million dollar electrified dingo grids,” Ms Daniel said. “Having watched the beachfront grid at Eurong fill to overflowing with sand in recent weeks, in the space of five minutes I saw several groups of people casually walking across the electrified tripwires.” Ms Daniel described the grids as “totally overflowing” and said the front grid at Eurong filled up with sand “easily once a month”. She questioned the need for the grids considering the number of people and equipment used to clean them out. “Is it worth it?” Terry Harper, senior director of marine parks at the Department of Environment and Resource Management, has defended grid maintenance.

“The dingo grids are cleaned out as often as necessary. Frequency depends on the effects on sand movement, of wind velocity and direction, volume of rain and amount of vehicle traffic. “QPWS is working closely with Fraser Coast Regional Council engineers to improve the drainage system and consider design modifications for easier access to clean out sand from grids.” Mr Harper said electrified wires on the grids were the more important element in deterring dingoes from entering townships. *Network Item

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The State Government has defended the actions of Environment officers in raiding the home of a woman suspected of feeding dingoes on Fraser Island. A police officer and five Environment and Resource Management officers searched Jennifer Parkhurst's home early yesterday morning at Rainbow Beach, near the island's southern end. Opposition environment spokesman Glen Elmes accused the department of using Gestapo-style tactics to enforce its policies on culling dingoes – which are opposed by island residents, conservationists and animal rights activists. Mr Elmes said the raid raised bigger issues about the treatment of people who dared to question government policies. "This is the sort of thing you'd expect in the Joh Bjelke-Petersen days," he said. "This is a disgrace, using (government) staff like some sort of Gestapo agents.

"They've searched everything from her hard drive to her undie drawer. "Think of all the important issues over there like water quality, backpackers and visitor numbers, yet they put resources into something like this." Mr Elmes said locals had told him that trapped dingoes were injected with Suprelorin, a temporary chemical castration. Ms Parkhurst, a commercial photographer, said the six-hour raid started at 7am and photographs, videos, computer hard drives and personal material were seized. The warrant sought evidence of dry dog food, dried pig ears, butchery bones and Smackos, among other items. "I guess they are trying to find anything to show I've been feeding them," she said. "They say I've been interfering with dingoes while taking photos."

Ms Parkhurst would not say whether she had fed dingoes but said many islanders had. "Lots of people have been caught and fined," she said. "People have had dingoes sleeping in their houses and food bowls on their verandahs but none have had their houses searched like I have. "They don't like anyone telling them they are wrong. I've been trying to stop dogs being hazed and tagged, and juveniles being killed by rangers and they don't like it." A spokeswoman for Sustainability Minister Kate Jones said Mr Elmes' claims about the raid were unfounded and showed disregard for public safety.

Dingoes were creatures that should be interfered with as little as possible. Ms Parkhurst, a member of the National Dingo Preservation and Recovery Program, said she believed the raid stemmed from a freedom of information search she did on autopsies conducted on 95 dingoes euthanased by rangers. "I've been vocal about management and also have been writing a book," she said. "They've been trying to find out what's in it." *Courier Mail