Eyewitness report from Fraser Island
"I understand that DERM recently announced as part of their management strategy for FI, that dingoes would be discouraged (by hazing) from walking along the beach before 5pm and after 5am, in an attempt to keep them away from people.
This evening, at 5.45 pm, during an evening walk along the beach on FI I saw a young dingo bitch and her puppy patrolling the high tide line (clearly they have learnt the new rules). The bitch went over the dune and disappeared, but the pup lingered on the dune and was still visible from the beach but simply minding its own business when it was spotted by a ranger’s vehicle. The rangers stopped instantly, did an extremely tight u-turn and hazed the pup with a slingshot. The pup was hit, the shot frightened the life out of it, and it disappeared over the dune. The rangers then tore off down the beach.
I went over to investigate; it seemed the pup had run into a swamp type area and was howling. The bitch appeared and looked extremely concerned. She must have witnessed the event, and seemed too scared to come out of her hiding place to find her pup, which continued to howl.
If this is not disrupting pack structure, I don’t know what is. If this is not sport, I don’t know how else to describe it. Might I also add that the bitch had an ear that was tagged so badly the ear was drooping to the point of being closed, and it looked like some debris was lodged in the tag.
The bitch went in search of her pup, and I was left wondering what the management of Frazer island has come to, that innocent creatures are no longer allowed, within their DERM-allocated time slot, to go about their usual behaviors. There were a few other people on the beach at the time, I hope they didn’t see the disgraceful way that the rangers behaved towards our island’s most valuable tourist draw-card."
Ed Comment; This disgracefull behavior by FI Rangers against the dingoes is inexcusable. In spite of a decade of the community expressing concern to Government about the treatment of dingoes on Fraser Island, its all fallen on deaf ears.
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Well I think it is about time the public began to fight back and start holding the Rangers accountable. Most are not qualified at anything. The public should begin fronting the Rangers and telling them to stop this cruelty. Take photo's of their actions and get their names. I know the Gympie Times and Fraser Coast Chronicles would love to print those stories.
ReplyDeleteMaybe even haze the Rangers too, let their tyres down, anything to let them know the Public will not stand anymore to this cruelty.
And on another note, who was the idiot who thought up the idea to keep the dingoes off the beach until 5pm ? As if Dingoes have wear watches. The dingoes are coming onto the beach everyday looking for food like they have for 100's of years. The Tourists just come and poo and piddle then nick off, so you tell me who has the right to access to the beach ?