National Dingo Preservation and Recovery Program (Inc. A0051763G ) Thursday, April 1, 2016

President of the National Dingo Preservation and Recovery Program Inc. research veterinarian and animal ethics expert, Dr Ian Gunn, called on the Qld Environment Minister Dr Steven Miles, to initiate an independent inquiry into cruelty & mismanagement of the dingoes on Fraser Island. Dr Gunn said the recent inappropriate collaring of a juvenile dingo, which had caused the animal distress was the latest in a sequence of events which raise serious questions about animal welfare aspects of current dingo management on Fraser Island.

This incident involved the use of a heavy radio tracking collar on a juvenile dingo for purposes that appear unrelated to any current research program and therefore for a purpose unrelated to bulky and heavy design of the collar. Photographs taken by a tourist clearly show that the sharp edges of the heavy collar had worn away the fur on the dingo’s neck and would have unnecessarily interfered with the young dingo’s mobility and well-being. That the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service removed the collar after public criticism and the animal was found dead the following day raises more questions than it answers, Dr Gunn said.

Juvenile dingo with bulky/heavy collar 2016- These events follow an incident, in 2015, when another juvenile dingo was ‘humanely’ euthanised after allegedly becoming aggressive.

Necropsy photographs obtained through Queensland Right to Information legislation point to severe physical trauma prior to death. Dr Gunn, who conferred with senior veterinary colleagues over photographic evidence, concluded the dingo had suffered massive internal bleeding in the abdominal cavity consistent with a heavy blow or impact prior to being put down through lethal injection to the heart. There is no discussion of this evidence in the inadequate official necropsy report. Dr Gunn said: “ We have evidence of unacknowledged animal trauma and unanswered animal welfare questions.”

Necropsy report , October 2015 Internal bleeding within abdominal cavity – severe pre-death trauma

Possibly the most serious dingo cruelty incident at the hands of Queensland wildlife authorities occurred on Fraser Island in May 2011, as part of dingo trapping for radio collaring research. The necropsy report for this juvenile male dingo reads like a horror story. Upon examination of the report at the time, Dr Ian Gunn stated:

In all my years as a veterinary surgeon, I have never witnessed anything like this. This animal died in agony while trapped and restrained as part of ‘research’ being conducted by Queensland government authorities charged with its protection. The necropsy report stated that the otherwise healthy dingo had been restrained for ‘some period of time’. It had been pinned down by a pole noose and pinning device. It had chipped and fractured teeth, had extensive internal bleeding, including widespread bruising and haemorrhaging to the thorax, limbs, neck and lumbar spine region, bleeding from the eye, tearing of the muscles between the ribs and the chest wall, and congested and collapsed lungs. In its final moments of life, the dingo vomited its stomach contents into its airways.

Necropsy report 2011

The National Dingo Preservation and Recovery Program subsequently sent a solicitors’ letter to the relevant Queensland government departments and Ministers alleging serious breaches of the law and inadequate animal ethics practices relating to this incident. No acknowledgement was received, let alone action taken. Not one person was held to account.

“It is time for the buck to stop and it has to stop with the Queensland Minister”, Dr Gunn said today. “The Queensland government’s claim that the Fraser Island dingo population is being managed ‘humanely’ is now in serious doubt. The only way to get to the bottom of this mess and, it seems cover up, is to conduct a genuinely independent animal welfare inquiry into dingo management on Fraser Island. The Queensland wildlife authorities seem incapable of this themselves.”

Contact: Dr Ian Gunn BVSc. FACVSc.0427 387778 (mob.)ian.gunn@monash.edu