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We can all play our part in seeing that the dingo gets the protection it rightly deserves as our only native apex land predator...

Some things to ask for when writing to federal and state ministers of the environment:
1. Amend all state and territory legislation to provide protection to dingoes, to be consistent with the defination of a native animal in the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, 1999;
2. Develop a management plan to coexist with dingoes that is ecologically sustainable;
3. Develop management strategies based on scientific data collected;
4. Increase community education, awareness and involvement in dingo management;
5. Establish an independent committee to review legislation, policies and management plans involving wild dogs and dingoes; and
6.Increase collaboration with international wildlife research institutions.
SEND YOUR EMAILS TO:
As requested, the email address for the Federal Minister for the Environment, Hon Greg Hunt MP: Greg.Hunt.MP@environment.gov.au
Links: http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/hunt/index.html
http://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian…

 


Email address for the Minister, Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, Hon Dr Steven Miles: environment@ministerial.qld.gov.au
Link: https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/…/cur…/list/MemberDetails…
https://www.ehp.qld.gov.au/about/organisation/minister.html
Federal: Greg.Hunt.MP@environment.gov.au
CC to:
West Aust: albert.jacob@mp.wa.gov.au
NSW: office@stokes.minister.nsw.gov.au
Victoria: lisa.neville@parliament.vic.gov.au
QLD: glass.house@parliament.qld.gov.au
QLD : environment@ministerial.qld.gov.au
NT: Minister.Chandler@nt.gov.au
SA: Minister.Chandler@nt.gov.au

And how about contacting Australia's first ever Threatened Species Minister
ThreatenedSpeciesCommissioner@environment.gov.au

Here are some sample emails that we and others have sent in the past months.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aussie CANIS DINGO DAY

April 20

 

Here's an example of last Email sent:
Dear Hon.Greg Hunt.MP and fellow state environmental ministers also included in this email.
I'm writing to you with a genuine plea to change all current laws and give the dingo (Canis sp Dingo) full protection.
As a dingo guardian and advocate I call on yourself as the Australian Minister for the Environment to reconsider current laws, classifications and practices toward this much maligned, misunderstood and persecuted animal.
The current action plan neglects standards for ethical treatment of animals promoted by several Australian and international institutions. Ten of eleven control methods included in the current action plan also are identified as less humane in the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy. The Action Plan requires more strict regulations to prevent cruelty to animals.
Scientific studies worldwide have shown unambiguously that entire terrestrial landscapes regenerate in the presence of top carnivores, and degenerate in their absence.
The ecological influence of dingoes stands out internationally as one of the strongest examples of the importance of a top carnivore for ecological functioning and biodiversity conservation.
This significant body of research is grossly underrepresented in the Action Plan. Pastoralism is a biodiversity-based industry and inevitably depends on coexisting with other species.
Dingo conservation will improve livestock productivity by increasing landscape productivity, and therefore the value of stock. Progressive and visionary thinking is most important for Australian livestock industries threatened by the burden of dramatic climatic fluctuations, natural disasters, trade agreements and commodity market prices. 
Capitalising on the wider range of values that dingoes represent offers a more sensible strategy to achieving ecological sustainability and a vibrant future for Australian producers.
We do acknowledge that dingoes can have significant financial and emotional impacts on graziers, and may in some cases threaten the viability of some farms. The current action plan however, has overestimated the efficacy of lethal control and has failed to consider that it may exacerbate predation on livestock. By fracturing packs, lethal control leads to increased breeding and immigration rates, higher densities, loss of territorial boundaries, and a juvenile-skewed demographic. Non-lethal approaches, particularly the use of guardian dogs, are prooving to be more effective both in Australia and the USA.
To sum up these are the following things myself and many others would like yourself as Australia's Minister for the Environment to consider and enact on behalf of the dingo.
1; update species classification to match recent science (Canis Dingo).
2; Full instatement and protection as a native mammal under the National Parks and Wildlife ACT with associated protection.
3;More research and support for existing studies into the dingoes current situation and extinction threat.
4; Removal of pest/noxious animal classification across the country.
5; Better acknowledgement of the important role the dingo places both in the natural ecology and with introduced pests.
6; Research and funding into better farming methods and management that doesn't simply involve killing native wildlife for profit but involves modern science and research.
7; The banning of 1080 baiting and other inhumane control methods such as trapping, expecially steel jaw trapping.
In summary five critical areas that will improve dingo management include:
1; Recognition that wild dogs are not dingoes. Roaming and homeless dogs are distinct from dingoes by their reliance on humans. The term 'wild dog'is a political euphemism used to justify culling dingoes with impunity and should be removed.
2; Non-lethal management tools, particularly livestock guardian dogs, should be encouraged to empower communities to transition to sustainable pastoralism.
3; Consequences of predator-control on landscape productivity and ecosystem health must be acknowledged.
4; A comprehensive review of contemporary scientific literature on dingoes is essential.
5; Acknowledgement of the dingo as a sentient socially complex animal that has the potential to experience extreme suffering when pack members are killed or injured.
I look forward to your response on the above matters.
Yours sincerely
Jenny-Lee Parker.

Copy of Arian Wallach's last email:


To the Hon Greg Hunt
I am writing to you with trust that you are able to make a significant and positive contribution to biodiversity conservation in this country. I congratulate you, and us all, on the decision to stop the WA shark cull. Scientific research has unequivocally demonstrated the crucial ecological role of apex predators. The oceans need sharks. The land needs dingoes. The dingo is in fact one of the strongest examples of this important ecological function. Predator control, we now know, is driving the very problems it aims to correct. It doesn’t even help farmers. My partner and I have spent the past two years managing a predator-friendly cattle station in northern SA. Attack rates on calves declined when dingoes were left alone. We have an enormous opportunity to change the tide for biodiversity simply by relaxing persecution of dingoes. In fact, every dollar not spent on killing dingoes, every dollar not transformed into 1080, is a major contribution to biodiversity. 1080 will go down in history as the most significant blunder of conservation. This is one area of the budget that must be cut.
Protecting ‘wild dogs' is the right thing to do. 
It is right for biodiversity. 
It is right economically.
It is right for a sustainable pastoral industry. 
It is right for people who inherently do love animals. 
And it is right to end 200 years of relentless persecution.
Sincerely
Arian
--
Arian Wallach, PhD
Churchill Fellow
The Dingo for Biodiversity Project 
University Fellow, RIEL
Charles Darwin University
Phone: +61 7 41869200 | Skype: wallach.arian1

 

 

Copy from Leigh Mullens Email last sent:
Dear Minister Hunt,
(State & Territory Ministers)
"Will you be the Minister(s) that permitted the Dingo to go the way of the Thylacine? Or will you be the Minister(s) that will be applauded by future Australian generations for saving them?"
The Dingo (Canis sp.dingo) has inhabited the Australian continent for thousands of years. The theory & personal opinion of ONE man in the 80's proposed that they were 'introduced' as domesticated village dogs only 3000-4000 years ago by trading Asian fishermen simply because they 'looked' like dogs he observed whilst on holiday in Asia. A claim he backed up because of the lack of fossil evidence prior to this date. 'argumentum ad ignorantiam' .. "the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence"
But there is 'evidence' to the contrary of the 'searfarer' theory. DNA Evidence.. The earliest (2004) DNA studies can trace the Dingoes arrival back to ~12,000 years. The most recent (Aug 2014) analysed the DNA of Wolves, Dogs and Dingoes. Present in domesticated dogs was the gene (AMY2B) This genetic mutation commonly found in Dogs but rare or absent in Dingoes and Wolves presented itself the adaptation for dogs to digest complex starches only found in agrarian human societies. Societies that did not exist until at least 14,000 years ago. The genetic absence of this gene in the Australian Dingo irrefutably rules out descent from domestic Asian village dogs and points to an 'arrival' time for the Dingo of at least 14,000 years ago. Carbon dating of Aboriginal art and weathering dating of Burrup Peninsular petroglyphs could push this date many thousands of years further into the pliestocene era.
http://www.plosgenetics.org/…/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjourna…
This seafarer 'opinion' has somehow become entrenched as 'fact'. The current 'facts' and science of modern DNA analysis supports a much older 'migration' to the Australasian conjoined continent of Sahul comprising Australia & New Guinea.
Regardless of the Dingo's arrival date, he plays a vital and established role in the Australian ecosystem as Apex predator. As Federal Environment Minister you are acutely aware of the necessity for this balance. Without a healthy Apex predator population, ecologies collapse. Trophic cascade.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophic_cascade This is Biology 101. http://www.rewilding.org/TopDownRegulation.html
It has been irrefutably proven by Eureka award winning Australian scientists that where stable Dingo packs exist, biodiversity is greater. Fauna & Flora. Endangered native species cohabit with Dingoes and enjoy protection from predation by invasive introduced mesopredators such as feral cats, & foxes. Dingoes also control invasive herbivore/omnivore species such as goats rabbits & feral pigs that devastate the flora and environment. They also benefit native herbivore populations such as kangaroos and wallabies, keeping their numbers in check and removing the weak, old or injured. Much like Lions do in Africa.
Since the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, the Dingo has been persecuted to near extinction because of the perception that they can not coexist with domestic stock. The same persecution that was directed at the wrongly accused Tasmanian Thylacine, and everyone is well aware how that ended up.
Current and past methods of Dingo & 'wild dog' control have exacerbated stock depredation issues.
The anecdotal 'evidence' of 'wild dog plagues' and 'dogs that ate the sheep industry' purported in heavily biased ABC rural media can directly be attributed to the past and present persecution of the Dingo.
Stable hierarchically intact Dingo packs will preferentially hunt macropods and other pre-European food sources. In 1788, four cattle wandered off from the Sydney colony, surely devoured by the local Dingoes? No, in 1795 a healthy herd of over forty cattle was discovered. The area was named 'Cow Pastures'.. Governor Macarthur quickly snapped up the region for himself began to kill the Dingoes for their perceived threat. Stock predation increased. The cycle began.
'Control' destabilises pack structure, removing the Alpha pair. This destabilised pack can no longer hunt preferential prey cooperatively, and will then turn to easier, less resource, energy required prey. Slow moving, flocking flighty sheep, or weak young calves.
These juveniles, or dispersed adults will now attempt to set up new territory and their own/new pack. Once subordinate female pack members, previously prevented from breeding by their Alpha female will now all come into season and will couple with the first viable mate they encounter. In many cases, this will be a domestic dog, working dog or dumped hunting dog. Their fertile hybrid offspring now have the genetic ability to conceive and produce 2 litters per year, as opposed to the single annular breeding cycle of the Alpha female Dingo.
Yes Dingoes do take some stock, but I would argue that statistically, more sheep and cattle die due to poor husbandry methods or en-route via live export transport. The 'acceptable' mortality rates for live export are around 5% . Deaths due to predation by Dingoes and 'wild dogs' is far less than this figure, so why is this much lesser amount not acceptable? The reported losses of sheep to Dingoes & '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%.
The reported 'costs' of many 10's of millions of dollars to the pastoral industry because of 'wild dogs' is NOT the value of the stock 'lost' to predation but the 'cost' of ineffectual lethal 'control' programs. Bounties, aerial & ground baiting, trapping, 'control' professionals etc.
The cost of actual lost stock is a mere fraction of this reported 'cost' to the industry. These millions of dollars should be directed to more effective programs such as education, exclusion fencing, livestock guardians, fladry techniques and pastoral compensation for verified predation losses. Some states in the USA have implemented such programs with great success and a reduction in associated 'costs' and reduction in predation by Wolf and Coyote statistics..
http://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/610.150
http://www.predatorfriendly.org/
http://www.defenders.org/…/oregon-passes-landmark-wolf-coex…
http://www.dingobiodiversity.com/
230+years of the persecution in Australia of it's native Dingoes has NOT worked and as said, is making the situation much worse. Time to change methods. The insanity of current lethal control methods must stop!
The cruelty inflicted by these methods is abhorrent and has no place in a civilised society in the 21st century. In 1863, Charles Darwin described the leg hold trap as the cruellest device ever invented by man and offered a 50£ prise for anyone who could devise an alternative. Over 150 year later the same device is still legal to be used on Dingoes in Australia. Toothed jawed traps are 'prescribed' inhumane devices, Strychnine & Cyanide is a 'prescribed' inhumane toxin, yet all are permitted to be used to kill Dingoes. If these methods were employed to kill a domestic dog in a back yard, the RPSCA would prosecute to the full extent of animal welfare legislation, yet they are 'hand bound' by 'pest status' legislation that permits the use of these methods to eradicate Dingoes, exempting those who employ them from animal cruelty prosecution.
And then we have 1080. NOT a naturally occurring substance derived from the Gastrolobium pea plants found in Australia. Australian natives have a supposed immunity to the toxin, yet it is specifically used in New Zealand to kill native Australian Possums that have become invasive.
It is a synthetically concentrated artificial toxin borne of War as a device to terrorise civilian populations. It was developed independently by both Allied and Axis scientists in WWII. 1080 is acutely toxic to humans, concentrated, colourless, tasteless odourless, stable, highly water soluble, results in a delayed & agonising death. NO ANTIDOTE. Designed to be secreted into domestic water supplies to kill civilians.http://www.wadingo.com/1080truth.pdf
This artificial toxin has been found by the RSPCA to be 'Cruel and Inhumane', yet we dump it across our ecosystem, causing Dingoes to die in agony and poisoning the Australian ecosystem from the ground up. 1080 is banned in its country of manufacture, the USA, and worldwide because of the inhumane nature of death, environmental impact and threat to human safety. Why is it still used in Australia when the threats are known?
IT'S TIME FOR CHANGE!
There is overwhelming scientific evidence that the Dingo, as our only terrestrial Apex predator is vital for a healthy balanced ecosystem, yet the Dingo is still not even listed in the current Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
The Dingo must be included in this Legislation under it's correct Taxonomy, Canis sp.dingo.
Citizen's Petition with 5678 signatories submitted to Senate by Senator Waters, 9th May 2012 sits on the Table and requires your action.
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/…/hansard_frag.pdf;fileType=appl…
Dingoes, Canis sp.dingo to be 'excluded from declaration' on the 'List of Declared Animals' (Agriculture and related resources Act 1976) (WA) (Similar exclusions to be enacted in other Australian States & territories)
There must be uniform FEDERAL legislation giving the Dingo protection as a VULNERABLE NATIVE SPECIES as recognised internationally by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)
Inhumane & barbaric methods of 'control' must cease immediately! It should not be a defence of law to be legally cruel because of an animal's 'status'.. This is the 21st century!
A HALT on all control practices in areas of no pastoral or agricultural significance.
The creation of REAL conservation areas in WA (and other States & Territories) where Pure Dingo populations are FULLY protected.
The formation of a Conservation and Research establishment, dedicated to the Dingo.
A complete and independent review of wild dog / Dingo management programs and practices, with special regards to animal welfare and consideration given to published scientific evidence regarding the Dingo's role in the Australian ecosystem and NET benefits to native Fauna & Flora biodiversity when stable pack structure is retained.
Again:
Will you be the Minister that permitted the Dingo to go the way of the Thylacine? Or will you be the Minister that will be applauded by future Australian generation for saving them?
This is your watch, what will you do???
Kind regards,
Leigh Mullan
WA Dingo Association
Vice President

 

I hope this open letter by Lyn Watson will inspire you all!!!

 

My open letter to Minister for Environment, Greg Hunt - and two images which drove it.
To
Greg.Hunt.MP@environment.gov.au

Dear Minister Hunt,
For 26 years, since first living amongst many dingoes, I have grappled with the acute barbarism that is allowed to be perpetrated upon these sentient guardians of all our ecosystems by graziers. I say this, in the knowledge of your past affiliations with farmers unions. Today I am appealing to a decent human being. Today you must drop dogma and look with wisdom at the facts, statistics and science surrounding this misunderstood species. You must give it it's rightful scientific name, Canis dingo - (a 5000 signature petition requesting this sits on the table in Federal Parliament since May 2012) and you must emancipate and protect it before it is totally extinct everywhere. This exact thing was done when realisation dawned regarding the eagle. It must now be done for the unique Canis dingo. It is not too much to ask. It is simply what is right, within our own laws and in humane decency.
Graziers, shooters, trappers and poisoners are permitted to be as cruel as they like to these animals without fear of prosecution for any cruelty acts. That in itself is disgusting, and leads people from civilized countries to gape at the Australian culture brand it portrays. BUT, sir, they are now under the imprimatur of your State counterpart Government departments, and using public funding, promoting their actions!. This is unstomachable. Our ABC flaunts, and defends as "a common sight" the utter idiotic futility of hanging these amazingly engineered animals in trees, as the fruits of their labours, and their contempt for normal human sentiments, or is it, stupidly indeed, meant to deter any live dingo which may happen along from committing the same crime as its con-specifics? I know dingoes are extremely intelligent, beyond comprehension of most, but they cannot read dead minds, or associate the human ghastliness with their own god given role in nature.
The attached two images evidence exactly what I mean. There can be no better testament to the apparent debasement of our society and democracy.
It is clear that there is a yawning chasm of what the vast majority of Australian voters, and the growing army of researching scientists truly believe makes the unique species that is the noble dingo (or wild dog, the label is irrelevant) so vital in its role of apex land predator, compared to what brainwashed propoganda is consciously and obscenely funded, spread gleefully by those profiting from sales and distribution of sodium monoflouracetate, those shooters merely desirous of retaining a target, and those less educated land users who are brainwashed from birth with dogma without truly justified cause.
Is the vast majority (in our "democracy") expected to infinitely endure the barbaric behavior of the killing ministry and the galloping degradation of our environment for the sake of a stray vote of a clear minority here and there in the party based parliaments? That is how it appears to me.
There has to be a better way. The research dollars showed that aerial baiting DOES NOT WORK, yet it continues and escalates, flying in the face of failure, throwing unnecessary more dollars and exacerbating the loss of biodiversity. Einstein: Insanity - "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". There are many better and far cheaper ways of tackling the problems of marginal graziers than incessant lethal "control". Simply paying loudmouth farmers for proven wild dog losses would be one, and would get to the direct sufferers, There are many other successful means of guarding flocks, and I am sure others will reiterate these. All of them colossally cheaper, but most requiring a small shift or change in old habits.. A great start would be a monitoring of husbandry methods of those suffering most heavily and simple totally effective electric fences.
The returns from totally curtailing all wild dog control would be unbelievably positive, in all ways, and even those loudest in opposition would be forced to benefit from the environmental improvements. The 1080 economy needs a total rethink.
A banned weapon of mass destruction which frustrates those working for organic certification, which permeates through the food chain to the very earthworms, the fish in our streams, the raptors in our skies cannot be permitted to have such sharp claws into our economy. It was unthinkable in the USA and Canada, and outlawed in the EU for very very good reason. Please bring Australia into line with the cleaner world everyone agrees we want - urgently.
As a personal gesture of bridging the chasm between truth and dogma, producer and consumer, city and bush, I extend to you personally an invitation to visit our award winning sanctuary near Gisborne, Victoria, and an opportunity to encounter close up with the world's largest collection of pure DNA tested original Australian dingoes. See for yourself the evidence that they certainly do not want to devour northern hemisphere prey species which humans farm so prolifically on our landscape, and get a glimpse of some other amazing as yet undocumented facts surrounding them. It would be a memorable outing for you and your family - or colleagues.
yours sincerely,
Lynette Watson
Dingo Discovery Sanctuary
and Research Centre,
Toolern Vale.
Victoria, Australia
Tel. +61 03 54 281 245
web - http://www.dingodiscovery.net/

Thank you Kerry May, well written.

 
The dingo is a native species and when left in undisturbed packs they regulate their own populations, hunt appropriately, control feral pests and contribute to vegetation growth and the health of water ways. In all ways they are an asset to the Australian farmer. The practice of 'killing' native species (dingoes) came about before science confirmed their necessity for healthy vegetation, native animal population and the gift of clean water holes. No longer can we afford to treat Australia's dingo (our apex land predator) with outdated colonial values. Many Australian land owners now combine tourism as part of their income source and natural waterholes and wildlife are essential to this. Companion animals provide effective predator protection. A stable dingo population is an asset and limits environmental damage from feral pests.

 

Our dingoes need all of you...

 


If you sincerely want to see the dingo preserved, please continue to pester a politician until the dingo is officially recognised as native wild life and protected.
We must get them off the vermin and pest animal list...
There is no way on earth that the dingo breeding sanctuary's in Australia can save our species "Canis Dingo".
Only politicians have the power to do so, scientists have cried their warning as they did with the Thylacine, and yet they are still not listening.
PEOPLE POWER IS WHAT'S NEEDED!
It's time to pester and beg your local poly to listen and act.
Start with Greg Hunt our environmental minister and your local MP.

 

 

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