Dingoes_in_Australia
Dingoes are quite an iconic Australian animal. The animal most closely related to the dingo is the gray wolf. Cool right? In addition, dingoes are considered brilliant animals. In experiments performed by researchers in Melbourne, one dingo was filmed moving a table to use as a step-ladder to reach food. Another opened a gate latch with his nose to reach a female partner. They are considered smarter than domestic dogs and have been described as “the most intelligent animal in Australia apart from man”. According to professional Dingo experts, Dingo’s mental abilities are relatively similar to a human child aged between 2 to 2.5 years old. But unfortunately, the Australian government is killing these intelligent and amazing animals ruthlessly. They are poisoned, trapped, and gunned down.
Dingoes have many benefits; they are a predator that keeps checking the population of wild cats and foxes. They also keep many plant species safe so that they don’t go extinct. They do this by eating rabbits, zebras, gazelles, and more plant-eating animals. But as I said before the Australian government has made many programs to kill dingoes, it’s depressing if you think about it. Also, there is this huge misconception about dingoes, they are often referred to as “wild dogs”, which is scientifically incorrect and should not be used because it drives a huge misconception in the public. What do you think of when you hear the word “wild dog”? You think of ‘’some scary, dangerous beast that spreads rabies and will try to kill you if they see you.” And the definition is not even true for actual wild dogs, they’re not gonna try to kill you if you don’t enter their territory. If you do then that’s where the problem arises. Just don’t go into wild dog territory and you should be fine. Anyways, this definition is also obviously not correct for dingoes either. They are not that aggressive. At first, if you enter their territory they’ll bark and try to chase you away but they will not bite you unless you don’t back off their territory when they tell you to, they don’t want to fight with humans.
And of course, there are always mad farmers when it comes to this dingo killing. Another “justification” that the Australian government is using for killing dingoes is that the dingoes attack livestock and kill them for food. That’s like going into the jungle where there are tigers in the dead of night and then getting killed by the tiger. That’s not the tiger’s fault, they were just acting on their instincts, imagine you were held at gunpoint by someone, would you be like hey, how’s it going, everything is alright?!! That is not what you try to escape from a dangerous person and try to defend yourself. That’s your instinct. But how can we fix this problem, how can we make sure that both the farmers and the dingoes are happy? Well, for starters, the farmers could replace those guns with just simple tranq guns, nobody dies then at least. And you could make harder boundaries for the dingoes to cross, in a way that they don’t injure themselves but also in a way that they can’t cross over the boundaries and eat the livestock which would create a conflict between the dingoes and the farmers. And you can stop hunting and killing the prey of dingoes, imagine someone takes away your food forcefully and you try to get food from somewhere else like another shop then that person attacks you. That is not fair play. Poachers are killing animals like big cats, foxes, rabbits, deer, and more. And they either do it for money, souvenirs, or simply entertainment. That is not good, I mean the dingoes have no food left, then they are forced to eat livestock, they have no other option or they’ll starve to death. So, stop killing the prey of the dingoes, which means that they can still have their food without killing the livestock. Then there is no conflict at all between the dingoes and the farmers. But there is another problem: it is the use of poison and traps to capture and kill dingoes. There is a poison that is often used to kill dingoes that scares me. This poison is the controversial 1080 poison. This poison results in a very slow and painful death, I don’t think it can be described in mere words. Not only that because these pieces of meat are laced with poison all around the country it means other native Australian predators or scavengers would very likely eat these pieces of meat which would result in their deaths too. And that’s not all but also according to the International Union for Conservation for Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), dingoes are a vulnerable species. Still, they are not under the protection of the National Parks and Wildlife Protection Act, which is absurd, and ridiculous. The IUCN has clearly said that the dingo is a vulnerable species and needs protection. Australia needs to protect its dingoes.
It may seem easy just to give up in front of such a daunting and challenging problem. Nevertheless, we can’t do that, the lives of innocent dingoes rest squarely on the world’s and the Australian government’s shoulders. However, it’s important to note that in Australia conservation efforts are being made. The public is being educated about the true behavior and nature of dingoes, which is inspiring many to help them. Efforts are being done to protect dingoes under legislation to ensure their conservation status and prevent indiscriminate killing. And remember as I said before how dingoes are not protected by the National Parks and Wildlife Protection Act, well something is being done about that too. There are efforts to change this by requesting the Australian Government to subtract the listing of the Dingo as a wild dog under the Rural Lands Protection Act and include it as a native mammal under the National Parks and Wildlife Act. Additionally, there are calls to investigate the current status of the species Canis Dingo, and if found to be threatened, include it as a threatened mammal under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995. These are just 3 examples of how we can save dingoes, there are so many more ways to save dingoes that we can use. Both Australia and other countries of the world need to work together so that we can save this amazing, smart, and wonderful animal, the dingo. And the public needs to be educated more about this, so that we can inspire more people to help dingoes. I’m confident that if we continue the conservation work, we are doing today with dedication and commitment then we will have a world where the dingo is not a vulnerable species and every dingo is happy and safe, living their best life. It’s time for us humans to stop making excuses and start making changes.
