Dingo warrior says she is on her way to Port Douglas

Dingo behavioural specialist Jenny-Lee Parker is preparing to make a mercy dash to Port Douglas in a bid to save a pair of dingoes which reportedly attacked two pet dogs on Christmas morning in the Port Douglas Sports Complex.

But the Victorian woman who has advocated for dingoes for 40 years and lives with Alpine dingoes she has saved from death row says if the “habituated” dingoes in Port Douglas attack a person “the whole population is in trouble’’.

Ms Parker reacted swiftly to reports of the Christmas Day attack on two pet dogs by a pair of dingoes which have made the Port Douglas Sports Complex and skate park their domain over the past month, taking to Newsport’s Facebook page to say the attack was “false claims’’

“They will not come up when someone is walking a dog and attack,’’ Ms Parker said.

“It’s not their behaviour.’’

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“This needs to be proven if this is the case that the dogs were attacked by these dingoes while on a lead. This is human error… they do not do that,’’ Ms Parker said.

The dingo advocate said she had been approached by local dingo expert Luke Cooper and members of the Port Douglas community to “come and sort the dingo issue out’’ and she expected to be able to travel to the region within a fortnight.

“By then, though, it will probably be too late for these dingoes,’’ she said.

Ms Parker, who has not been to Port Douglas and said her comments were based on “hearsay”,  conceded that the young dingo pair had been “habituated” by people feeding them and added that people who fed the native animals, and those who had reportedly lured dingo pups to domesticate them, “are idiots’’.

“No one should be interfering with them,’’ she said.

She was also critical of dog owners who let their dogs off leads, including in the Port Douglas Sports Complex but said that it was time to talk about education and signage for the region to protect the broader dingo population, and determine a way to rehome or rehabilitate the young pair to avoid them being destroyed.

She has made contact with Douglas Shire Council in a bid to discuss signage options for the area and wants to provide education for the community, openly talking about dingo behaviour and how to live with them in the community.

“Dingoes are my life… I fight for them,’’ Ms Parker said.

A petition to save the two dingoes from destruction, started by Rosie Wang, is nearing 1000 signatures.

Launched on Sunday, December 15, it calls for the immediate removal of traps targeting dingoes in Port Douglas; a shift in council policy away from baiting and killing dingoes and increased public education on safely coexisting with dingoes.

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While vocal Douglas Shire dingo supporters have tried to keep secret the homes and regular haunts of the larger population, the young dogs have made the Port Douglas skatepark and surrounds their domain.

And the DSC has held firm that it will not re-think the dingo management plan as “public safety was the priority’’.