Readers plea to keep 1080 out of Douglas
Wildlife threat
Readers have shared their fears of increased use of 1080 bait to control dingoes and wild dogs as the amount of land farmed for sugar cane contracts and is cleared for other farming operations, including cattle, and control practices increase.
One reader, Kathy, wrote to Newsport to plead: “Whatever you do, don't start using 1080.’’
“New Zealand has been using it since the 1950s, supposedly to protect bird populations, and yet kiwi have now been extinct in some places and 50 per cent of kea were killed in recent poison drops in Matukituki and Wet Jacket Peninsula.
“They're in a vicious cycle now because of the ecological imbalance they've caused.’’
Rosie Wang, an advocate for the protection of the Douglas Shire dingo population, shared the writings and experiences of Adam O’Neill who managed a South Australian cattle property with a large dingo population, and suggests more cattle owners are realising that poisoning and shooting are not the answer and that nature finds its own solutions.
In his 2015 article, “Managing a predator-friendly cattle station”, Mr O’Neill talks about his time as manager of Evelyn Downs, a large Outback cattle station in northwest South Australia.
“When I started at Evelyn Downs, it was incredibly tough. The usual dilemmas: drought, very little good water or feed, cattle getting bogged in muddy dams, and bores continually breaking down. “But for me, the hardest thing of all was to refrain from killing the dogs. I am an advocate for dingo protection, but was also responsible for the cattle, and knowing the dogs were killing calves was a very difficult thing to reconcile.’’
He says the dingo population on Evelyn Downs was dominated by young, unruly displaced refugees.
“Pulling up at a bore one morning I stumbled upon about a dozen young dingoes killing a calf. Most of them disappeared into the gidgee, but as I pulled up, five of them stayed behind.
“The first thing I realised was that my left hand was resting on the racked gun. Realising this, I pulled my hand away, but was starting to have second thoughts. I knew this particular calf and I was angry. I wanted revenge, and also felt obliged on account of my responsibilities as manager of the station.
“Contemplating my dilemma, I decided to sit back and watch. The calf was already dead, and from past experience I knew the other dogs would soon come back.
“Slowly, the rest of the mob started to re-appear. The five at the calf had already started to squabble over the kill and as others appeared more fights broke out on the fringe. Still having second thoughts, my hand went back to the gun. Maybe I could take out the bad ones, the killers, and let the other ones live? But as I watched, I couldn’t decide who that might be.’’
It was then that Mr O’Neill realised there were natural powers at play with the pack.
“I focused my scope on one of them, and when seeing him in detail it came as one hell of a shock. Covered in blood, lips pulled back and panting, I studied this guy for a while.
“The look in his eyes was very disturbing. For a moment I thought the animal looked mad. But after a while I discovered that this was not insanity at all, but rather a look of desperation.
It was then that I solved my dilemma.’’
All the dogs, from the aggressive to the shy, had a deeply disturbing look of homeless desperation. No pride. No confidence. Just a bunch of poor lost souls living in a world of turmoil, he writes.
He determined that if he left them alone, they would figure out who needs to go, and who would in time earn the right to survive.
“So I decided to let nature run its course and let them all go.
“Through the coming months, I experienced several similar events, but they were getting rare. I figured later that leaving them on that calf had already set something in play. Fighting over kills can get serious. I had found a couple of dingoes killed by other dingoes, and another that would have died from a serious scuffle. He was under a cattle trough covered in his own blood, with his attackers standing about a hundred meters away. Again, I restrained myself from using a gun (to put him down), and knew I should just let things be.’’
Mr O’Neill said he felt people suggesting they had “seen the ugly side of dingoes” was the result of our own “violent and silly interventions”.
“Dingoes need their family groups in order to function, to be content, and to know their place in this world. Family is just as important to them as it is to us,’’ he said.
“As the dingoes stabilised, they established large territories and switched back to traditional prey. Ultimately, prey abundance determines the size of their territory, and through some magical natural equation, these parameters are configured to comply with some ecological balance.
“This is truly the mystery of large predators, and for all of our ingenuity, I think a mystery it will always remain.’’
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