How can I help save the dingoes?

by Jessica Evans
(Tallong, NSW)

After reading about the dingo i was sad to know that such a loveable creature is going extinct. It just isn't fair. So i would like to know if there is anything that i would be able to do to help protect them.

I may only be 14 years old but i know i can help if you can please tell me how. If the only way to help is to write a letter to the government pleading that the dingoes be saved, i will. I will help out as best i can to protect them if it takes years and years. I won't let another species go extinct because of man's foolishnesses, knowing i could of done something to stop it. So please please tell me what to do to help.

Response to:
How can I help save the dingoes?

Dear Jessica,

Thank you very much for your lovely letter. It's great that you want to help. In a way you have helped already.

1. You made me check the dingo page and I saw that the link to Australian Dingo Conservation Association at the bottom does not work any more. The website is gone. I'm glad I saw that and have removed the link.

2. Then I tried to find other websites and organisations that can help dingoes. The links are below, and hopefully others will read this page as well and think about helping.

Unfortunately the overall situation today looks worse than it did when I first wrote that page. Dingoes are still baited and killed and very few pure dingoes are left.

Dingoes are still listed as a pest. When farmers lose a calf or lambs to what they think are dingoes (but are more often hybrid dogs which can look exactly the same) then I can't blame the farmers for wanting to protect their animals.

Unfortunately killing all dingoes and wild dogs has led to an explosion in cat and fox numbers, since the dingo is their only predator. Cats and foxes don't kill lambs, but they do wipe out other native wildlife, like quolls and bandicoots and bilbies, and of course all our birds and lizards.

There are many things in Australia that are going very wrong, and that means there are many ways that you are able to help. Once you get in touch with a few like minded people in your area you will quickly find out about more opportunities.

The Wilderness Society is a relatively new organisation that focuses on buying up large areas of wilderness across Australia and linking them together to conserve them as habitat for endangered Australian species. I read that they did acquire an already fenced large block of wilderness and consider re-introducing wild dingoes there to protect them. Unfortunately fencing dingoes in is the only way to protect them from interbreeding with other wild dogs and cross breed animals (hybrids).

If you look at this page you will find several ways to contact them. They do letter writing campaigns, so maybe you can help with that. This is not a specific dingo conservation organisation, but the dingo is not the only species in Australia that is threatened. Australia sadly holds the world record of species extinctions in the last 20 years!

So if you help the Wilderness Society you help to conserve wilderness in general, and with that you help threatened species, including the dingo. And if you do tell them that you are particularly interested in helping the dingoes, maybe they can tell you more.

The Australian Wildlife Conservancy is another good organisation.

Maybe they can tell you of ways to get involved. Unfortunately I live at the exact opposite end of the continent, in northern Western Australia, so telling you what we do here doesn't help you much. You need to find some local groups.

They may initially not take you seriously because of your age, but if you persist and if you can show them that you mean it and that it's not just a fleeting idea, then they will eventually be very glad to have you on board.

Here is something else you may want to look at:

The Dingo Sanctuary is located about an hour's drive east of you. Maybe you can have a look at the place, and maybe you can help out on the weekends or something. Worth a try.

On the website of the WA Dingo Association you can sign online petitions and they also offer "dingo sponsorships". (Update: apparently there are no petitions any more, the link now directs you to the home page.)

Apart from that the best thing you can do is to learn as much as possible about dingoes, and try to gently educate those around you about them. Maybe you can do something at school? Do a project that educates others, like putting together a display board somewhere? A webpage? Use any way that you can think of to tell people the real story.

Trying to change the mind of the public is a thankless task, but the more people try the better.

I hope this is in some way helpful and that you will be able to connect with local people who share your desire to make a difference!

All the best to you!

Birgit

Photo by Ogwen