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Dingoes will no longer be classified as native animals under planned changes to Western Australia’s biodiversity laws.
The iconic animals will be considered no different to wild dogs from 2019 under reforms to the Biodiversity Conservation Act.
Dingoes are currently classed as unprotected native fauna and a declared pest, but it is still illegal to trap or kill them without permission in many places.
Leigh Mullan from the WA Dingo Association said the reclassification will declare open season on the animals by removing the limited protections they still have.
“It’s going to have massive impacts on them,” he said.
“In the wild, at the moment, they do have some pseudo-protection. But when they’re classified as non-fauna they can be killed anywhere in the state.
“They can just call them a dog and kill them all.”
Minister to make the call
Under current legislation, an animal is considered a native species if it is indigenous to Australia or arrived before 1400 BC.
WA’s Minister for Environment, Stephen Dawson, also has the power to make a determination.
Mr Dawson has been contacted for comment.
The decision by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions was based on a 2017 study published in the scientific journal Zootaxa.
The complex case of dingoes in the desert:
Twenty two years of surveys have examined the dingo’s complex but positive role in the ecosystem of arid Australia, noting that they play a role in suppressing feral pest populations.
“We feel that dingoes do provide a role in controlling cats and foxes because dingoes are a predator themselves, and foxes and cats are smaller predators, and they compete for similar types of food,” said study author Dr Aaron Greenville.
Source: Cats, foxes pose bigger risk to native wildlife than climate change in the outback
The authors argue dingoes can not be considered a separate subspecies due to their inbreeding with wild dogs.
A Department fact sheet said “they concluded that the Australian dingo should not be recognised as a separate subspecies to wild dogs”.
“There is no simple relationship between genetic purity and physical appearance of the dingo,” it said.
It notes that the only areas where pure dingoes are likely to exist are in remote parts of western and central Australia.
Scientific community divided
The dingo’s taxonomic status has long been a contentious topic for academics since it was first encountered by Europeans in the late 1700s.
The Australian Museum recently concluded the dingo was not a separate species but a “feral population of an ancient breed of domestic dog that was brought to Australia by humans” about 4,000 years ago.
The Museum argues that this should not take away their scientific, ecological and cultural significance.
Associate Professor Euan Ritchie from Deakin University, who has studied the role of dingoes in the Australian environment, said the animals perform a vital role in controlling the numbers of feral animals like cats and foxes.
“We really need to be thinking about how we can maintain the dingo in the landscape while reducing potential negative impacts on things like livestock,” he said.
“We’ve lost the thylacine and other top predators in the past, so we don’t really have a large predator controlling things like kangaroo numbers and other smaller predators.
“The dingo is all we have.”
He said he believed the reclassification could have a negative impact on their population.
“What we ‘call things’ really does matter, it has a big impact on how we perceive them and how we manage them,” he said.
“Potentially that could have ramifications for them being controlled in certain areas.”
Pastoralists unconvinced
The decision comes at a time when dingoes have been in the spotlight for their predatory behaviour.
Last month, a 54-year-old woman was badly bitten after being attacked by a pair of dingoes on a mine site in the Pilbara.
While attacks on humans are considered rare, pastoralists have long struggled with the predatory nature of wild dogs, which includes the dingo.
Kimberley Pilbara Cattlemen’s Association chair David Stoate sees first-hand the damage that wild dogs cause.
“[They] predate calves, pulls tails off animals and chew their ears. So like all pastoralists we’ve got a problem with wild dogs,” he said.
But Mr Stoate, who runs Anna Plains Station, south of Broome, is unconvinced the change will have a significant impact.
“I can’t really see what difference it will make at all to controlling wild dogs,” he said.
“We do aerial baiting which obviously doesn’t distinguish between a wild dog and a dingo.
“The practical difference will be very little, I think, so we will have to wait and see.”
Topics: animals, pest-management, rural, pests, environmental-policy, environmental-management, environmental-impact, agriculture, agricultural-policy, politics-and-government, broome-6725, kununurra-6743, albany-6330, geraldton-6530, kalgoorlie-6430, perth-6000
