We must oppose the renewal which is due to take place in December 2019. The dingo is a keystone species that benefits small animals and plant communities by suppressing and changing thebehaviours of mammalian herbivores and smaller predators (including introduced foxes
and feral cats) (Johnson & VanDerWal 2009; Wallach et al. 2010; Letnic et al. 2012; Letnic et al. 2013; Newsome et al. 2015; Morris & Letnic 2017). Their presence adds a stabilising influence and provides ecosystem resilience for species only found in Australia.
Claims by the Department of Agriculture that aerial baiting is needed to protect farm stock, is unjustified and is simply not supported by the facts. The claimed significance of farm stock losses from ‘wild dog’ predation in Victoria have been consistently exaggerated by extreme elements within the farming lobby and by vested interests that have been historically associated with the manufacture of 1080 poison. In reality, farm stock losses from dingo predation remain extremely low.
These are the facts. Over the period 2013-14 to 2017-18, the numbers of stock reported killed or maimed per one million sheep in Victoria were 117 in 2013-14, 76 in 2014-15, 84 in 2015-16, 68 in 2016-17, and 86 in 2017-18. Yet, the thrust of government policy has been to constantly escalate the extent and intensity of lethal control, out of all proportion to the actual scale of stock loss, to the detriment of the dingo as a threated native taxon. Stock loss figures were already low in absolute terms, and as a proportion of the Victorian sheep flock, prior to 2014 when aerial baiting recommenced.
To talk about the benefits of aerial baiting for farm stock protection when the pre-aerial baiting stock loss figures were already very low is misleading. It is reasonable to conclude that the lethal control of dingoes is not legally justified and not required to protect farm stock from predation. Non-lethal methods of control should be solely relied upon to deal with what is a marginal problem for the Victorian sheep flock.
The dingo has been identified as a threatened species under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (Vic) 1988 and the GIC Order “allowing for their control”, (paragraph 4 line 5 of your letter) has in fact led to and will continue to lead to the inhumane destruction by toxic poison 1080 of the threatened species the Dingo and directly and indirectly the Spot tailed quoll, a threatened species under the EPBC Act. It may also lead to increased hybridisation, which is something that Victoria should be seeking to minimise. We must oppose this renewal as it is ecologically unsound and will lead to further destruction of threatened species.