For 10 years, there has been an active bounty system for the killing of dingoes in the Murchison Shire. Today, we are calling for the immediate cessation of the bounty scheme.

For 10 years, there has been an active bounty system for the killing of dingoes in the Murchison Shire. The Shire refers to them as 'wild dogs' but DNA research shows that the animals being killed are dingoes. We are calling on the Shire of Murchison to end the bounty scheme immediately.

Dingoes perform an important role in the healthy functioning of Australian landscapes. They have almost entirely removed goats and foxes (two animals listed under the EPBC act as ‘key threatening processes’ to the Australian bush) from the Murchison district during the period (and despite the fact) that the bounty has been in effect. They have also reduced the kangaroo population to natural levels. The presence of dingoes allows regeneration of key pasture species and the conservation of other wildlife.

It is time for the leaders of the Murchison community to accept that dingoes have had an overwhelmingly positive effect on the ecology which underpins pastoral production within the Murchison Shire. The negative affect of Dingoes on the major industry of the region - beef cattle - has been negligible. Yet the financial, economical, emotional and environmental toll of a degraded landscape affects all Australians.  The sanctioned killing of dingoes, our nation’s natural apex predator, perpetuates a long history of mismanagement of Australian landscapes, and is akin to the killing of eagles to protect sheep, which is now illegal.  

Not everyone signing the petition will be a ratepayer in the Shire of Murchison, but we are aware that less than 15 Percent of Murchison’s funding comes from its ratepayers, and the rest comes from state and federal funding. Furthermore, almost the entirety of the Murchison shire is Pastoral leasehold land, which is not owned by pastoralists, nor the shire, but by the ratepayers of the state of Western Australia.

Therefore, we believe it is within everyones right to demand that Murchison ceases the ‘wild dog’ bounty scheme, as well as its support for any activities that support the killing of dingoes, immediately.

 Cairns, K. M., Crowther, M. S., Nesbitt, B., & Letnic, M. (2021). The myth of wild dogs in Australia: Are there any out there? Australian Mammalogy, 44(1), 67–75. https://doi.org/10.1071/AM20055

Cairns, K. M., Crowther, M. S., Parker, H. G., Ostrander, E. A., & Letnic, M. (2023). Genome-wide variant analyses reveal new patterns of admixture and population structure in Australian dingoes. Molecular Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.16998

Pople, T., & Froese, J. (2012). Distribution, abundance and harvesting of feral goats in the Australian rangelands 1984-2011 Final report to the ACRIS Management Committee.