Environmentalists slam baiting of Qld's dingoes

[Guest guest]

Transcript (ABC TV 7.30 report)

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/s316126.htm

20/06/01

Environmentalists slam baiting of Queensland's dingoes

 

KERRY O'BRIEN: Queensland has declared war on Australia's native dog, the

dingo.

 

Farmers in large slabs of the state are in the midst of a baiting campaign

using the controversial poison 10-80 to cull the dingoes they say are now in

plague proportions.

 

Thousands of baits laced with the poison have already been laid, with plans

to lay tens of thousands more. It's not just the scale of the baiting

program that has stirred the anger of environmentalists, but what they say

is a lack of supervision over the way it's being implemented.

 

Simon Royal reports.

 

PETER THOMAS, FARMER: Without the baiting program I shudder to think how

we'd manage because the dogs come in cycles, and you can bait one lot and

then there's another lot move in over the next three or four months, and if

we didn't keep some control, we would hardly have a beast alive.

 

WAYNE KEOUGH: There's got to be a better way, or better control over this

system, for sure. And no matter what they say, it's not a humane death -

they suffer, they suffer badly.

 

SIMON ROYAL: In Queensland's controversial battle to control dingoes,

farmers like Judy Pennell are in the front line. This is the worst season

Judy Pennell has ever seen for dingo attack. Six of her cattle have been

killed. She hopes this bait, laced with 10-80 poison, will mean she doesn't

lose anymore.

 

JUDY PENNELL: I think apart from anything else, I think they're the only

thing that really kills our cattle. They usually tear them apart or they

maim them quite badly and they die later, so the dingoes are assured of a

feed, I suppose.

 

SIMON ROYAL: Judy Pennell's experience is by no means isolated. All her

neighbours have lost livestock to dingo attack. Most of them will lay baits.

 

PETER THOMAS: They gang up and eat small calves. I have had trouble with

them actually trying to take a calf while the cow's still licking it after

it's just been born, which is...the dog is pretty hungry and pretty keen

when it's doing that.

 

SIMON ROYAL: In Queensland, the preparation of 10-80 baits is controlled by

the Department of Natural Resources. But the department doesn't oversee

baiting programs. That's up to individual farmers and they're governed by

strict rules.

 

DISTRIBUTOR OF 10-80 BAIT: Bait's not to be used for any other purpose than

the destruction of wild dogs. All baits must be distributed only on this

land that we have written here on the indemnity form, okay?

 

SIMON ROYAL: While most farmers stick to the rules, there's evidence some

are flouting the system with potentially tragic consequences.

 

Wayne Keough runs this mine at Miles, 340kilometres west of Brisbane. Two

days after the local Murilla Shire organised a 10-80 baiting program, Wayne

Keough's dog, Rambo, took an illegally laid bait and died. Only quick action

saved the Keough family's other dog, Rocky, from sharing the same fate.

 

WAYNE KEOUGH: Just violent convulsions and he was in total pain. That's

probably one of the worst deaths I've seen a dog go through. It wasn't quick

or easy or anything.

 

SIMON ROYAL: In the war against the dingo, Rambo had become collateral

damage but potentially, it could have been worse. As Wayne Keough cradled

his dying dog, he was covered in its vomit.

 

WAYNE KEOUGH: I don't know, I might have wiped me face or something, but

after he died, a couple of hours after that, after I would have gone home, I

woke up with a really violent headache and vomiting and shaking and carrying

on and I ended up in hospital, actually, overnight. I don't know. They

reckon it wasn't the bait but I don't see what else it could have been.

 

SIMON ROYAL: After he left hospital, Wayne Keough found 45 illegal baits

along this public road in front of his mine.

 

WAYNE KEOUGH: They were all laying in the gutter, were he'd just dropped

them out of his window as he was driving along.

 

SIMON ROYAL: Three weeks after the baits were reported, there's still no

warning sign on the road. The Department of Natural Resources is testing the

baits and concedes it's highly likely to be 10-80.

 

Neither the local minister nor the shire would talk to the 7:30 Report. For

its part, the department insists its system works. But environmentalist

Nicola Beynon believes what happened to Wayne Keough demonstrates

fundamental flaws in the system.

 

NICOLA BEYNON, ENVIRONMENTALIST, HUMANE SOCIETY: All over Australia, the

authorities are far too happy to hand out the permits and the licenses for

farmers to use 10-80. It is not strictly controlled. It is not properly

policed.

 

SIMON ROYAL: Wayne Keough's claims also raise wider questions about 10-80

itself. The poison is a controversial issue. Lee Allen is an authority on

both dingoes and 10-80. He doesn't believe it's possible for a human being

to suffer accidental 10-80 poisoning.

 

LEE ALLEN, ZOOLOGIST, DEPT NATURAL RESOURCES: To me, it seems inconceivable

that someone would get a sublethal dose or something that would cause them

any reaction just from the saliva or vomitus of a dog.

 

NICOLA BEYNON: We know of instances in the US where humans have been

affected by 10-80. There was one case where a woman was trying to

resuscitate her dog who'd been poisoned accidentally by 10-80 and in

resuscitating her pet dog, she too ended up being poisoned and died.

 

SIMON ROYAL: There's no agreement either on 10-80's impact on the

environment. Authorities prefer 10-80 over other poisons for two reasons.

They argue it's humane and also far less likely to kill native species.

 

LEE ALLEN: I can honestly say, I have never seen a native animal that's been

killed with conventional dingo baiting. I have seen where other chemicals

have been illegally used and that - and there's tremendous costs to the

environment from doing that on those occasions - but 10-80 is a very good,

very good chemical.

 

NICOLA BEYNON: In Tasmania, 10-80 is used to target native species, so it

definitely impacts on our native wildlife.

 

SIMON ROYAL: While there's no agreement on 10-80, there's at least some

common ground between Wayne Keough and the farmers. They all believe the

system which oversees the use of 10-80 has let them down.

 

PETER THOMAS: The laws are there for everyone's protection and our own and

we have to do the right thing or we're not going to have the benefit of this

poison that we so badly need.

 

WAYNE KEOUGH: Once they hand these baits out there's very little they can do

to make sure that the baits are being used properly.

 

 

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