Researching this myth now, more to come.
Thursday 14 July 2011
Monday 28 December 2009
What is a species?
There is a furphy that is steadily taking over from the facts on protecting Australia’s dingo, accentuated by those of the community who raise themselves up as saviour to mankind, the non-eco friendly farmer (NEFF). In the farming community, the word dingo has been dropped from their vocabulary, to be replaced with the term “Wild Dog”. Using these words tends to demonise the dingo as being a wild savage beast that needs to be exterminated before they take over and devoid the environment of every living creature.
In the same breath these NEFF say they are allegedly protecting the pure dingo by terminating hybrid canines, for this is the real cause for the dingo’s demise. These people who have managed our land to a point of collapse (erosion, salinity, de-forestation, etc.) now believe they are expert taxonomists and tell us what a dingo is.
They think a dingo is a DNA snapshot of a species with a genotype or phenotype fixed forever, never to change and anything outside this is considered not genetically pure therefore an abomination to be purged from the environment.
The old saying “if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck ... it’s a duck”, this is also true for other creatures. If a canine looks like a dingo, howls like a dingo and fills an ecological niche like a dingo then it must be a dingo, even if it contains genes from other members of its own Genus.
All members of the Genus Canis are inter-fertile; this means that they can produce fertile off-spring with no dysgenesis. In other words all Canis species should be treated as one species with many sub-species, no matter whether it is a wolf, domestic dog or a dingo (1) .
The definition given by Henderson’s Dictionary of Biology (2008) for species and sub-species is,
Species: in sexually reproducing organisms, a group of interbreeding individuals not normally able to interbreed with other such groups. Species can be sub divided into sub-species, geographic races and varieties.
Subspecies: taxonomic term usually meaning a group consisting of individuals within a species having certain distinguishing characteristics separating them from other members of the species.
Interestingly, if the definition for species is taken literarily, does this mean the dingo like canine on Fraser Island are a separate species, due to the fact that they cannot interbreed (island effect)with other such groups? If this is indeed fact why does the Queensland Government aid in their destruction, instead of allowing them the right to survive on that fragile sand island? One could argue, is the pure dingo of today the same creature as it was when the NEFFs first set foot upon this land. It is plausible to say that the dingo of today has evolved into what we see due to over two hundred years of culling by humans.
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Which one is a hybrid? |
The role of the dingo in the trophic network as a keystone species holds the environment in balance. When the dingoes’ numbers are reduced by anthropogenic control methods, such as baiting with 1080 poison, a cascade affect is seen by the flux of herbivores predating on the foliage to a point of starvation. An example of this happened in May, 2008 on a Department of Defence site in Belconnen, a suburb of Australia’s capital where 400 eastern grey kangaroos were culled due to numbers harming the native grassland’s threatened species. The kangaroo numbers grew due to the lack of control by its apex predator, the dingo, which is regionally extinct in Belconnen.
There is an argument that the role of the dingo could also be performed by another subspecies of the Canis genus, in the case in Australia it would be a canine with a common ancestor of a dingo. It is to be remembered that a species is never constant, it is always adapting to its environment due to evolution or if it doesn’t adapt they are banished to the realm of extinction. This is how the evolution works, so for the dingo to adapt to changing conditions in Australia, it might need to breed with other canids to survive due to the pressure that is exerted by the unending anthropogenic controls by the NEFFs.
So this message goes out to the people who make the decisions and laws: the first thing is to look at the role of the canine in the environment before looking at the makeup of the canine's genome when they are about to decide the future of Australia’s unique environment in the interest of conservation and biodiversity.
Reference:
- Coppinger, R., L. Spector, and L. Miller. 2009. What, if anything, is a Wolf?
In The World of Wolves: New Perspectives on Ecology, Behaviour and Management,
edited by M. Musiani, L. Boitani and P. Paquet. Calgary: The University of Calgary Press.
Monday 6 October 2008
Kangaroo control, the farmers way
We at dingo screaming have been quite for over a year now, this is due to an important matter concerning the dingo in Victoria and we were biding our time to see what the outcome brings before making any further comments, until now.
Recently we received a comment from a true blue dingo killer, who eats and drinks from the blood of dingoes. He told us to pull our head in, well Tyrone, he is our reply.
These poor people called farmers who you are saying brought to their knees by the dingo, are mostly farming marginal land that can not sustain this intense attack on a fragile environment. The damage that sheep cause to our arid landscape can only be seen when land is bought and grazing is banned, this was personally seen recently when visiting a property in the arid area of NSW. When grazing was halted, the recoupment of rare flora flourished. The contrast between this reserve and its neighbouring pastoral holding was like chalk and cheese. This proves that we should change the way we use this beautiful land, we call Australia and preserve it for future generations.
Comments made by Tyrone also indicated he was a native animal pest controller and he could sleep well at night knowing he performs these tasks for the farmer. We are not saying Tyrone is in anyway connected with these next images but this is how other pest controllers in the outback go about their work.
Water is an effective tool in controlling animals in the outback. Property owners fence off water points and install gates. These gates are designed to work one way. They let the animals (kangaroos) in and then the animal is caught there until it starves to death, they never die of thirst as there is plenty of water.
The following images were taken at one water point where there was a least twenty five skeletal remains of kangaroos of varying ages from little joeys to the old buck, most of them lying against or near the fence looking at what they wanted only metres away, Food. The vegetation, now flourishes within the enclosure but would have soon been depleted with this number of kangaroos.
One must ask ourselves, is this a legitimate way of controlling animals or is it some form of a warped sadistic mind bent on causing suffering of animals for the sake of making money. The dingo left alone would control these kangaroo numbers, as it has done for thousands of years but then how could you go to sleep knowing no animal is suffering, Tyrone.
Every corner had kangaroo skeletons,bleaching in the hot arid sun.
Only metres away from food to appease their hunger but a barrier of steel was there executioner.
The vegetation has now grown back.
A proud old buck roo lay against the fence to die while the farmer slept in his bed.
This poor creature looked like it was crawling when it died, struggling to survive to the end.
A Joey lies were it fell with hunger.
The strong healthy kangaroos could try and jump the fence; left dangling there until they died of thirst and starvation, and while the other kangaroos trapped in the enclosure are traumatised by the sight of the struggling kangaroo.
Recently we received a comment from a true blue dingo killer, who eats and drinks from the blood of dingoes. He told us to pull our head in, well Tyrone, he is our reply.
These poor people called farmers who you are saying brought to their knees by the dingo, are mostly farming marginal land that can not sustain this intense attack on a fragile environment. The damage that sheep cause to our arid landscape can only be seen when land is bought and grazing is banned, this was personally seen recently when visiting a property in the arid area of NSW. When grazing was halted, the recoupment of rare flora flourished. The contrast between this reserve and its neighbouring pastoral holding was like chalk and cheese. This proves that we should change the way we use this beautiful land, we call Australia and preserve it for future generations.
Comments made by Tyrone also indicated he was a native animal pest controller and he could sleep well at night knowing he performs these tasks for the farmer. We are not saying Tyrone is in anyway connected with these next images but this is how other pest controllers in the outback go about their work.
Water is an effective tool in controlling animals in the outback. Property owners fence off water points and install gates. These gates are designed to work one way. They let the animals (kangaroos) in and then the animal is caught there until it starves to death, they never die of thirst as there is plenty of water.
The following images were taken at one water point where there was a least twenty five skeletal remains of kangaroos of varying ages from little joeys to the old buck, most of them lying against or near the fence looking at what they wanted only metres away, Food. The vegetation, now flourishes within the enclosure but would have soon been depleted with this number of kangaroos.
One must ask ourselves, is this a legitimate way of controlling animals or is it some form of a warped sadistic mind bent on causing suffering of animals for the sake of making money. The dingo left alone would control these kangaroo numbers, as it has done for thousands of years but then how could you go to sleep knowing no animal is suffering, Tyrone.
Every corner had kangaroo skeletons,bleaching in the hot arid sun.
Only metres away from food to appease their hunger but a barrier of steel was there executioner.
The vegetation has now grown back.
A proud old buck roo lay against the fence to die while the farmer slept in his bed.
This poor creature looked like it was crawling when it died, struggling to survive to the end.
A Joey lies were it fell with hunger.
The strong healthy kangaroos could try and jump the fence; left dangling there until they died of thirst and starvation, and while the other kangaroos trapped in the enclosure are traumatised by the sight of the struggling kangaroo.FOOTNOTE: After several communiqués with Tyrone, we come to an understanding that Tyrone conducts himself in a professional way in dealing with the problems living in the bush. He has also stated his disgust in the way these kangaroos were dealt with. While we may not like him shooting our dingoes, he has pointed out it’s a quicker and cleaner way than using baits laced with 1080 poison. We may agree on this point.(Read Tyrone comments)
Monday 7 May 2007
Wild Dog bounty
I start by apologise to you the reader of this blog for any vulgar comments made here, what a month it has been.
The latest stunt by the government proves that the squeakiest wheel gets the oil, because those whinging groaning so called farmers up in the high country have got the government to grease up its butt crack by announcing a bounty on wild dogs.
We accept that wild dogs are a problem for farmers and the pure dingo but this bounty will only place more pressure on the survival of the pure dingo.
It would take 20,000 dingoes and wild dogs to use the one million dollars which the government is offering; this would mean the pure dingo would become extinct.
Luckily the bounty is also opened to the taking of foxes, which hopefully will take the largest portion of the bounty’s blood money.
I have included here a couple of not so nice photos; these images were taken after the bounty was introduced, in one of these images you can see the novel way these farmers have to stop the wild dogs entering their property. They believe if you hang enough dingoes up on their fences it will stop the wild dog from entering their property, instead of building proper wild dog fences that really do stop wild dogs breaching their boundaries.
The second image shows what these farmers are capable of doing by ripping off the skin along the back of the dog to get their $50. These are the same farmers who say they cry themselves to sleep every night worrying about dog attack.
The latest stunt by the government proves that the squeakiest wheel gets the oil, because those whinging groaning so called farmers up in the high country have got the government to grease up its butt crack by announcing a bounty on wild dogs.
We accept that wild dogs are a problem for farmers and the pure dingo but this bounty will only place more pressure on the survival of the pure dingo.
It would take 20,000 dingoes and wild dogs to use the one million dollars which the government is offering; this would mean the pure dingo would become extinct.
Luckily the bounty is also opened to the taking of foxes, which hopefully will take the largest portion of the bounty’s blood money.
I have included here a couple of not so nice photos; these images were taken after the bounty was introduced, in one of these images you can see the novel way these farmers have to stop the wild dogs entering their property. They believe if you hang enough dingoes up on their fences it will stop the wild dog from entering their property, instead of building proper wild dog fences that really do stop wild dogs breaching their boundaries.
The second image shows what these farmers are capable of doing by ripping off the skin along the back of the dog to get their $50. These are the same farmers who say they cry themselves to sleep every night worrying about dog attack.
Tuesday 10 April 2007
Save the environment or keep yourself in a job
I have just returned from a fact finding trip to a national park in Victoria’s north-west. This park has many feral animal pests like rabbits, foxes, pigs, goats and has a large problem with kangaroos. This park spends hundreds of thousand of dollars over the years to combat these pests.
The control method for the kangaroo is to use a professional contractor who could shoot as many as three thousand kangaroos (or more). There is no control culling practice, first in first shot although they will shoot the out of pouch joeys first then its mother. For every kangaroo shot, the park ranger must inspect it to see if it’s dead, for female kangaroos the ranger must inspect it for a joey in its pouch, if they find a joey that has no fur it is dispatched with a knife or if it has fur then it’s blasted with a bolt gun to kill it.
Parks Victoria (government organisation who is suppose to look after all our parks and its flora and fauna) is one of the biggest killers of pure dingoes in Victoria, when asked why don’t you return Victoria’s apex predator back into the park to control these pests we received a barrage of bullshit replies.
Conclusion that Parks Victoria doesn’t want to get rid of or control the number of pests in this park ( and probably other parks) but give employment to contractors or give organisations a chance to quench their thirst for blood.
If this department was for reel and wanted to look after the environment they would reintroduce the apex predator back into the park.
While on the subject of bagging the department I also heard lots about the use of 1080 poison with oats. The use of oats is the only way you can use 1080 to control rabbits in Victoria, the government spurts out that native animals are safe from this poison, this is only part true, the animals with the greatest tolerance from this poison are in South Western Australia which grows the plants that contains 1080 in its environment, everywhere else the animals are vulnerable.
This source of information has come from park rangers, farmers and conservationist that when they lay out the poison oats the following days they pick up dead birds from the oats trail, farmers wont use it for the fear of killing their sheep.
The problem is this department is entrenched with the wrong ideals and doesn’t put the environment first. Enough on bagging this department for one day I might be working there….NOT!!
The control method for the kangaroo is to use a professional contractor who could shoot as many as three thousand kangaroos (or more). There is no control culling practice, first in first shot although they will shoot the out of pouch joeys first then its mother. For every kangaroo shot, the park ranger must inspect it to see if it’s dead, for female kangaroos the ranger must inspect it for a joey in its pouch, if they find a joey that has no fur it is dispatched with a knife or if it has fur then it’s blasted with a bolt gun to kill it.
Parks Victoria (government organisation who is suppose to look after all our parks and its flora and fauna) is one of the biggest killers of pure dingoes in Victoria, when asked why don’t you return Victoria’s apex predator back into the park to control these pests we received a barrage of bullshit replies.
Conclusion that Parks Victoria doesn’t want to get rid of or control the number of pests in this park ( and probably other parks) but give employment to contractors or give organisations a chance to quench their thirst for blood.
If this department was for reel and wanted to look after the environment they would reintroduce the apex predator back into the park.
While on the subject of bagging the department I also heard lots about the use of 1080 poison with oats. The use of oats is the only way you can use 1080 to control rabbits in Victoria, the government spurts out that native animals are safe from this poison, this is only part true, the animals with the greatest tolerance from this poison are in South Western Australia which grows the plants that contains 1080 in its environment, everywhere else the animals are vulnerable.
This source of information has come from park rangers, farmers and conservationist that when they lay out the poison oats the following days they pick up dead birds from the oats trail, farmers wont use it for the fear of killing their sheep.
The problem is this department is entrenched with the wrong ideals and doesn’t put the environment first. Enough on bagging this department for one day I might be working there….NOT!!
How low can they go?
Last year NSW Government allowed the aerial baiting with 1080 poison in National Parks. The poison has no ANTIDOTE and even kills other animals that scavenge the carcass of the poisoned animal.
Groups of people from all over Australia protested to the NSW government to abandon their baiting programme but to no avail.
The government even changed its policy and on 3rd of October 2006. IAN MACDONALD, M.L.C., Minister for Primary Industries signed off on the order to allow the use of this hideous poison and to allow it to be thrown out of aircraft speculating where it’s going to land; one can only contemplate it was to please his farming buddies.
Watch out mums and dads in the NSW don’t let your children eat anything they find in their backyards, it might be a poison bait dropped there by a crow, flying overhead from the nearby National Park in your city.
Think that I’m a bleeding heart; well I don’t care what you think, no animal needs to die a horrible death from 1080 poison and that includes humans. Don’t believe me about the government Look for yourself click here If this link is broken do a search at the dpi for "pest-control-order-11.pdf" as the department changes the links to keep the public from finding the truth.
Groups of people from all over Australia protested to the NSW government to abandon their baiting programme but to no avail.
The government even changed its policy and on 3rd of October 2006. IAN MACDONALD, M.L.C., Minister for Primary Industries signed off on the order to allow the use of this hideous poison and to allow it to be thrown out of aircraft speculating where it’s going to land; one can only contemplate it was to please his farming buddies.
Watch out mums and dads in the NSW don’t let your children eat anything they find in their backyards, it might be a poison bait dropped there by a crow, flying overhead from the nearby National Park in your city.
Think that I’m a bleeding heart; well I don’t care what you think, no animal needs to die a horrible death from 1080 poison and that includes humans. Don’t believe me about the government Look for yourself click here If this link is broken do a search at the dpi for "pest-control-order-11.pdf" as the department changes the links to keep the public from finding the truth.
Hello to all the friends of the environment.
We have started this blog to the growing apathy from the government departments for example Dep’s of Primary industry, Dep’s of environment or conservation.
Shaking your head you might be thinking, here is another group of people bashing the politicians, WRONG, politicians can be replaced at the next election if the public votes that way but what has more malevolence is the bureaucrats that really run (try too) this wonderful country of ours. Not all bureaucrats are evil nasty people who put their pride before being right.
One would have to wonder at some of the recommendations that are sent to the ministers around this country to make into law; do these recommendations come into being after their freezers are filled by tender prime lamb, I hope not. Well then, do they come from the constant pressure of the farming lobby, badgering them into submission?
The people of Australia need to know what is happening out there, especially to the dingo and we will try to inform you.
To all those evil nasty people out there persecuting the dingo, remember there will be a judgement day for you all.
Shaking your head you might be thinking, here is another group of people bashing the politicians, WRONG, politicians can be replaced at the next election if the public votes that way but what has more malevolence is the bureaucrats that really run (try too) this wonderful country of ours. Not all bureaucrats are evil nasty people who put their pride before being right.
One would have to wonder at some of the recommendations that are sent to the ministers around this country to make into law; do these recommendations come into being after their freezers are filled by tender prime lamb, I hope not. Well then, do they come from the constant pressure of the farming lobby, badgering them into submission?
The people of Australia need to know what is happening out there, especially to the dingo and we will try to inform you.
To all those evil nasty people out there persecuting the dingo, remember there will be a judgement day for you all.
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