Environment minister orders all
dingoes to be removed from Pelorus Island, where they had been introduced to
kill goats
Australian Associated Press
Thursday 18 August
201604.02 BST
An “inhumane” program that used
surgically sterilised dingoes as a form of pest control for goats on a far north Queensland island
has been shut down by the state government.
The Hinchinbrook shire council
had decided to release dogs implanted with time-delayed poison pellets on
Pelorus Island, north of Townsville, to kill baby goats as a form of pest
control.
The plan was slammed by the RSPCA
and community groups as “outright” animal cruelty.
The Queensland environment
minister, Steven Miles, on Thursday issued conservation orders to shut down the
program and remove all dingoes from the island within 14 days.
Miles said that in the 1990s a
similar plan saw dingoes released on Townshend Island but it later caused
problems for native birds.
“Pelorus Island currently has no
significant predators to the birds on the island,” he said.
Bird species on the island
included a threatened species of ground-dwelling shorebird, the beach stone
curlew.
The minister also said while some
Liberal National party members had contacted him concerned about the “horrendous”
plan, the Hinchinbrook MP, Andrew Cripps, declared his support.
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