On 24 September 2024, the Victorian Government extended the dingo ‘unprotection order’ in eastern Victoria until 1 January 2028. The order allows people to trap, shoot and poison dingoes on private land and on huge areas of public land that adjoins that private land (including in national parks), without any oversight from the government. This is despite dingoes being listed as a threatened species under Victorian law.
The killing is done in a misguided attempt to mitigate dingo predation on farm animals. However, there is no evidence that this works, with landholders having to repeat culling year after year. Culling of dingoes ignores the fact that dingoes help to regulate healthy ecosystems. By suppressing introduced predators such as cats and foxes, dingoes help to protect small native animals. Protecting dingoes also respects the cultural importance of dingoes to many First Nations people.
New innovations mean we can protect both farm animals and dingoes. Adopting coexistence tools and strategies such as livestock guardian animals, dingo deterrents, and improving animal husbandry practices, help to ensure that farm animals are not vulnerable to predation. This is beneficial for farmers, animals and the environment.
The Victorian Government has recognised that these strategies can work and have committed to investing more money to support landholders to adopt non-lethal dingo management tools. However, this only applies to northwestern Victoria because there is a particularly vulnerable population of dingoes in that area of the state. Even though dingoes in eastern Victoria are also listed as a threatened species, they will still be denied the protection they should normally receive and will continue to be persecuted.
Take action now to tell the Victorian Government you are disappointed they have continued the ‘unprotection order’ in eastern Victoria and encourage them to protect dingoes state-wide.