Media release
Butchulla Elder appalled at gross cruelty to Fraser Island Dingo by government department
Ms Marie Wilkinson – Butchulla Elder
Date: Thursday 15th March, 2010
Today, Ms Marie Wilkinson, a Butchulla Elder of the traditional owners of Fraser Island, expressed outrage at recent information, acquired through RTI legislation, that a juvenile male dingo was strangled to death in agonising circumstances, as part of ‘research’ conducted by the Queensland Department of Environment and Resources Management (DERM) in May 2011.
Ms Wilkinson, who has fought for the well being of Fraser Island dingoes for 20 years and has been on many government advisory committees, challenges the claim by DERM that the Fraser Island Dingo Management Plan, under which this dingo was killed, has received the support of the Indigenous Traditional Owners of Fraser Island.
DERM officer, Terry Harper, had previously stated that the Fraser Island Dingo Management Strategy is fully supported by the World Heritage Indigenous Advisory Committee, which he claimed broadly represents the interests and aspirations of the Traditional Owners of Fraser Island.
Ms Wilkinson stated:
I cannot support that statement, am disappointed that we have not been included in discussions on how to manage the dingo, and am deeply angered by the recent revelations of gross cruelty. To see our dingoes destroyed for the most ridiculous of reasons, such as ‘loitering’ and not showing enough wariness is unacceptable.
Ms Wilkinson added:
Now, to see a dingo tortured to death in the manner described in an independent necropsy report is intolerable. As a representative of the Aboriginal people of Fraser Island, I demand the government make those responsible for this atrocious act accountable and to actually do what they claim to be doing: consult with integrity in a genuine manner with the traditional owners of Fraser Island about the way that dingoes are managed.
As things stand, the Fraser Island Dingo Management Strategy does not protect our culturally significant totem animal, the dingo.
Contact details: Marie Wilkinson (07) 4125 3566