Letters

Feeling of immense sadness

Ed, I was really moved by Geoff Helisma’s story ‘A Dingo’s Tale’ (CVI 24/01/2018) and feel immense sadness for Susan Chaplin and Stephen Otten for loosing their fight to allow a native dingo to roam in peace. I and my wife live on a rural property and we closely observed our indigenous dingo for around four years without harming or harassing it. Anybody who’s observed these magnificent animals know instinctively the different trotting gate and behavioural habits of the dingo, compared to domestic or feral wild dogs. We watched with interest how he patrolled his territory, maintaining a 500 metre distance between us humans and a growing pack of feral domestic dogs that often followed him. In time I was forced to shoot the feral dogs because they were killing domestic animals on our property, but I spared the dingo as it silently went about its business of survival, without resorting to killing domestic stock. After the domestic feral dogs were culled, we saw less of our phantom dingo, but our spirits would rise whenever we glimpsed his distinctive silhouette and characteristic trotting gate on a far away hill, but after four years he was hunted down by somebody who new nothing of his character and was then unceremoniously shot and strung up on a fence, more as a trophy, rather than a serious attempt to contain the domestic feral dog problem that was rampant in the area at that time. (Name and address supplied but withheld by request)