Australia kills dingoes linked to death of Canadian woman, sparking backlash

Australian authorities have sparked a backlash by killing a group of dingoes linked to the death of a young Canadian woman on an island in the country’s east.

The Queensland government said six wild dogs were put down after 19-year-old backpacker Piper James’s body was found on January 19 at a beach on the World Heritage-listed island of K’gari.

The euthanization program has stirred debate about how to manage the local population of dingoes, a sandy-colored canine believed to have first arrived in Australia 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.

An autopsy conducted on James’ body found evidence “consistent with drowning” but also detected injuries corresponding to dingo bites. Police said her body had been discovered 90 minutes after she went for a morning swim.

“Pre-mortem dingo bite marks are not likely to have caused immediate death,” said a spokesperson for the Coroners Court of Queensland.

The coroner’s investigation into the cause of death was expected to take several weeks.

In response, the Queensland government said a pack of 10 dingoes involved would be euthanized after rangers had observed some “aggressive behavior.”

Six of the dingoes had already been euthanized, the state’s environment minister, Andrew Powell, told reporters Sunday.

“Obviously, the operation will continue,” he said.

The traditional owners of K’gari, the Butchulla people, said the state’s failure to consult with them before euthanizing the dingoes — or wongari in their language — was “unexpected and disappointing.”

“Once again, it feels as though economic priorities are being placed above the voices of the people and traditional owners, which is frustrating and difficult to accept,” the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation said in a statement to Australian media this week.

“They’re just being wild animals”

Wildlife experts said killing the animals was the wrong response and may threaten the island’s dingo population, estimated at just 70-200 animals.

Given their small numbers, killing a pack of 10 animals would harm the population’s genetic diversity, said Mathew Crowther, professor of quantitative conservation biology at the University of Sydney.

“There’s no moral from the dingoes’ point of view. They’re just being wild animals, doing wild things,” Crowther told AFP.

Dingoes tend to lose their fear of people as they interact with tourists, some of whom defy advice against feeding the animals.

“That’s the worst thing you can do to a wild animal,” Crowther said.

“They just relate humans to food, and if you don’t give them food, well, you are food — that’s basically how it is.”

Dingoes are wild, predatory animals and need to be treated with respect, said Bill Bateman, associate professor in the school of molecular and life sciences at Curtin University.

The canines are more likely to attack children or people who are alone, and may be triggered when people turn their backs or run, he said.

“These are important animals, and therefore we need to change the way we deal with them, otherwise we’re just going to keep reacting to these attacks and driving the population of dingoes down,” Bateman told AFP.

Wildlife managers, rangers, Indigenous people and tourism operators need to work together so that humans and dingoes can coexist on the island, he said.

Todd James, the father of Piper, has described on social media how his family’s hearts were “shattered” by her death.

News of the dingoes’ euthanization was “heart-wrenching,” he told Australian media, adding however that he recognized it may be necessary for safety because of the pack’s behavior.

Todd James previously said a “smoke ceremony” for his daughter would be held in Australia, and the family planned to attend, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Local mayor George Seymour told 9News the last fatal dingo attack on the island was 25 years ago and that there had been “an escalation of aggressive dingo activity” in recent years.

“A big part of what (the rangers) do is to try and separate dingoes from humans, but we’re continuing to have this situation of dingoes, and in some ways it’s inevitable that there will be a fatality, given how many bites and attacks are happening over the years,” Seymour told 9News.

The government’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism issued an alert last month, saying that “heightened dingo activity has been recorded at several locations along the eastern beach” on K’gari.

Three years ago, a pack of dingoes mauled a 23-year-old jogger in an attack police said was almost fatal. The dogs had driven the woman into the surf before a tourist came to her rescue, beating off the dingoes. Police said the man had saved her life.

In 2023, two Australian women were fined about $1,500 for taking selfies and videos of themselves posing with dingoes on the island.