The growing level of interactions between dingoes and travellers is continuing to cause problems … and spark passionate debate.
Just weeks after a dingo was ‘euthanised’ after biting a woman on Fraser Island, another has reportedly been killed after it attacked a small child in Western Australia.
In the most recent incident, a two-year-old girl was bitten by a wild dog while her family was having a beach picnic near the Kooljaman resort at Cape Leveque, 220km north of Broome.
Christine Dwyer, 27, told the ABC that the animal approached her daughter, Stella, and attempted to steal a stuffed toy elephant.
“[Stella] tried to crawl away and was crying and it just ran back in and grabbed her on the lower back and buttock,” Ms Dwyer said. “It tried to drag her backwards but it only got maybe six inches.”
The animal was quickly shooed away. The child just suffered little scratches and small puncture wounds through her nappy.
The ABC reports that the wild dog is understood to be the same animal that has been stealing rubbish from the local tip for the past few months.
Rangers from the Shire of Broome apparently went to the resort after the attack and shot a small female dog, which it turned out was not the one that bit Stella.
However, it is believed the animal has since been destroyed.
• Comment below
Was this “wild dog” a Dingo or a feral dog? there is a difference. These animals, whether dingos or feral dogs, are literally starving. If feral dogs, then the previous owners are the ones who need to be tracked down and fined. If Dingos, then they should be trapped by Rangers and relocated to a safe area for these animals. Indiscriminate destroying of any animal is not the solution.
It was a dingo. The dingo in question was only about 10 months old. He and 3 siblings were orphaned about 6 months ago when their mother was run down by a vehicle. Without her guidance and teachings on how to hunt effectively, the pups started to hang around the resort area. This was not an ‘attack’. It did not try to ‘snatch/abduct/steal/eat’ the child. It went for her stuffed toy elephant then grabbed her stinky nappy and pulled at it. Typical play enticement behaviour. Last month they trapped and killed the brother, and then they shot the sister, now this boy has paid the ultimate price because of a human killing it’s mother and directly because of a stupid human mother not doing her job in supervising her child properly. 4 completely senseless Dingo deaths because of stupid humans.
Leigh I can understand your emotional feelings.
What makes you qualified to say the mother was stupid?
Do you or did you watch your children 24/7?
Couldn’t agree more. Sounded exactly like you say. How does a dingo get so close to a child? Neglectful parents not keeping a vigilant eye! RIP Dingos.