The following article appeared in both the Courier Mail (Brisbane) and the The Age (Melbourne) Newspapers - 29th March 2007.

Death of the dingo?

A DINGO conservation group has labelled Victoria's $50 bounty for wild dogs an act of environmental vandalism that will push the animal to extinction.

Hunters will get $50 per dingo and $10 per fox under a $1 million government bounty scheme to eliminate them from bushfire-ravaged areas.

But Dingo CARE network secretary Dr Ernest Healy today said wild dogs included pure dingoes, which were an endangered native species in Victoria.

"The Victoria Labor government has recklessly embarked on a line of action that will push remaining pure and near-pure dingo populations to extinction," he said.

Dr Healy described the bounty as a politically opportunist move designed to appease extremist farmers.

It followed recent bids to re-introduce aerial baiting on public land with the 1080 super toxin, despite the government being repeatedly told of the threatened status of dingoes in Victoria, he said.

Dr Healy added that recent research showed dingoes helped preserve threatened small marsupials from foxes and feral cats.

He said the decision to introduce a bounty should be reversed.