Dingo Ownership in NSW

Honorary Vet, Jim Della-Vedova ear tattoos the newest litter with Berenice's help

 

There has been considerable publicity recently about a Sydney based dingo rescue organisation and the number of dingoes it has rescued and placed in Sydney homes.

The story has caused an uproar among the dingo advocate fraternity and rightly so.  Dingoes CAN become a part of the family and can make wonderful pets. They are loyal and devoted to their family seeing them as part of the pack but it must be clear that at least one of the humans is the alpha.

BUT BUT BUT they are NOT for everyone. Without complete love, commitment, devotion and understanding they will try to escape, destroy property and be extremely wilful without appropriate learning of what is expected of them. 

Ever since Berenice Walters first founded the Australian Native Dog Conservation Society (ANDCS) one of their main goals was to see a permit scheme introduced for the keeping of dingoes in a domestic situation.

At no time did Berenice or the Society want the dingo to become treated as any other domestic dog and always emphasised owning a dingo was very different to any breed of domestic dog.

The battle to have the permit scheme introduced went on for many years. The Society’s honorary vet, Jim Della-Vedova began ear tattooing all the Merigal dingoes as a means of identification and in preparation for the anticipated registration system expected to be part of the permit scheme. (Ear tattooing was the method used prior to the introduction of microchipping)

By October 1990 desexed dingoes could be kept as domestic pets in NSW with the approval of the Minister for Agriculture or if a person was a member of the ANDCS an entire dingo could be kept providing the person met the conditions set by the Society.

This information was included in Berenice’s second book, Dingo: Getting a Good Dog a Better Name. (See below)

In 1998 the Rural Lands Protection Act was amended. In the parliamentary debate it was stated: It has been decided that the definition of wild dog will no longer include the dingo, if it is held in captivity. This means that the pest control provisions will only relate to the dingo if it is living in the wild. Dingoes that are domestic pets will be subject to the Companion Animals Act 1998.

From this moment there was no control on dingoes living in a domestic situation nor were there any special requirements for keeping a dingo. They were simply treated as just another companion animal.

This action greatly disappointed Berenice and the ANDCS members and achieved nothing for the wild dingo.

Berenice predicted that this action by the NSW Government would open the flood gates to back yard breeding of dingoes and a huge growth in unwanted dingoes due to owners who were unprepared for the commitment.

Sadly, she was right.