28 dingoes were just culled on
Australia's
Fraser Island, as some of the island's 160
wild dogs have been attacking humans frequently in recent days. Most notably, nine year-old
Clinton Cage was mauled to death by two dingoes on the island last Monday. Cage's younger brother Dylan was also
viciously attacked at the same time, and fought off of the
child by the boy's father. A Britsh backpacker was
nipped by a dingo on Thursday.
The "pure" dingoes of Fraser Island are a protected species. The aboriginal Ngulungbara people of the island decried the cull, since they consider the dingoes to be native brothers. The government of Queensland, however, feels the best way to improve public safety is to destroy the more aggressive dogs which have attacked many people over the past few years. The large tourist industry on the island makes contact between tourists and dingoes inevitable. The killing has sparked a public outcry, and now many locals are calling for all of the island's dingoes to be destroyed.