#or wolves

[decimuss]

Colter John strikes again !

[sesamenom]

Day 2 for @tolkiengenweek - Finrod & dogs in youth and death.(Originally intended for the animals prompt but it kind of evolved into something else)

Dedicated to @actual-bill-potts whose amazing writing inspired the creation of this piece.

[kits-shrine]

Wulf nodded, “I’d blame her upbringing, but she and her brother were cut from the same cloth.”

Rebecca hummed still in shock before looking back up at him curiously "And you haven't been with anyone since?"

[heavenlyborne]

For all her faults, Shalria is totally a dog person. Big, small, fierce, fluffy or just plain weird-looking, she adores all canines.

[davidtennan-t]

‘Nothing about him looked particularly demonic, at least by classical standards. No horns, no wings…’

I added the little tuft of ginger at the top to make him look more approachable - he is supposed to be Hell’s most approachable demon.

I have a basic sketch for Aziraphale if anyone would like to see more!

[whisperedlouis]

I’m mostly just offended that they never played walking in the wind live.

[forthedingoes]

Progressive Dingo Management Strategies 

Over the next year I will be involved in a project managed by Griffith University, in collaborations with residents from two peri-urban communities with an interest in animal management and environmental conservation. ‘Peri-urban’ areas are zones that have undergone rapid urbanisation of a once remote rural environment. These particular locations are extraordinary in their concentration of dingoes (and feral domestic dogs) and the incessant conflict between community members (predominantly farmers), but also newly arrived “urban refugees” (to use the term often quoted in the workshop). 

The academics managing this project are not necessarily specialists in dingoes and invasive species, but experts in community empowerment and communication. Their expertise has been channelled to empower communities to challenge Government led and enforced management of invasive species, which all community members shared a dissatisfaction with, regardless of position regarding dingoes (and feral domestic dogs and other invasive species). While the population of dingoes is exceptionally high in these areas, they are exhibiting classic chaos behaviour in response to the traditional, exclusively lethal means to control dingoes (+ feral domestic dogs). These culls are typically controlled and enforced exclusively by local and state departments of government by means of 1080 poison baiting. All affected people – particularly farmers – have expressed concern that the impact of predatory species has continued to increase, despite a lack of monitoring and quantitive data measuring the effectiveness of current practises. Even farmers that carry out baiting are open to alternative measures of control, and the vast majority share concern for the welfare of animals that are killed by It is this projects goal to gather residents to create stratagems that reflect the diversification of values and welfare concerns of all community members. It creates and opportunity to open a forum of discussion between new and ‘old-school’ community members, reflecting their unique experiences, education and ethics. Farmers also have an opportunity to address the lack of results of these culls actually decreasing stock losses, and to voice their concerns over the rapid social change within their community. “Communities are often best-placed to take action because they have a unique and detailed understanding of the issues, challenges and opportunities in their community. A self-empowered community-led planning process can be an effective way for communities to come together to establish responses to threats to their lifestyles.” 

All parties will benefit from the guidance of the research fellows. Their specialisation in self empowered community management ensures that and the objective of valuable action, is not limited to discussion, and the power of working within a community to add merit to suggested changes in practices. The objective of this workshop is to submit an application to the revision of the Wild Dog Management Strategy (2011 – 2016) which is up for review, due to the expiry date of the most recent plan by the Queensland Dog Offensive Group. This papers’ draft is available to the public, and open to suggestions that I can put forward to the researchers, regardless of whether you are local or not. It’s a good 17 pages long, so I’ll try to make a post to link it Here if anyone would like to have a read (Just give me a little time to figure out how haha). These are the key points explored in the submission, with my own notes highlighted in italics

1.       A need to distinguish between dingos  and non-dingoes throughout the strategy. (according to the taxonomy “Canis Dingo” & phenotype and status as its own species)

2.       A need for greater community awareness, education and capacity building around wild dogs and dingoes and their management in peri-urban areas.

4.       A need to quantify actual impacts of feral dogs and dingoes in peri-urban areas to inform best management practices, as well as the need for better understanding of dingo behaviour and ecological role based on the latest science (Reference material must be peer reviewed and critically analysed).

5.       A need to consider the range of views of peri-urban residents that include, but are not limited to: the importance of dingo conservation, the appropriateness of current control methods (especially 1080 baiting)  (with regard to welfare concerns and human accountability for domestic animal husbandry), the need to understand current impacts of wild dogs, and issues of personal responsibility and pet management.

6.       A need to consider personal responsibility and preventive measures and improve residents’ compliance with relevant regulations (e.g. microchipping, desexing) (How to address undocumented and irresponsible behaviour with other methods that don’t simply rely on punishment, and provide motives for target audience?).  A need for greater transparency and sharing of information (Accuracy of information available on Gov, academic and media resources, esp. regarding species distinction) between Government and local communities, especially in relation to wild dog impacts, sighting  (With conclusive, first hand evidence of animals responsible for stock attacks – as in visual documentation of the attack, not just the aftermath. Attack could be by a range of invasive species – domestic dogs, pigs, foxes, cats, or dingoes), and management (community oriented and autonomous) outcomes in peri-urban areas.

“We note that although the desired outcomes of the current Strategy specifically include the conservation of dingoes (Desired Outcome 5), the vision does not mention conservation and is only focused on control. At the same time by only using the word impacts it implies that all impacts are negative, but dingoes can have positive ecological impacts (Johnson & VanDerWal, 2009; Letnic, Ritchie, & Dickman, 2012; Smith, 2015). We suggest that conservation of dingoes should be included within the vision in order to ensure conservation of dingoes is considered as equally important as control of wild dogs, and that it should be made explicit that the negative impacts should be minimised. We also note that community responsibility and involvement in this issue is vital (Martin, Low Choy, LeGal, & Lingard, 2016), and has been shown to be a key factor in successful wild dog management (Paroo Shire Council, 2011). This is reflected in Desired Outcome 2 in the current strategy. However, the group’s experience is that there was a reliance on and expectation of local government to take responsibility for this issue. To emphasise the importance of the community, the vision should include some reference to community responsibility”. - Submission to QDOG regarding Wild Dog Management Strategy