An “inhumane” program that used surgically sterilised dingoes as a form of pest control for goats on a far north Queensland island has been shut down by the state government. The Queensland environment minister, Steven Miles, on Thursday issued conservation orders to shut down the program and remove all dingoes from the island within 14 days. Miles said that in the 1990s a similar plan saw dingoes released on Townshend Island but it later caused problems for native birds. Bird species on the island included a threatened species of ground-dwelling shorebird, the beach stone curlew. The chief executive of RSPCA Queensland, Mark Townend, welcomed the decision to shut the program down.

Source: The Guardian August 18, 2016 03:00 UTC