Dingoes on loose

VCAT told of Corio escapes

DINGOES responsible for a deadly attack on a dog in Corio last year escaped a backyard where they were kept many times before the incident, the state’s administrative tribunal has heard.

The revelation came as the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal rejected former Corio woman Robyn Beaton’s application to have her wildlife licence reinstated last month.

“It is important to send a clear message as a deterrent to other dingo owners and the public that where a dingo or dingoes escape in breach of the conditions (of a licence), it will not be tolerated,” VCAT senior member Robert Davis said.

The hearing followed the suspension of Ms Beaton’s wildlife licence by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning in May last year after she held it for three years.

“The dingoes were not kept in a fixed enclosure of sufficiently secure design and construction to prevent their escape” Mr Davis said, in rejecting Ms Beaton’s application.

Ms Beaton told VCAT financial difficulties meant she could not repair her dingo enclosure while building another enclosure at her new home in Koroit, near Warrnambool.

She alleged that on the day of the attack someone removed a padlock from her gate.

VCAT also heard there was a loose paling on Ms Beaton’s fence on the day of the attack.

In an affidavit, Peter Mouat, who died a few weeks after the fatal attack on his dog Dotty, said the same dingo that attacked it on March 5 last year also attacked it 10 months earlier.

Mr Davis said it was clear from evidence that Ms Beaton’s dingoes escaped on March 3 and 5 last year, and “approximately half a dozen occasions before that”.

Ms Beaton’s former neighbour who gave evidence at a previous hearing said she saw a female dingo attack a small dog belonging to Mr Mouat on March 5 last year.

Ms Beaton’s dingoes were seized on the day of the attack.

DELWP could not tell the Geelong Advertiser what would happen with the dogs after Ms Beaton’s licence was cancelled.