In Australia, it is legal to poison wild animals who pose a threat to agricultural profits. Though most states have provisions in their animal welfare legislation prohibiting the use of poisons to deliberately kill an animal, these do not apply to proscribed “pest” species. While the legal status of dingoes varies across the states and territories, they are widely considered to be “pests”. This means that they can be killed using a poison that would otherwise be illegal on another native animal.

One poison commonly used to kill dingoes is sodium monofluoroacetate, more commonly known as 1080 (‘ten-eighty’). This poison is classed as one of the most toxic substances known to exist anywhere in the world. There is no known antidote to 1080 poisoning. Pieces of meat (often kangaroo) are laced with 1080 and are either laid on the ground or dropped out of helicopters across vast distances. However, because the poison is indiscriminate and lethal to all living species it poses a threat to a wide range of other species, too.

The time between ingestion and death is highly variable. It can take anywhere between 30 minutes and 72 hours from the time of ingestion. During this time, it causes immeasurable suffering to its victims before they inevitably die. Symptoms of 1080 poisoning include frenzied behaviour, anxiety, hypersensitivity, vomiting, screaming, shaking, uncontrollable urinating and defecating, convulsions, seizures, difficulty breathing, coma and death. On the basis of the suffering it causes, a study published by an RSPCA Australia scientist in the Animal Welfare journal concluded that 1080 “should not be considered a humane poison”. It’s not difficult to understand why.

Many people have lost their precious companion animals to 1080 poison, seeing first hand the suffering that thousands of dingoes are forced to endure every year, by watching their pet suffer the same grim fate.

Further, one study has highlighted the lasting emotional trauma inflicted on those who have lost their companions to 1080 poison.

Traps for dingoes are similar to those used to trap coyotes and wolves overseas. They are spring-loaded steel-jaw traps that are triggered and shut when an animal sets foot on pressure plates. Though some states have issued restrictions on the type of traps that may be legally used, most still permit the use of padded jaw traps.

Foot traps are left in known dingo territory and are hidden beneath leaves and sticks with scent lures used to entice dingoes into position trapping them in its grip by their paw. Traps are set with a significant amount of pressure. This causes significant suffering and can even break the leg of an animal caught in its jaws. Animals are also injured when they struggle and attempt to escape the trap. They may even endure injuries to their feet, legs, teeth and gums by chewing on their trapped limb or the trap jaws.

When shooters return to their traps, they shoot dingoes with a rifle to the head. Australian state governments offer a bounty to trappers for every dingo pelt they provide, incentivising killing these important animals.

Despite policies outlining that traps should be checked regularly to reduce suffering, this is seldom enforced, and because many traps are set in remote areas, the regular monitoring of them is considered impossible by the RSPCA. For those caught in traps not regularly checked, death by starvation and dehydration can take as long as a week.

In Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia, traps are bound with a cloth soaked in poison. This means when dingoes inevitably chew at their paw in an attempt to free themselves, they ingest the poison and die in the trap. The most common poison used in this scenario is strychnine, known to be toxic to other non-target species, and like 1080 there is no known antidote. Strychnine works by blocking receptors that control the muscles, causing them to contract violently, including those responsible for respiration, essentially preventing the target animal from breathing.

Ultimately, animals poisoned with strychnine die from suffocation. Before dying they commonly experience violent convulsions and excruciating pain spasms, taking up to 24 hours to die. This poison, like 1080, should not be considered a ‘humane poison’.

In some jurisdictions, Governments have active bounty systems in place that incentivise the killing of dingoes. Such systems exist in South Australia, Victoria and Queensland. These schemes award landholders, who present the pelt of a dingo, a fee of up to $120. Studies have conclusively shown, however, that bounty systems promote inhumane killing methods, cause significant adverse animal welfare outcomes, are ineffective and can even be counterproductive to conservation efforts. For example, bounties have been criticised for diverting attention away from the real problems, including habitat loss and land degradation.