With the appearance of a dog and the aloofness of a cat, dingoes are unlike any other animal.
At the back of his home in Penrith, Joshua Said created Dingo Den Animal Rescue to help protect the threatened and misunderstood species.
After starting a website to provide information to people with dingoes as pets, Mr Said was contacted by people asking for help with dingo rescues.
“There wasn’t a whole lot happening, people had sanctuaries, but it was just for the dingoes they already had in care, they couldn’t support rehoming dingoes,” he said.
“I wanted to create something that was natural and that would be a good segue to rehabilitate them, have a pack that they can live with and learn to be a dingo again. The pups come in extremely young, some of them are three-weeks-old and in really poor condition, basically on death’s door.”
Dingoes in NSW are legal as registered and microchipped pets. But across Australia the dingo is classified as a pest despite being a vulnerable group, and Mr Said claims this ignores the role dingoes play in the greater landscape.
“They’re really important for our ecosystems, as our top predator, they keep the ecosystem in tact. Where we have dingoes, things are balanced,” he said.
While not a suitable pet for everyone, Mr Said believes dingoes are misunderstood and is using the Dingo Den to challenge our perceptions as he links displaced dingoes with forever homes.
On Saturday, April 7, Dingo Den is holding their Sanctuary Working Bee for animal lovers and nature advocates to learn more about the charity.
Visit www.dingoden.net to find out more information.
Emily Newton is the Weekender’s police and political reporter. Emily is also the Weekender’s Senior Journalist.
