news

"The parents did everything right": What we know about the Fraser Island dingo attack on a baby.

 

Every year, more than 400,000 Aussies set up camp on Queensland’s Fraser Island to experience the island’s untouched wilderness.

The wilderness that attracts tourists is also home to a large dingo population, and in the early hours of Friday morning, a 14-month-old baby became the third child snatched by the wild dogs in recent months.

The toddler suffered a fractured skull and puncture wounds to his head and neck when two dingoes dragged the boy by his head from the camper trailer.

His parents say their son is doing well following a second round of surgery at Brisbane’s Children Hospital.

“Our son is doing well and in a stable condition,” they said in a statement.

“He has suffered multiple puncture wounds to his neck and skull and is also being treated for a fracture to his skull.”

You can hear more details into the dingo attack on the baby in the news report below. Post continues after video.

Video via Nine

Amid claims campers on the island are failing to adequately protect themselves from dingoes by ignoring dingo-safe messaging, the first paramedic to treat the boy has says the parents are not at fault in any way.

“I can state that the parents did everything right. They weren’t at fault in any way. From the dad’s description, everything was shut up tight when they went to bed,” paramedic Ben Du Toit told 9News.

“Immediately, the parents were really under control. They did an amazing job. They stemmed the bleeding to a large extent, basic first aid things.”

ADVERTISEMENT

The ABC reports the family who had planned to camp on Fraser Island for the Easter long weekend had their camper trailer parked outside the designated camping areas when the two dingoes snuck in just after midnight on Friday and snatched the boy.

One of the dingoes bit the boy’s neck and began dragging him into the bush by his head before his father heard his screams and chased the wild dogs for about 15 metres and wrestled his son to safety.

The boy was flown to Brisbane’s Children Hospital, where he remains in a stable condition.

The Environment Department said on Saturday morning they were yet to find the dingoes responsible but 40 rangers had been dispatched to search and to patrol the campsites.

Friday’s incident marks the third dingo attack on Fraser Island this year. In February, a nine-year-old boy and his mother were admitted to hospital after a dingo pack chased them down and mauled them.

It followed a January attack on a six-year-old boy who was bitten on the legs while camping with his family in the same area as the toddler attacked on Friday.

The most recent dingo attack has re-opened a debate amongst locals around the best way to avoid future incidents on the island popular with tourists.

The Brisbane Times reports immediate action was taken following Friday’s attack, with ranger numbers set to increase by 50 per cent and face-to-face contact with visitors will be bumped up following a review into the dogs.

While there are calls for a cull of the island’s dingo population, locals are urging for more visitor education, including the dangers of feeding and interacting with the dogs, to avoid a tragedy like the 1980 death of Azaria Chamberlain when the baby was snatched by a dingo at Uluru.

– With AAP.