'Seconds from death': Dingoes maul girl, three, as she plays on tourist beach in Australia

By Daily Mail Reporter


The animals have been caught and destroyed

Attack: A dingoe on Fraser Island. The two dingoes that mauled a three-year-old girl have been caught and will be destroyed


Two dingoes mauled a three-year-old girl after she wandered away from her family on a popular Australian beach.

The native wild dogs lunged for the child biting into both of her legs when they attacked her in sand dunes at Hook Point on picturesque Fraser Island in north-eastern Queensland yesterday.

Witnesses rushed to scare off the dogs but the child was left with bloodied legs and several puncture wounds.

One eye-witness has said the toddler was just seconds from being killed.

Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia where wild dogs bit into the girl's legs after she wandered away from her family into sand dunes


Holiday maker David Law, who saw the attack happen, said the girl is lucky to be alive: 'I give it ten seconds - and it would have been another fatality.'

Environment Department general manager Terry Harper said the two dogs blamed for the attack had been trapped and were reportedly killed this morning.

The little girl was with her family as they were waiting to get on a barge when the attack happened.

She was taken to hospital where she is recovering.

More than 200 dingoes live on Fraser Island, a popular tourist spot about 155 miles north of the state capital Brisbane.

Fraser Island is thought to be among the last refuges for pure-bred dingoes, and they are a protected species in the national park that covers the island.

Dingoes are also protected in some other parts of the country, though in many places dingoes that have cross-bred with feral dogs are killed as pests that attack sheep and cattle.

Attacks on humans are relatively rare, though visitors to Fraser Island are warned not to feed the dingoes and to leave the animals alone.

'This is a very timely reminder for everybody about how important it is to stay very close to your children on Fraser Island,' Mr Harper said. 'Adults should always stay very close to their children. We know that they do excite dingoes.'

A nine-year-old boy was killed by dingoes on Fraser Island in 2001, prompting the culling of more than two dozen dogs and an overhaul of conservation practices, including warnings about human interaction with the animals.

The most famous dingo attack in Australia was in 1980, when Lindy Chamberlain reported seeing a dog carry her infant daughter, Azaria, away from a tent during a camping trip to Uluru, or Ayers Rock, in Australia's central desert.

Ms Chamberlain was tried for murder before a series of appeals and judicial inquiries exonerated her and found the dingo claims to be true.

Azaria's body was never found. The story was made into the 1988 film A Cry In The Dark, which earned Meryl Streep an Oscar nomination.

More than 200 dingoes live on Fraser Island, a popular tourist spot about 155 miles north of the state capital Brisbane


source:dailymail