Why We Don’t Foster Dingoes
Fostering is a popular model used by domestic animal rescue organisations, the animals are usually collected by the rescue group and placed into a volunteers home, the volunteer then looks after the animal and tends to all of its vet appointments and training until the animal has been assessed and placed into a forever home. The associated costs are covered by the rescue. This takes pressure off the boarding facilities, staff and volunteers who maintain the animals housed at the rescue. Fostering affords the opportunity to assess an animal in a variety of situations that the rescue would not be able to expose the animal to. It creates a realistic experience of a potential new home environment for the animal, and the animal can be thoroughly assessed over an extended period. An ideal situation for a domestic pet.
Crossroads Dingo Rescue deals with dingoes. They are wild animals and require specialised care from wildlife carers with extensive experience looking after dingoes. The dingoes coming into our care are severely traumatised, psychologically and sometimes physically. It is not in a dingoes nature to be social and to move into new social groups, in the wild this would normally mean death, so their fear when being forced into a new home is an absolute fear for their lives. Dingoes do not lose that fear through exposing them to a situation repeatedly, desensitisation does not work when going against primal instincts. They may be suppressed in some cases, but never eliminated. I know this from working with dingoes for almost 50 years.
Dingoes are particularly sensitive to sudden changes. When they come into our care they have been ripped out of the only situation they have ever known and placed into an unknown environment with people and animals they have never met. It is terrifying for them. We will never put any dingo in our care through unnecessary stress, and placing that dingo into a foster home even for the shortest period would be a grave breach of our promise to always prioritise the wellbeing of that animal. It can take a dingo 12 months to trust a new person in their lives and become comfortable in new surroundings.
The second reason we don’t use foster homes is the extensive time resources required to train and vet potential wildlife carers. A business is only as strong as its weakest employee, this is true of any organisation, and in animal rescue this rule extends to every volunteer. Every person must be thoroughly vetted and trained in the very specific requirements of caring for dingoes. This training takes time, and must be fully supervised by an experienced wildlife carer. Few people have the time and dedication required to become confident in caring for the severely traumatised dingoes that come into our care, and for the safety of our dingoes and anyone who may come into contact with them we choose to limit their exposure to untrained carers.
Recently we have been alerted to the fact a dingo has been seriously mistreated in a foster situation and will likely ultimately be PTS because of it. Another example in the long list of why we stand by our methodology in running Crossroads. Fads come and go, new people become inspired and want to be the next big thing in saving the dingo. What has never changed is the dingo. Understanding and respecting the wild in the dingo, and letting him be as nature intended is why we are still going after over 40 years.
