It's a very fascinating journey,
which I found myself on
I didn't purposely go
there it was just that through things
happening in my life it sort of put me
in this direction
Many of us have dreamt of a sea-change a
tree change even a spiritual change
but, have you ever thought you could pack up
your life your career leave it all
behind and make a zoo change?
Well...
that's essentially what Simon Stretton
...did
They call me the Dingo Man
Some people call me Dingo Simon
I live out here on a property called Durong Dingo Sanctuary
on 50 acres in the middle of a forest
and I live here with 18 dingoes
I decided to retire sold my
house came up here lived in a little
cabin
Just after I'd finished the house that someone contacted me
about some dingoes could I rescue some dingos?
Because they knew I'd been involved with dingoes in Victoria
So that sort of gave me a second chance
again to start working with dingoes
So started off with four or five
The classification they gave me was a zoo
Most of them are wild or wild born dingoes
It's become my life long mission now to
try and save dingoes
And so why are the dingoes so important to you, though?
Well, I guess because they've become my life
It's sort of something, I didn't choose to do
It's just something evolved in
someone asked me to save their dingoes and I did
next thing, you know?
I'm surrounded by dingoes
I'm doing the best I can to give them the best enviroment
Now with dingoes the other thing they do
when they greet each other
they always lick each other's mouths
This is him greeting me
And sometimes he'll knock my hat off and he'll keep licking my head
and just keep licking and licking
If come in and I'm bleeding he'll keep licking my blood and
trying to stop the blood flow
so, I know
I've just proved to myself that
the smell of human blood is not going to
excite them and turn them into killers
just like, 'oh you're bleeding, ah you
you poor thing, I'll try stop it from bleeding.'
But, you're also saying they're not like pets...?
They've got their own agenda
They're not seeking human approval
They are just totally independent
They do their own thing because they're a wild animal
But things haven't quite gone to plan
and Simon is now dealing with the unintended
consequences of his good intentions
The irony of all of this is that I've
spent all this time building up the sanctuary and
trying to save these dingoes
But at the end of the day
I'm gunna have to be the one to pull the trigger
and kill them all
Simon received an $18,000 debt notice
from the bank in September last year
threatening eviction if he fails to pay
Bad news for Simon and potentially fatal
news for the dingoes
Sanctuaries are a problem
Mark Townend is the CEO of the RSPCA in Queensland
and says these sorts of stories are not uncommon
It's often a sad ending because people
put a lot of effort in, people are very
well-meaning good intentions
and that's their life
But if they can't get those animals out alive
everyone's failed
As you can see in the long term it's not
the result any of us want
We have to make sure those animals don't go into
those sanctuaries in the first place
because they're not sustainable and
those animals will be euthanised
So when do you find out Simon if...ah
if you've got the place or not?
What's the deadline on this?
My solicitor wrote a letter to them
they stopped repayments for 12 months
I'm trying drag money out of my pension put
into another bank so at least I might
have a few thousand dollars come October
financial pressures aren't the only
obstacles in Simon's way
deteriorating health means he's unable to work and
currently shares his disability pension
with the dingoes
I got a catheter in here
I've got to get an operation soon to get this catheter out
They are going to drill through my prostate
...ah I know
I just went to the Toowoomba hospital last week to discuss about it
I said 'how you gonna do this?'
So they shove a camera up through your...
Simon acknowledges that the future of the
sanctuary staying open is extremely dim
A debt of a $180,000 doesn't make for an attractive business investment
which, means the likelihood he will have to
pull the trigger it's fast becoming
a real one
So do you think the dingoes like you?
Me?
Oh, yeah they love me, yeah
There's something going
between dingo to dingo
and they're probably talking to me all the time
and they're probably frustrated that I don't
understand them
so I'm trying to understand them
I'd love to get inside their head
And Simon's advice for those looking to
follow a similar path?
Put simply...
...is don't do it
But despite Simon's battles he has no
regrets and when we asked him if you
would have done anything differently
His answer is 'no'
We all want to feel we've been put on this earth to do something good with our lives
but, I fell into this
I think it's a shared responsibility it's
a shared from the legislators and
regulators to allow that to actually happen
without actually looking at the
long-term options for those sanctuaries
It's also a community problem all of us are at fault
because we've allowed that
habitat to disappear and
the need for these animals be moved into
some other situation
I
I know it's the
right cause
It's my calling...
and ah, you know my battles are bigger