Mothers Who Murder by Xanthe Mallett Read Free Book Online

legal responsibility to safeguard these populations.
    Set this idyllic naturals’ paradise against the savage attacks by dingoes on humans. There has been a history of fatal attacks. For example, in 2001 a nine-year-old boy was killed by two of the approximately 160 resident dingoes while on Fraser Island, near the family’s Waddy Point camping ground. A seven-year-old boy was also injured in the attack. The circumstances around the incident seem to indicate the two boys were being followed by the dingoes as they walked along the beach. The boys then broke into a run, and the nine-year-old fell over, at which point the dingoes attacked. Interestingly, a spokesperson from the Fraser Island Defenders Organisation was quoted as saying that ‘people have encouraged dingoes to the point where they have entirely lost their fear of humans’. 16
    The Queensland Government is responsible for the Fraser Island dingo population and reviewed its strategy in 1999 after a series of attacks on people. The Queensland Government’s dingo strategy includes heavy fines for anyone caught feeding the wild dogs, as it has been recognised that a significant amount of human food has made its way into their diet. The Fraser Island management strategy recognises that dingoes have lost their fear of humans because of beneficial, regular and continuing contact.
    The attacks continue, however; there was an attack on a three-year-old girl in 2011, 17 and there were two separate incidents in 2012, one against a fourteen-year-old girl 18 and the other against a twenty-three-year-old male German tourist. 19 In 2009 a four-year-old was injured while walking along the beach with his family and in 2013 a woman was bitten by a dingo that was later euthanised as it had shown aggression to humans before. Recent evidence therefore shows that tourists are still not getting the message that feeding dingoes is not only bad for the animals but is dangerous and encourages attacks on humans. The Queensland Government announced a new fence would be built on the island – because people won’t do the right thing and not feed the wild dogs.
    Azaria’s case still haunts our social consciousness, as evidenced by the fact that any stories about the case can still draw headlines in the international media. A prominent daily British newspaper article covering the attack on the two boys in 2001 even concluded with a comment that the incident revived memories of Azaria’s disappearance in 1980. 20 If we had known then what we know now, I wonder if Lindy’s claim that a dingo had taken her baby would ever have been questioned.
    THE HUNT FOR MADELEINE McCANN
    The case of missing British toddler, Madeleine McCann, has a number of similarities to Azaria’s disappearance. Madeleine was last seen on the evening of Thursday 3 May 2007 by her mum, Kate. The British family – Kate, her husband Gerry, and their three children, Madeleine (aged three at the time) and her younger twin siblings – were on holiday in Portugal. The family was part of a larger group, consisting of seven family friends as well as their five children. Like Azaria, Madeleine went missing from her bed as she slept – in this case in the family’s apartment – while her parents were only metres away.
    The child was discovered missing at 10 pm and the police at first assumed she had wandered off or had been abducted. But – again as the result of a botched forensic blood analysis – attention soon turned to the McCanns, as the Portuguese police believed Madeleine had died in the apartment. This resulted in the McCanns being declared suspects in July 2008. The ensuing media storm was huge, with the parents suffering abuse at the hands of the British press and subsequently the public, many of whom thought the parents were not behaving ‘normally’ under the circumstances.
    Kate and Gerry were absolutely focused on keeping Madeleine on the front pages. Some mistook this for their seeking attention for