When a tourist dies, why do the animals pay the price?

A young woman is dead. People are grieving. Everyone wants an explanation that feels solid enough to hold onto.

And then—almost on autopilot—the “solution” becomes: kill the animals that were nearby.

That’s what’s ignited fresh anger around K’gari’s wongari (dingoes) after the death of Canadian backpacker Piper James. Reporting indicates the initial findings pointed to drowning as the most likely cause of death, with dingo bites occurring before and/or after death—details that are emotionally charged, and easy to weaponise in a headline.

Soon after, Queensland authorities euthanised multiple dingoes linked to the incident.

Here’s the bit that makes my stomach sink: our first instinct is often to reduce a complex human–wildlife problem into a tidy villain. We want a single, satisfying cause. We want a single, satisfying punishment. We want to feel back in control. We think - as humans - we are or should be, in control.

Wildlife management isn’t a courtroom drama. It’s ecology, behaviour, tourism pressure, waste systems, compliance, and human decision-making—stacked on top of each other. We, or those making decisions, seemingly have no awareness on how to co-exist and share this planet which is not ours to own or rule.

A hard truth: “problem animals” are often made, not born

Dingoes don’t magically become “bold” in a vacuum. They become bold when:

• Humans feed them (intentionally or not),

• Food is easy to access (bins, eskies, camp kitchens),

• Tourists treat them like a photo prop,

• Rules exist but enforcement is patchy; and

• Visitor numbers keep pushing the system past its limits.

So when something awful happens, and the response is to kill a handful of animals, it can look like action (action I disagree with) —while dodging the bigger question:

What are we doing to prevent the next incident?

The uncomfortable question: does killing them even fix it?

Some experts have warned that removing animals from a small, isolated population can have knock-on effects (including disrupting social structures), and that blunt-force culls can backfire by increasing conflict in the long run. Not to mention it is hardly their fault if they are wild animals whose environment we are entering.

Even if you disagree with any of that, there’s a basic logic issue:
If the underlying drivers remain—food access, visitor behaviour, weak compliance—another animal will simply step into the gap.

What “responsible” could look like instead

If public safety is the goal (and of course it matters), then focus on interventions that actually shift risk:

1) Make food genuinely inaccessible
Not “please do the right thing”, but systems that assume people won’t:

• Locked food storage requirements,

• Bin infrastructure that wildlife can’t defeat,

• Rapid consequences for breaches.

2) Enforce behaviour, not optics
Rules without enforcement turn into background noise. Ranger presence, fines, campsite management, and clear deterrence protocols matter.

3) Treat it as a tourism management problem, not a wildlife problem
Sometimes the answer is less romantic: closures, caps, tighter zones, better signage, better comms, better control of high-risk areas.

4) Tell the truth about risk
K’gari is not a theme park. The ocean, wildlife, and remote conditions carry risk. Honest messaging builds safer behaviour than “everything’s fine, just take a brochure”.

Holding compassion for humans and animals

This shouldn’t just be about minimising tragedy which such a drastic and harmful response seems to be. It should also be about refusing to turn grief into policy.

A death deserves a response that’s calm, evidence-led, and genuinely preventive—not a ritual sacrifice that makes some of us feel decisive for a news cycle.

**If we want safer outcomes, we have to be brave enough to change human systems—**not just punish animals for existing. Above all, I really wish humans would learn what their place is on this planet.

#WildlifeManagement #HumanWildlifeConflict #AnimalWelfare #Conservation #Ecology #WildlifeTourism #Queensland #KGAri #Biodiversity #EthicalTourism