Pic­ture a remote Abo­rig­i­nal or Tor­res Strait Islander com­mu­ni­ty scene – camp dogs are sure to spring to mind! They are an ever-present part of life for most remote Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander com­mu­ni­ties. Despite their free-roam­ing nature, they are by no means un-owned strays! The vast major­i­ty are beloved fam­i­ly mem­bers, and they can also be val­ued hunt­ing aids, pro­tec­tors against phys­i­cal and spir­i­tu­al intru­sion, incor­po­rat­ed into Kin­ship sys­tems, and for some com­mu­ni­ties, inter­wo­ven into cre­ation sto­ries, cul­tur­al respon­si­bil­i­ties, and ceremonies.

While camp dogs reg­u­lar­ly bring moments of joy, and play an impor­tant role in cul­ture, when they suf­fer poor health and man­age­ment, they can detri­men­tal­ly impact both the phys­i­cal and men­tal health of com­mu­ni­ties. Dog attacks can result in sig­nif­i­cant phys­i­cal and men­tal trau­ma for vic­tims, zoonot­ic pathogens can trans­mit from dogs to peo­ple (par­tic­u­lar­ly immuno-com­pro­mised peo­ple), and for dog lovers, own­ing or wit­ness­ing sick and injured dogs yet hav­ing lim­it­ed access to ser­vices that can assist them, may bring about distress.

Lim­it­ed access to ani­mal health ser­vices and resul­tant over­pop­u­la­tion are the under­ly­ing dri­vers of the major­i­ty of these con­cerns and are some­thing that AMR­RIC works hard to address through direct vet­eri­nary and ani­mal health ser­vice deliv­ery, capac­i­ty-build­ing train­ing and sup­port, and advo­ca­cy for suf­fi­cient and sus­tained resourc­ing for these impor­tant services. 

We also reg­u­lar­ly pro­vide remote advice to com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers and ser­vice providers who have con­cerns for either an indi­vid­ual dog (or cat) or a whole population. 

We under­stand what it is to be an ani­mal lover but restrict­ed in your abil­i­ty to access vet­eri­nary ser­vices, and we thank the many health clin­ic staff who come to the aid of injured and ill ani­mals in the absence of vet­eri­nary services.

Many peo­ple who work in or vis­it remote com­mu­ni­ties have report­ed feel­ing threat­ened or intim­i­dat­ed by com­mu­ni­ty dogs. When it comes to dog safe­ty, learn­ing to read and respond to dog body lan­guage is key. To assist, AMR­RIC has devel­oped a range of dog safe­ty edu­ca­tion­al resources for audi­ences rang­ing from chil­dren to adults, all freely avail­able on our web­site. For any­one new to com­mu­ni­ties, our Stay­ing Safe Around Dogs videos and online mod­ule are par­tic­u­lar­ly use­ful resources that dis­cuss dog behav­iour and body lan­guage, as well as how to recog­nise the dan­ger signs and tips and tricks to de-esca­late threats.

Remem­ber, each com­mu­ni­ty and each dog is dif­fer­ent. When inter­act­ing with free-roam­ing dogs, prac­tice cau­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing ear­ly morn­ings and evenings when dogs are most active. By under­stand­ing dog behav­iour, you’ll go a long way to avoid­ing dan­ger­ous situations.