{"id":432486,"date":"2026-01-25T15:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T15:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/432486\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T15:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T15:18:12","slug":"dingoes-that-circled-piper-jamess-body-on-australian-beach-to-be-culled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/432486\/","title":{"rendered":"Dingoes that circled Piper James’s body on Australian beach to be culled"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A pack of dingoes found circling the body of a young Canadian after her death on a beach in Australia will be culled, government officials announced on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The family of Piper James has said the 19-year-old from Campbell River, B.C., ventured out on Monday for an early-morning swim on a beach on K’gari, an island off Australia’s east coast.<\/p>\n

Police in the state of Queensland have said her body was found not long after, surrounded and “interfered with” by a pack of about 10 dingoes, a type of wild dog.<\/p>\n

In an online statement, a spokesperson from the government’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism said Saturday it was aware of initial autopsy findings suggesting dingo bites were likely not James’s immediate cause of death.<\/p>\n

The statement said rangers monitoring the wild dogs this week have noticed “aggressive” behaviour.<\/p>\n

“Following the initial autopsy findings, this pack’s involvement in the incident, and observations since, this pack has been deemed an unacceptable public safety risk,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

“Dingoes involved in Monday’s incident will be humanely euthanized.”<\/p>\n

Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell said in the same statement that while euthanizing the animals was a tough decision, it’s the “right call.”<\/p>\n

“This tragedy has deeply affected Queenslanders and touched the hearts of people around the world,” he said.<\/p>\n

A brief social media post from Todd James, Piper’s father, said the announcement is “simply sad, heart-wrenching information.” He notes a final autopsy report has yet to be issued.<\/p>\n

\"ATodd James, left, and his daughter Piper are shown in this undated photo. (Todd James\/Facebook)<\/p>\n

Todd James has previously said a “smoke ceremony” for his daughter would be held in Australia, and the family hopes to attend. They are also expected to bring home her remains next week.<\/p>\n

A GoFundMe campaign to help the teen’s family had raised a little more than $20,000 as of late Saturday.<\/p>\n

Piper James had been travelling around Australia since October with a friend, also from Campbell River, and had found a job on K’gari, a world heritage site that is a popular destination for backpackers and other tourists.<\/p>\n

K’gari, the world’s largest sand island, is known for its population of dingoes. The Queensland government actively warns visitors to be “dingo safe.”<\/p>\n

Two beach camping areas have been closed until the end of February, and ranger patrols have increased since James’s death.<\/p>\n

There has been a series of dingo attacks on K’gari, also known as Fraser Island. In an incident in July 2023, a 23-year-old woman reportedly out jogging was mauled by a pack that chased and corralled her into the water, according to\u00a0the Guardian<\/a>. She was hospitalized with multiple bite wounds.<\/p>\n

In 2001,<\/a>\u00a0a nine-year-old boy was killed by dingoes on K’gari. Police at the time said the\u00a0dogs stalked the boy\u00a0<\/a>and attacked him when he tripped and fell.<\/p>\n

Australia’s most notorious dingo attack \u2014 the death of two-month-old Azaria Chamberlain in central Australia in 1980 \u2014 inspired the 1988 film A Cry in the Dark, featuring Meryl Streep as the infant’s mother, who was wrongfully convicted of murder.<\/p>\n

Friends and family have said James was a “brave little girl” with an infectious laugh who dreamt of becoming a pilot. Her mother, Angela James, has said her daughter was adventurous and loved motocross, camping and swimming.<\/p>\n

\"AA dingo is shown on a beach in K’gari, where it is a protected species, in this undated photo. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A preliminary assessment on James’s body, released earlier this week, suggests there were “pre-mortem” bites in addition to evidence consistent with drowning.<\/p>\n

The Coroners Court of Queensland has said the coroner is awaiting pathology results to further assist in determining the cause of death.<\/p>\n

The process is expected to take several weeks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-432486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}