IN THE unlikely event that it arrives in Australia, BSE will sneak past border protection. Tony Peacock is concerned about potentially even more costly problems that could get here with a quarantine stamp of approval.
The chief executive of the Invasive Animals CRC, Professor Peacock wants currently loose regulations tightened up to form an absolute ban on importation of hybrid animals, like wolf-dog crosses or wildcat-domestic cat crosses.
With the genes of high-level predators, the escape of these hybrids into the wild could lead to strains of wild dogs and feral cats considerably more destructive than those already out there.
It is currently entirely legal to import wolf dogs, a cross between the grey wolf and wolf-like domestic dogs like German Shepherds, Huskies or Malamutes.
Through the 1980s and 90s, wolf hybrids were reportedly responsible for 38 severe attacks and 13 deaths in the US. All the victims were children. The hybrid is currently ranked sixth for dog attacks in the US.
“Only an idiot will own a wolf dog, but there are between 300,000 and 500,000 of them in the United States,” remarked Dr Peacock at the recent Global Biosecurity Conference in Brisbane.
“The market for these things is with people with small penises that can’t afford a Hummer.”
If wolf dogs are imported, he believes it is inevitable that some owners will attempt to use them as hunting dogs, with the likelihood that the hybrid genes will get into the wild dog population.
“Our wild dogs are largely hybridised now, and have been growing in size; our wild dog population is about 25 per cent bigger than it was 30 years ago.”
“The last thing we want is the genes for even bigger wolf-type dogs to come in and supplement that gene pool - as they inevitably do.”
Importations of savannah cat, a cross between the domestic cat and the metre-long African wild cat, the serval, were only stopped at the last minute late last year after authorities were alerted by internet ads posted by the importers.
A first-cross savannah cat is in the Guiness Book of World Records as the world’s tallest cat, at 43 centimetres from toe to shoulder. The cats weigh between four and seven kilograms.
Dr Peacock said 14 F5 savannah cats were due to arrive in Australia in September 2009. The 2009 litters had been presold at a starting price of $5000, and 2010 litters were already on sale.
Savannah cats are only the tip of the hybrid cat iceberg. Crosses with wild cats like the Asian Leopard Cat, Jungle Cat and Indian Desert Cat are being sold under names like Chausie, Stone Cougar, Pantherette and Machbagral at prices typically between $10,000 and $20,000.
Right now, Dr Peacock said, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act has no regulations hindering attempts at such imports.
The savannah cat was only stopped when Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett invoked a “clunky” mechanism that involved an import risk assessment.
In its submission arguing against the importation, the Invasive Animals CRC said the importers’ assertion that serval genetics would simply be diluted out if they entered the feral cat population was “seriously misleading”.
It was equally possible, the CRC said, that the serval would “confer a fitness benefit that would be highly selected and/or result in hybrid vigour”.
“Risk mitigation proposals by importers are manifestly inadequate,” the submission said.
“A decision to allow importation will be used as precedent for other future importers. Confinement procedures are unenforceable over the longer term with these animals in private homes.”
“The benefit of Savannah cats to Australia is exceptionally small and cannot justify the risk involved.”
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