Lyn Watson with dingo puppies / Pic: Kris Reichl Source: The Daily Telegraph
A SELF-STYLED saviour of Australia's native dingoes smuggled six pups into the US disguised as look-alike Japanese pooches, a court has been told.
Lyn Watson, who runs the Victoria-based Australian Dingo Foundation, is facing up to two years in jail after she was charged with illegally shipping the native species overseas.
A court was told a key issue remained whether the pups were pure-blood dingoes - a protected animal - or if years of inter-breeding had rendered the exported canines common dogs.
In January, 2010, Ms Watson and her foundation allegedly shipped the animals from NSW to a kids' zoo in the US state of Indiana and two private buyers with their papers mislabelled "shiba inu" - a Japanese dog whose pups look similar to dingoes.
Mike Hyams, who had two of the pups shipped to his Florida home, said he made a $2000 "donation" to the foundation through the transport company for a dingo pair.
But when the animals arrived they came with little paperwork, which was "unusual" from his experience importing native birds.
Instead they came with only a health card listing the Japanese breed, he said.
A "heated" email exchange between Mr Hyams and Ms Watson followed, during which she assured him he had dingoes, the court heard.
In a message before the shipment she wrote she was also in the process of "wading through the drawn-out red tape" to export dingoes to US animal parks.
Dimitrije Nikic, a former volunteer at Ms Watson's Dingo Discovery and Research Centre, said he was initially asked to put his name on papers sent with the pups to the US because that would make the transfer "easier". He claimed Ms Watson later said: "I wrote down the pups were shiba inus on the paperwork just to be safe."
None of the pups had been DNA tested to prove they were dingoes, but one of their parents' had been positively identified as the native dog, the court heard.
Narelle Hammond, whose Sydney-based company Kenardobe, trading as Animal Travel, sent the pups, was also charged. Both she and Ms Watson have pleaded not guilty to exporting a protected native species.
The hearing continues.
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