Aerial Cull in Canarvon National Park, Qld

Below is an article that appeared in The Courier on Monday the 15th of March, on an aerial cull that has been going on in Canarvon National Park, Qld for some time. They are heading back into Canarvon NP in April 2010 for two further planned culls. Each cull will last 2-3 days and they expect to slaughter 1000-2000 Brumbies in this period.
 
Counts a couple of years ago put the Canarvon population at around 12, 000 Brumbies, Parks Qld has been systematically eradicating them every since with a series of aerial culls. Aerial culls take place when a mob of Brumbies is chased by a helicopter with a shooter shooting them as they run. A follow up helicopter shoots again those horses who are still visibly moving. Once they are no longer moving, they are left to die. Autopsies after the last cull showed that many of the horses had between 4 and 7 bullets in them – this means that it took this many bullets to stop them moving! The current cull was planned for March, but was put off until the mares had finished foaling, so we will now have baby foals fleeing these helicopters.

After the Brumbies die, our heritage horses are left to rot and supply food for the booming feral dog, pig and cat population which will be thriving with this added food source.

The State minister for the environment, Kate Jones feels that the current population of 4,500 Brumbies could escalate to 45,000 ‘quickly’. I would call on her to quantify that statement and back it up with scientific facts. Of course, Ms Jones may not be aware that Brumbies, unlike rabbits, have only one foal each year. Ms Jones also states that the shooters will be targeting heads and chests when they shoot the Brumbies. This is against all Codes of Practise which state that shooting for the head from a moving platform in NOT HUMANE! Of course, 4 – 7 bullets isn’t humane either, but Ms Jones feels it is.

Article by The Courier If the page is no longer active <click here> to dowload a PDF

If you would care to comment, you can contact:

Min for the Environment, Kate Jones, Ashgrove@parliament.qld.gov.au

Michael Beatty, RSPCA Qld, mbeatty@rspcaqld.org.au