Wednesday, 15 November 2023

Wild horse control

Petition

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (17:31): This morning I was proud to table petition number ‍495 which calls for immediate financial support to be provided to approved rehomers of brumbies and to stop the senseless and heartless eradication plans in the Barmah National Park, Bogong High Plains and the Victorian alps. 1044 Victorians supported this campaign. In previous years several similar petitions have been tabled with a total of 18,288 signatures. The change.org petition has grown to an enormous 200,594 signatures. The government should take note of this. All of these people appreciate the inadequacy of the ecological arguments, regret the lack of effort put into alternative solutions and are appalled by Parks Victoria, Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action and former minister D’Ambrosio. Current minister Steve Dimopoulos will hopefully redeem some credibility and end this barbaric cull. Those supporting the petition acknowledge the inherent cruelty in current shooting campaigns and call for financial support towards rehoming of wild populations. Not only does rehoming provide humane alternatives to lethal control, but they also prove to be more effective than current aerial and ground shooting campaigns involving moving targets which cannot be killed humanely. This leaves brumbies dying slowly, foals aborted or left to starve and carcasses left to rot or be eaten by wild dogs, cats and foxes.

Just in September Parks Victoria resumed its shooting of brumbies in the Barmah National Park. The bodies of the horses have been left where they were inhumanely shot. It is incredible that parts of the park remain open. No public warnings were given to the shooting operation. This is careless and dangerous. Parks Victoria have failed to answer questions about the cull, the reason the bodies are not removed from the forest, the numbers of horses left or about any risk to public safety by conducting shooting while some parts of the park were still open to the public. The Barmah strategic action plan and the Feral Horse Action Plan 2021 have seen hundreds of brumbies either shot or sent to slaughter unnecessarily. Parks Victoria has stated that a key component of these action plans was to maximise rehoming opportunities. This has not occurred. Under this plan Parks Victoria is expected to consult with the Barmah Brumby Preservation Group on rehoming brumbies, but president Julie Pridmore said they have had no contact at all with Parks Victoria this calendar year and little productive contact last year.

A Wildlife Biology article titled ‘Use of density-impact functions to inform and improve the environmental outcomes of feral horse management’ highlighted that:

… combined impacts associated with the sign of deer, feral pigs, fire and humans were large compared to that of feral horses.

Therefore removing brumbies:

… to reduce their direct impact is unlikely to be beneficial without complementary management to reduce the effects of these other agents of impact.

Parks Victoria should meet community demands, abide by the management plans for rehoming and overshooting and undertake a revised number count with credible methodology. It is certainly not credible now. Removal plans must also incorporate financial support for rehomers by the government, who insist on best welfare outcomes for everybody except themselves.

I am very proud to support this petition to call on the government to direct Parks Victoria to re-count Brumby populations with improved counting methods and make provisions to assist approved rehomers with financial support. To do anything else is criminal.