Moves by federal and state governments to change the way Australia manages high impact pests and diseases has set our alarm bells ringing. Are our governments looking at hoisting the white flag on all but a few popular causes?
When federal environment minister Greg Hunt made feral cats public enemy number one at the recent Threatened Species Summit his call to cull two million cats elicited an unexpected response from one quarter.
Environmental biosecurity: Do we have a body responsible for protecting Australia’s native plants and animals from new pests and diseases? In short, no. But we should.
New moves to make Australian agriculture more competitive could have a few positive knock-on effects for the environment.
Labor leader Bill Shorten outlined his vision for the party’s future direction at its national conference in July, but amid all the debate the party almost overlooked one of the biggest threats to Australia’s environment – invasive species.
Want a quick wrap-up of invasive species issues across Australia? Then check out our new State Updates.
Moves by federal and state governments to change the way Australia manages high impact pests and diseases has set our alarm bells ringing. Are our governments looking at hoisting the white flag on all but a few popular causes?
When federal environment minister Greg Hunt made feral cats public enemy number one at the recent Threatened Species Summit his call to cull two million cats elicited an unexpected response from one quarter.
Environmental biosecurity: Do we have a body responsible for protecting Australia’s native plants and animals from new pests and diseases? In short, no. But we should.
New moves to make Australian agriculture more competitive could have a few positive knock-on effects for the environment.
Labor leader Bill Shorten outlined his vision for the party’s future direction at its national conference in July, but amid all the debate the party almost overlooked one of the biggest threats to Australia’s environment – invasive species.
Want a quick wrap-up of invasive species issues across Australia? Then check out our new State Updates.
Moves by federal and state governments to change the way Australia manages high impact pests and diseases has set our alarm bells ringing. Are our governments looking at hoisting the white flag on all but a few popular causes?
When federal environment minister Greg Hunt made feral cats public enemy number one at the recent Threatened Species Summit his call to cull two million cats elicited an unexpected response from one quarter.
Environmental biosecurity: Do we have a body responsible for protecting Australia’s native plants and animals from new pests and diseases? In short, no. But we should.
New moves to make Australian agriculture more competitive could have a few positive knock-on effects for the environment.
Labor leader Bill Shorten outlined his vision for the party’s future direction at its national conference in July, but amid all the debate the party almost overlooked one of the biggest threats to Australia’s environment – invasive species.
Want a quick wrap-up of invasive species issues across Australia? Then check out our new State Updates.
Get our blog the Feral Herald delivered to your inbox.
The Invasive Species Council acknowledges the Traditional Custodians throughout Australia and their connections to land and sea. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. The Invasive Species Council supports voting ‘YES’ for a Voice to Parliament.
Dear Project Team,
[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.]
I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.
The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.
The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.
This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.
Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.
Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.
Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.
I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.
Dear Project Team,
[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.]
I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.
The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.
The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.
This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.
Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.
Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.
Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.
I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.
