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Court rejects another challenge to feral horse control

The Invasive Species Council has welcomed a NSW Land and Environment Court decision dismissing another legal challenge to feral horse control in a national park, clearing the way for control operations to resume in Yuraygir National Park.

The Court today dismissed a challenge to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service’s authority to remove feral horses from Yuraygir National Park and Yuraygir State Conservation Area using aerial shooting, ground shooting and other approved control methods.

The challenge failed on every ground, with the Court finding NPWS has multiple legal bases to undertake feral horse control, including under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974, the park’s Plan of Management and the Biosecurity Act 2015.

The decision follows a string of previous unsuccessful legal challenges to feral horse control in NSW national parks.

‘Once again, enormous energy and effort has been spent defending lawful action to protect our national parks from feral horses, and once again the challenge has been thrown out,’ Invasive Species Council Indigenous Ambassador and Wiradjuri man Richard Swain said.

‘NPWS won on every ground. The Court has made it clear that our national park managers have the lawful authority to remove feral horses, including through aerial shooting.

‘This is an important decision. If Ms Jackson’s claim had been accepted, all shooting of all feral animals in national parks and reserves could have been delayed while new procedures were implemented.

‘This is the fifth decision in the NSW Land and Environment Court on feral horse matters since July. All decisions so far have confirmed that the NSW government is acting legally and appropriately in managing feral horse damage in national parks.

‘These repeated court cases take time, energy and resources away from the work that actually needs to happen on the ground – protecting Country and our precious native wildlife from the damage caused by feral horses.

‘Feral horses trample wetlands, damage waterways, spread weeds and destroy habitat. In Yuraygir they threaten sensitive coastal landscapes and the nesting grounds of threatened shorebirds.

‘National parks exist to protect nature and Country. Our park managers need to be able to get on with that job using effective, evidence-based control methods.

‘There are strong animal welfare safeguards around these operations. NPWS control methods must follow feral horse standard operating procedures, including for aerial shooting, and those procedures were developed following consultation with RSPCA NSW and relevant experts.

‘We hope this decision means NPWS can now get back to protecting Yuraygir without further unnecessary delay.’

Media inquiries: (02) 8006 5004

Background:

  • The case was brought by Carmen Jackson against Alex Graham, Deputy Secretary of the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
  • The challenge concerned the authority to use aerial shooting and other lethal control methods to remove feral horses from Yuraygir National Park and Yuraygir State Conservation Area.
  • Justice Pepper dismissed the challenge on 30 October 2026.
  • The Court found the park’s Plan of Management requires feral horses to be removed and that ‘remove’ includes removal through lethal control.
  • The Court found the method used to remove feral horses is an operational matter for NPWS, subject to the usual requirements of lawful and reasonable decision-making.
  • The Court found the proposed shooting operations were also supported by authorisations under section 171 of the National Parks and Wildlife Act and biosecurity directions requiring feral horses to be removed.
  • The judgment records that NPWS’s Pest Management Plan allows ground shooting, aerial shooting and passive trapping and killing in yards.
  • These control methods must be undertaken in accordance with relevant NPWS standard operating procedures.
  • The judgment records that the feral horse SOPs were developed following consultation with RSPCA NSW and relevant subject matter experts.
  • Feral horses cause extensive damage through grazing and trampling, including loss of vegetation, soil compaction and erosion, damage to waterways and reduced water quality. 

Information on other previously lost court cases: 

VIC:

NSW:

  • Snowy Mountains Brumby Sustainability & Management Group Incorporated v State of New South Wales [2020] NSWLEC 92. Judgement. The SMBSMG sought to restrain the State of New South Wales and the Chief Executive of the National Parks and Wildlife Service from completing wild horse management activities in Kosciuszko National Park. Justice Duggan dismissed the case. 
  • Snowy Mountain Bush Users Group Inc v Minister for the Environment [2024] NSWSC 1040. Judgement. Dismissed with SMBUG ordered to pay costs.

Related Content

24 fold increase in annual feral horse removals gives Kosciuszko’s native animals a chance
NSW Supreme Court dismisses legal challenge to feral horse control
Statement on ABC Ombudsman’s finding that ABC breached accuracy and impartiality standards with report into feral horses

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    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.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]


    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.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]