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State-wide culling ban threatens nature and livelihoods

Nature and livelihoods are on the line due to the pausing of feral animal control in all NSW national parks.

The Invasive Species Council is calling on the NSW Government to resume feral animal shooting across all NSW National Parks. The shooting pause has been underway for more than 5 weeks and is putting ecosystems, wildlife and agriculture at risk.

A pause on pest control in Kosciuszko National Park was announced on 2GB by Environment Minister Griffin on 16 September to allow a review into an allegation that an aerial deer cull last summer potentially occurred near park users. The Invasive Species Council now understands this pause was in fact applied state-wide to all National Parks and includes all shooting programs to control feral animals – including pigs, deer, goats and horses.

‘A state-wide ban on all shooting activities to remove invasive species from nationalparks is deeply concerning,’ Invasive Species Council advocacy manager Jack Gough said.

‘With this wet weather, we know feral animal numbers are exploding across our national parks. More feral horses, pigs and deer trashing our parks and adjoining areas will be a disaster for our native wildlife and ecosystems.

‘This ban will also be alarming for farmers concerned about foot and mouth disease preparedness as feral pigs and deer will be major spreaders of the disease if it reaches our shores.

‘Of course, safety is paramount, however it’s ridiculous that one allegation on one shock jock radio station of an incident more than six months ago has shut down pest management in parks across the state.

‘The NSW Government has no excuse for the scale of this ban and the Environment Minister must overturn it and let National Parks staff continue to do their jobs safely, professionally and humanely.

‘When it was announced, Minister Griffin said the pause would only last for ‘a couple of weeks’ until a review was completed into the allegation, but it has now been more than a month and we are in the dark about when the ban will be lifted.

‘Invasive species are the leading driver of animal extinctions in Australia. Millions of feral deer, pigs, horses and goats are pushing our wildlife to the edge. They are eroding streams, stopping forests from regenerating and outcompeting native animals.

‘To protect our precious places from hard-hooved invasive species, we need to use all tools in the toolbox and that includes ground and aerial shooting,’ he said.

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Your support to protect critically endangered and vulnerable species from extinction is vital. Together, we can ensure governments prioritise action on invasive species and protect our wildlife and iconic places.

The Invasive Species Council was formed in 2002 to seek stronger laws, policies and programs to protect nature from harmful pests, weeds and diseases.

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.

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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]