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SA budget: feral cat eradication funded while feral pigs and buffel grass left to march across the state

The Invasive Species Council welcomes funding in the state budget to deliver on election commitments, including its nation-leading eradication program to remove feral cats on Kangaroo Island.

But the Council warns the budget also leaves 2 fast-moving invasive threats dangerously ignored – feral pigs and buffel grass. 

‘The South Australian government has made the right call backing feral cat eradication on Kangaroo Island – this is exactly the kind of ambitious, large-scale program Australia desperately needs if we are serious about stopping extinctions,’ Invasive Species Council Senior Advocate, James Johnston said. 

‘At the same time, the state government providing $6 million for more heritage agreements for private landholders – grants that assist landholders in dealing with invasive pests and weeds – is a good conservation outcome.

‘However, the government has left the door wide open for other escalating threats taking over the state.

‘Buffel grass, an issue the Invasive Species Council has been advocating for $2 million per year to stop the weed in its tracks, is spreading rapidly across South Australia’s north, transforming landscapes and laying the groundwork for hotter, more destructive fires across the outback.

‘At the same time, feral pigs are tearing up wetlands, destroying habitat, polluting waterways and threatening agriculture and wildlife alike, with just $3 million needed to stop them surging across borders following floodwaters.

‘The government can walk and chew gum – enacting bold and ambitious programs like KI cat eradication while also tackling reactive threats as they arise in the state.

‘The government cannot afford to play whack-a-mole with invasive species – funding one crisis while ignoring the next one already exploding across the landscape.

‘A small investment now would save the government significantly, rather than dealing with these issues once they have established and are difficult to tackle.

‘The Malinauskas government has shown real leadership on feral cat and deer eradication programs – it has the chance to become a national leader on invasive species if it follows through with the same ambition on other devastating invasives like weeds and pigs.’

Media inquiries: (02) 8006 5004.

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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]