BRUMBY CARNAGE NOT BASED ON NUMBERS

The lack of detail around brumby numbers in the Alpine National Park highlights the falures and duplicity of the Victorian Labor Government’s Brumby slaughterfest.

Visitors to the Eastern Alps say 40 horses were shot in one location in mid December.

Others who frequent the National Park say horses are being shot and covered with branches to hide the evidence, while deer and pigs are left in the open and uncovered.

The Protection of the Alpine National Park: Feral Horse Action Plan November released last month loaded the gun on the aerial and ground shooting of horses in the high country. It’s the latest version of a document that failed to address the threats from deer and pigs when first published in 2018 and a “slicker” version of the document circulated in March – the pictures the same, the numbers regurgitated, the facts missing.

Importantly the plan does not quantify the number of brumbies left following the 2020 fires.

“In May the Minister wrote to me saying that an aerial survey was part of the process that Parks Victoria would use in its brumby management plan and yet there is no reference to that survey or current numbers in the latest piece of propaganda,” Mr Tilley said.

“The plan admits the mortality rate from those fires remains unknown but quotes figures from previous versions that have been hotly disputed.

“Yet now they are shooting horses from helicopters and chasing the wounded down to shoot them again, still with no guarantee the horse is dead when it hits the ground.”

Parks Victoria and the environmental experts agree that eradication is impossible, so long-term management strategies must be put into place.

“The quick fix of kill and walk away is not accepted by the community,” Mr Tilley said.

“I say let’s allow the traditional roping and mustering and let’s manage the brumbies.

“It’s more humane and less costly than shooting from a helicopter and then chasing the wounded to shoot them again.”