Government Ordered Aerial Shooting Of Australia’s Wild-living Heritage Brumbies Has Commenced

Request For Global Support And Activism

COLDEN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, April 16, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Pleas and testimony from equine advocates in Australia and around the world went unheeded. We now turn to activism by asking citizens of the world to boycott all travel to Australia and avoid purchase of all products originating there.

A law banning Aerial shooting was established in 2000, after 226 horses were killed in Guy Fawkes National Park. Prolonged suffering was exposed by Greg Everingham, who found a horse alive and suffering about 2 weeks after the shooting. The Australian public was outraged.

Bob Debus, Environment Minister, reacted, stating, “I have listened to the community on this issue. I have permanently banned all aerial culling of all feral horses in all national parks in this state permanently.”
‘Permanently’ lasted until November 2023 when the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) was rewritten to correspond with Environment Minister, Penny Sharpe’s plan to exterminate Brumbies.

PestSmart, provides national regulator code for Australian best practice animal management programs, and states that both trapping and shooting should be avoided during foaling season. Shannon Byrne found two foals in Kosciuszko National Park (KNP), efforts made to nourish and save them failed. Both succumbed to starvation. The foals were about 1 week old, dentition makes age obvious in very young horses, proving that shooting is occurring during foaling season.

From Marilyn Nuske, Australian Animal Rights Attorney, we hear, “Never have the (KNP) gates been locked for such an extensive period. Many think the gates are locked, not only to "protect" the public, but to hide the Brumby carcasses. Functioning with the November 2023 SOP it is nearly impossible to comply with the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Shooting is taking place in remote mountainous areas, giving nil chance to ground-check brumbies to see if they are dead because helicopters cannot land. It is being done under wraps to avoid detection of cruelty. Legislation requires 3,000 Brumbies in retention zones. There has been no count. She is shooting Brumbies, unaware of a true count. There are rehomers ready, willing and able to give permanent homes to the Brumbies.”

Michelle and Ian Brown are the proprietors Snowy Brumby Photography Adventures and spend a great deal of time studying and photographing the Brumbies. Michelle stated, “We have been documenting our Snowy Mountain Brumbies (SMB) for over 10 years. The information being given to the public by anti-Brumby groups has never been as negative and misleading as it seems now. Despite the many efforts of pro-brumby advocates, like Ian and myself, with years of first hand knowledge, reporting to get those in power to hear truths about Brumby population and their thriving environment, we are continually ignored. There are now less than 3000 SMB left up in KNP. That’s a fact. In my view, our government wants Brumbies eradicated based on gaslighting misinformation.”

Brumbies, deceased due to gunshot wounds, have been left to decay in water supplies, as witnessed and photographed by Michelle and Ian Brown. The tainted water is used by all the local animals and flows into the Canberra (capitol of Australia) water supply, putting people and animals in danger.

Wild Horse welfare expert and veterinarian, Dr. Andrea Harvey, reports, “The Royal Society For Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals (RSPCA) definition of a humane death is when an animal is either killed instantly or rendered insensible until death ensues, without pain, suffering or distress."

Dr Harvey further stated: "Aerial shooting achieves none of these aims. Aerial shooting involves pursuing horses with a helicopter, which, even if for one to two minutes, can cause varying degrees of breathlessness, muscle fatigue, exhaustion and heat stress, particularly if they are galloping at maximal speeds through fear from pursuing helicopter. Following the chase, horses are shot with bullets aimed at the chest. With a chest shot, animals die as a result of haemorrhage. The time to death is variable depending on the precise location of the shot within the chest. It is possible to be a rapid death if the shot is directly into the heart, a level of precision that would be very challenging from the air, but death is never instant as is required to state that its a ‘humane death’. Horses will inevitably suffer pain and distress, severe in intensity, prior to insensibility and death.”

Equine activist and advocate, Britta Hesla, offered, “According to Animal Protection Institute’s 2020 publication, the countries most cruel to animals are Australia, the US and Belarus. We call for economic suffocation of Australia’s tourism industry. Any country that justifies killing horses (including newborns), by rapid fire guns from helicopters, doesn’t deserve to thrive from tourism.”

We implore the global community to stand with our Australian neighbors and their iconic Brumbies. Continue to protest these heinous acts until the Brumby killing is permanently stopped.

Barbara C Moore
Equine Collaborative International, Inc
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