Australia: Stop killing wild horses. Clinton Wolf and RSPCA spin piece (graphic images)

Brumbies shot down and killed a few years ago at Frazier Downs. Why does the RSPCA support these cruel massacres? 

Tell the RSPCA to STOP endorsing the Brumby killings. “Aerial Cull” = Aerial Killing. They are shooting them down from helicopters. Recently the Lake Gregory Massacre killed thousands.

Contact the RSPCA here: http://www.rspca.org.au/contact-us

Brumby foal killed in Frazier Downs 2012

Brumby foal killed in Frazier Downs, Austalia 2012. Copyright protected. Courtesy Wild Horses Kimberley.

 

Read what the wild horse killers say and know that Clinton Wolf is a huge player in the extractive industry

“Clinton Wolf is the public face of the Martu people’s corporate campaign. He fronted mining executives in Fremantle this week, with a message that the traditional landowners are open for business.”

The real Clinton Wolf behind the Brumby massacre. Is he working to Frack Western Australia?

The real Clinton Wolf behind the Brumby massacre. Is he working to Frack Western Australia?

Shameful pro-kill spin piece is one-sided

Why didn’t they interview the wild horse advocates?

Cross-posted from The Bush Telegraph:

One of the country’s biggest horse culls has just been completed in the north of Western Australia, where more than 7000 brumbies have been shot from helicopters.

Feral horses are also aerially culled in the Northern Territory

But in Victoria and New South Wales this method is not an option, despite support from environmental groups and the RSPCA.

Author of the book Desert Lake, Kim Mahood, says feral horses are damaging fragile, arid landscapes.

“Lake Gregory is one of the most significant arid-zone wetlands in the southern hemisphere.”

Ms Mahood says, ironically, the cull is also needed to avert an animal welfare issue for the horses.

“The lake is lower than it’s been in ten years. It’s becoming very salty which means the horses are either poisoned by the salts or they move off to the handful of much smaller, fresh-water pools along Sturt Creek, at which point they start getting bogged and perishing in the waterways.”

Clinton Wolf is chair of the Aboriginal Lands Trust that carried out the cull, and says this is a very complex and emotional issue.

“They’ve had a connection with these horses for 120 years … but you can’t have six to seven thousand horses running around,” Mr Wolf said.

“When there was no water, the horses were coming into the community where you have two and three year old kids walking around.”

Kim Mahood says the area is an Indigenous Protected Area and a pastoral lease, which complicates the situation.

And she says the cull was an environmental requirement to allow the traditional owners to hold on to their traditional protected areas.

“The 99-year leases are due to come up for renewal in 2015…and the Pastoral Lands Board has threatened to take away the leases if something isn’t done about the feral horses.

“In 2002 the feral horses were identified as one of the biggest environmental issues for the region.

“With that number of horses, it couldn’t possibly be functioning effectively as a cattle station.”

Clinton Wolf agrees.

“We want to have these stations up to scratch so when the Pastoral Lands Board comes around they’ll say ‘no, you’re not in breach anymore, well done’,” he said.

Feral horses are also in large numbers in the Northern Territory where they are regularly aerially culled.

Executive Director of Flora and Fauna at the Department of Land Resource Management in Northern Territory, Alaric Fisher says wild horses are treated the same as any other feral animals.

“The landscape is suffering from a lot of ferals – horses amongst them, as well as camels, donkeys, buffalo and cattle in some places.

“On some properties horses are out of control through lack of any systematic management.

“We’ve had a lot of experience of aerial culls particularly through the management of feral camels…and have taken those techniques and applied them to horses as well.

“It’s an absolute requirement that each animal is shot (at least) twice and then they fly back over the animals to ensure they’re all dead.

“The location of every shot animal is recorded on GPS and they’re inspected subsequently by a vet and the welfare outcomes are audited.

“No animals were wounded and left behind and the average time to death was eight seconds,” Mr Fisher said.

The veterinary report from the recent NT aerial cull stated:

While not aesthetically pleasing, the technique of helicopter shooting for feral horses allows a far shorter duration of suffering when compared to any other method proposed to manage the population.

The Victorian Government is in the process of developing a management plan for the brumbies in the Victorian high country.

A spokesman for the state Minister for Environment and Climate Change sent a statement on feral horses to Bush Telegraph.

The Victorian Government is focussing efforts on other measures available including the live removal and re-homing of horses and the euthanasia of captured horses in a controlled environment. 
Parks Victoria is developing the Victorian Alps Wild Horse Management Plan … The draft plan will soon be open for public comment.

Parks Victoria will provide final recommendations to the state government in 2014.
The RSPCA consistently supports aerially culling of wild horses and, in a submission to the Victorian Management Plan, accuses the Victorian Government of placing more importance on public perceptions than on animal welfare.

Parks Victoria prematurely and publically ruling out shooting will make it all the more difficult to now convince the public of the relative humanness of it. This situation could damage the reputation of Parks Victoria …and have adverse welfare impacts on the horses themselves.

Clinton Wolf, chair of the Aboriginal Lands Trust in Western Australia

Kim Mahood, author of Desert Lake, published by CSIRO.

Alaric Fisher, Executive Director of Flora and Fauna at the Department of Land Resource Management, Northern Territory

See more evidence of Frazier Downs cruelty here: http://pindanpost.com/2012/11/27/control-of-unwanted-horses-shot-from-helicopters/#jp-carousel-24919

9 thoughts on “Australia: Stop killing wild horses. Clinton Wolf and RSPCA spin piece (graphic images)

  1. Is is shameful that greed seems to be the motivating force behind the removal of wild horses in Australia as well as my country, the United States. Fracking creates toxic waste pools that poison wildlife, people and livestock. It would not look good to have poisoned horses lying about. Better to “remove” them first and hide any evidence of the wide scale pollution caused by fracking. If there is a true need to reduce the horse population, there are other methods such as fertility drugs, removal for adoption, and even humane euthanasia of horses suffering from starvation. I wonder what the number of invasive cattle and sheep are compared to wild horses in Australia? It all boils down to human greed. Sso many of my species are heartless and soulless at this point in time. I am ashamed.

  2. Clinton Wolf… be ashamed. Your name will go down in history as an ignorant businessman. The aerial cull is not humane nor acceptable. “not prolong” suffering is a lousy excuse for a messy and cruel tactic. This ought to have been better approached long ago. I ask everyone to voice their concerns and boycott down under until they figure out better ways !!

  3. Stop trying to justify your actions..No excuse..You sure needed their ancestors to settle your outback and this is how you thank them? Shame on you….

  4. Please stop killing these innocent horses. They did nothing to deserve this treatment! They want to live as much as you do!

  5. We must do everything we can to turn this bad situation into a world change to have better programs setup to manage herds. Even if its one comment at a time! These are gods animals and they are suffering at the hands of people that have no other solutions in their small narrow minds. We must pray that we can establish a change…public outrage is one of the best ways to challenge bad decisions and make change towards a more positive more humane direction…WE CAN DO THIS!

  6. I find it amazing that the balance created by Nature has always well for this planet…until humans decided to start mucking around with everything when the changes would benefit them in some way. Native Americans here in the US often make important decisions about changes to their environment based on how their decisions will effect the NEXT SEVEN (7) GENERATIONS!! I am disgusted with the US Government failing to stand up to large corporations and the destruction they are causing here – and now am heart-broken to read that the same lack of vision and the race for the almighty $ has reared it’s ugly head in Australia! Let’s face it – humans are lousy caretakers of this planet – and yet another day dawns when I’m ashamed of being human. Blessed Be!

  7. July 24, 2014 Update:

    Chair of the Aboriginal
    Lands Trust in Western
    Australia, Clinton Wolf has
    resigned.
    His resignation came days
    after explosive allegations
    were published by Fairfax
    journalists Nick McKenzie
    and Richard Baker about
    Native Title controversies in
    the Western Desert.
    No reason was provided for
    Mr Wolf’s decision to resign
    and there is no suggestion
    his resignation from the
    Lands Trust is related to
    the allegations raised in the
    Fairfax publications.
    Those allegations include
    claims tens of millions of
    dollars have poured through
    the Western Desert Land
    Aboriginal Corporation
    (WDLAC) and the Martu
    Trust but have not reached
    impoverished communities
    who continue to live in
    shanty-town like existences.
    Mr Wolf, who has been
    replaced by Shane Hamilton,
    has been embroiled in
    allegations by former
    WDLAC member, Martu
    man, Darren Farmer.
    The Aboriginal Lands Trust
    is a significant landholder
    with responsibility for
    approximately 24 million
    hectares or at least 10 per cent
    of the Western Australian land
    mass.
    Mr Hamilton is the current
    chair of the Community
    Housing Coalition of Western
    Australia. Western Australia
    has the highest homeless rate
    in Australia and endures an
    affordable and public housing
    shortage crisis, with more
    than 20,000 applications on a
    waiting list.
    – Gerry Georgatos

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