Brumby woes let run loose by authorities
TUESDAY’S Bully ( 5/ 9/ 17) Page 5 had me choking on my cornflakes – no, not the naked vets photo, but the great mealymouth- speak from National Parks.
“QPWS is aware of a small number of horses that move across the Mt Elliot area.” If they got out of their offices and helicopters and occasionally walked through their park, they would know there’s hundreds of brumbies there permanently.
Also this one: “In response QPWS has undertaken fencing to exclude major watering points” – read that as: “Horses will slowly die from thirst or break through fences to get water” and this: “We will carry out further control actions to remove all feral horses from Clemant State Forest”, read that as: “We’ll spend a fortune flying around in helicopters to shoot/ wound some every few years.”
It’s a pretty awful problem as large feral animals do untold damage to our parks but why not just admit the problem and use some humane, cost- effective and permanent control methods?
Rounding them up and selling them as they do in some US areas would be a nice ( perhaps not a practical) solution, but failing that specially licensed sharpshooters ( preferably with silencers and nightscopes) at the few watering points could solve the problem ( plus the feral pigs) relatively humanely without the need for helicopter joy rides every few years.
PAUL MUIR, Cape Cleveland.