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PRESS
RELEASE -
June 17, 2008
ACTIVISTS
VOW TO STOP TASSIE WALLABY SLAUGHTER
Within
days, the Tasmanian government plans
to kill another 300 wallabies on the
Maria Island National Park
as part of their annual 'cull', and
wildlife groups have vowed to exhaust
every possible avenue to stop this cruel
slaughter from happening again.
After the 2006 'cull' on Maria Island,
veterinarian autopsy reports found hundreds
of wallabies had died in the most painful
and horrific way. Government shooters
failed to kill the wallabies according
to Regulatory Codes, instead leaving
them to die in agony from wounds to
their chest and body.
Nikki
Sutterby, co-ordinator for Australian
Society for Kangaroos said,
"Government shooters and officials
who carried out the kill in 2006, broke
every regulation in the book and left
hundreds of wallabies to die slowly
from agonizing chest and body injuries.
Government shooters also failed to attend
to pouch joeys, leaving them alive in
their dead mothers pouch. This is another
breach of the Code of Practice. When
veterinarians found them the following
day, they were still alive. All these
joeys had to be euthanased. "
Ms Sutterby
claims that "There's long list
of humane long term solutions that we
have provided to the government regarding
this matter, but they have rejected
them on the grounds that they're too
hard. This horrific treatment of our
native wildlife is criminal and we cannot
let it happen again on Maria Island.
There will be fierce local national
and international protest if this kill
goes ahead."
--------------------------------------------
News
article from The Australian- June 30,
2008
Vets'
claims of law breach may halt roo cull
Matthew Denholm | June 30, 2008
TWO
senior veterinarians have described
the conduct of a mass cull of kangaroos,
wallabies and pademelons on Tasmania's
Maria Island as "totally unacceptable"
and a breach of animal welfare laws.
From
today, Maria Island, off the state's
east coast, will be closed until July
11 while rangers shoot 400 animals to
reduce overgrazing and avert over-population.
Tasmania's
Parks and Wildlife Service insist a
2006 cull on Maria, a popular tourist
destination featuring an award-winning
eco-tourism operation, was conducted
humanely by trained staff.
However,
The Australian has obtained letters
of complaint from a wildlife pathologist
and a wildlife epidemiologist who examined
animals after the 2006 cull. Both are
scathing of the practices involved,
describing animals left to long painful
deaths because of poor shooting, as
well as joeys being left to die of cold
in their dead mothers' pouches.
The
evidence of both scientists may be used
by animal welfare advocates to obtain
a court injunction to halt this year's
cull.
Ian
Langstaff, then-Tasmanian government
wildlife biologist, and volunteer veterinary
pathologist David Obendorf examined
animals the day after a night cull on
Maria in 2006.
Dr
Langstaff, now a senior scientist with
a national animal health body, wrote
a two-page letter to departmental management
warning that cull methods breached state
and national guidelines and the Tasmanian
Animal Welfare Act.
"The
macropod cull clearly results in unnecessary
suffering to macropods and this is an
unacceptable animal welfare outcome,"
Dr Langstaff wrote.
Both
vets concluded that Bennett's wallabies
and pademelons were all shot in the
body orthe chest, rather than the head,
resulting in a slow, painful death through
blood-loss and acute shock. These animals
would have "remained conscious
with painful injuries" until their
deaths, Dr Langstaff concluded.
He
said shooters were failing to comply
with the national Code of Practice for
the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and
state guidelines by not aiming for the
head, and not checking that those shot
were dead. "This approach is totally
unacceptable," he wrote.
Both
vets found "a significant number"
of dead females with live young in their
pouches.
The
vets have stood by their complaints
and called for practices to be changed
so that any cull is conducted humanely.
They
called for better planning, and Dr Langstaff
urged the removal of Forester kangaroos
from the island to ensure the sustainability
of the macropods.
Dr
Obendorf said if the cull were part
of a commercial operation, those involved
would be prosecuted.
However,
Parks and Wildlife operations manager
Mark Bryce denied that cull practices
in 2006, or since, breached animal welfare
codes and laws.
Mr
Bryce said a support team ensured the
animals did not suffer "at all".
"Most vets that have experienced
the shooting program have been OK with
the cull," he said. The complaints
were based on "assumptions from
looking at the carcasses" rather
than "direct evidence".
Nikki
Sutterby, co-ordinator of the Australian
Society for Kangaroos, said an alternative
to the cull was to remove animals suffering
from lack of food or water.
"If
there is a problem with feed then you
need to monitor that - not just indiscriminately
kill healthy animals that have developed
a good gene pool and adapted to their
environment," she said.
A
Tasmanian Pademelon joey
(image courtesy Wikipedia.com)
To
help stop this massacre, please write
to or call those below:
Tasmanian
Premier
david.bartlett@parliament.tas.gov.au
03 62332530
Minister for
the Environment, Heritage and the Arts
david.llewellyn@parliament.tas.gov.au
03 62336454
Secretary for
the Environment, Heritage and Arts
Assistant Lauren Parr
lauren.parr@depha.tas.gov.au
03 62335908
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