Warning These photographs may cause distress; we show them to expose the shocking brutality of aerial slaughter and the distress and prolonged suffering it inflicts on living creatures.
Despite our letters to Anna Bligh, State Premier of Queensland and the Environment Minister for Queensland, MP Andrew MacNamara regarding the shocking aerial slaughter of horses in Carnarvon Gorge, Qld. we have not received any positive answers to our questions on future planned management of the horses. Our replies have come from Government secretaries with a few lines simply stating that the slaughter was ‘necessary’ due to environmental impacts. It is not good enough and we demand that the Queensland Government address this issue without further delay.
Press Release
Stop shooting bullets - start darting
Save the Brumbies is urging all levels of governments to start using fertility control for wild horse management. Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP) has now been successfully trialed on American Mustangs for 17 years, humanely reducing herds by 10%.
The recent exposure of plans by the Queensland Government to shoot 10,000 horses is yet another result of years of mismanagement, short term planning and knee jerk reaction to solving the problem of managing horses in the Australian environment. The time is right to change to more humane and ultimately more cost effective ways of controlling horses in the wild.
“We call for an immediate stop to the shooting in Queensland and formation of horse management committee including people with real experience with managing wild horses” says Jan Carter, President of Save the Brumbies. “Fertility control, in conjunction with other methods such as passive trapping and re-homing horses must be part of a long term, sustainable plan.”
A year ago, the Queensland Government and the Australian Military Service killed over 1300 horses in the Clemont State Forest and Rollingston areas. Campaigns against the cull by Save the Brumbies and the broader community stopped the ongoing shooting. A tender for the capture of horses in the area was sought but not taken up.
“At the time, we looked at the tender specifications and concluded that it was set up to fail”, says Jan Carter. “The time frames alone were totally unrealistic. Governments need to bring on board people with real experience in this area.”
Save the Brumbies is funded privately from donations and adoption and sponsorship fees. It operates two brumby sanctuaries in NSW and re-homes horses from the Guy Fawkes and Oxley River National Parks.
Horse shot in rump and belly, left to bleed to death.
Foal, soaked in sweat from stress and terror stands beside his slaughtered Mum, this baby will die a slow, lingering death.