New South Wales parliamentary Inquiry into aerial shooting brumbies concludes with expert Veterinary evidence that aerial shooting cannot be an "humane death"

AUSTRALIA, April 10, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The New South Wales government parliamentary inquiry into aerial shooting brumbies in Kosciouszko National Park has concluded, with renewed calls from pro brumby groups that the New South Wales Government must abandon its plans to aerial shoot brumbies in the Kosciouszko National Park, on grounds aerial shooting will lead to inhumane deaths of brumbies.

Dr Harvey, an expert in wild horse welfare, gave evidence on the last day of the Inquiry. She has been working with wild horses for 11 years, published and lectured widely on the subject of wild horse welfare, in addition her PhD involved two years of field work across different sites in Kosciuszko National Park. She also carried out a range of veterinary work for brumby rehomers over the last 10 years, and conducted immunocontraceptive trials in captive brumby populations.

Dr Harvey stated : "Wild horse management is an ethically challenging scenario, and there are no easy solution that will please everyone, but we must be honest and transparent about thoise chllenges and how decisions are made. If the Government decides to use aerial shooting for wild horse management it must be transparent in the reasons for doing so and must be honest to the public about the welfare impacts of shooting horses from helicopters."

"Proponents of aerial culling frequently state that it's the most humane lethal management method, and some even say the humane way of managing wild horses, but this is wrong. The 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 prior to insensibility and death" and "....severe in intensity"

Pro brumby advocates have renewed calls to the Minister for Environment to abandon the Labor Governments plan to aerial shoot brumbies as it has not concluded a count of brumbies living in retention zones areas, where 3,000 brumbies must be retained to satisfy Legislation. The Minister has given orders to close the National Park for 7 months to undertake aerial shooting of brumbies across retention zones.

Ms Marilyn Nuske Animal Rights Lawyer today stated: "Unless Penny Sharpe conducts a count of brumbies in retention zones, she may be in breach of the very Legislation that protects them, as the object of the Act is to ensure sustainably managed mobs, and if the popuatlion falls below that number, Ms Sharpe may well have already caused populations to drop below the numbers required by Legislation. Without a credible count of retention zones, there should be no removals, no aerial shooting. If numbers are in fact above 3,000 then rehomers are willing to adopt brumbies from the Park without engaging in inhumane aerial shooting.

"There is simply no need for the Labor Government to shoot any brumbies, let alone cruel and inhumane ground or aerial shooting."

Marilyn Nuske
Brumby Action Group Inc
+61 400 784 754
email us here

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