Buzz Mills
New Member
Australian plan to shoot wild horses provokes outrage
SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian state government's plans to shoot more than 10,000 wild horses to protect the environment were Sunday attacked by some animal rights activists as inhumane. The Queensland government had attempted to keep the cull of the horses, or brumbies, a secret because of fears of a public outcry.
But government documents confirming the cull were obtained by the media while the Save the Brumbies charity reproduced photographs it said are of the cull on its website. One of the images shows a foal standing over its dead mother while the second shows a horse left to die with a wound to its rump and gut.
Animal rights groups accept the government's argument that the horses are causing soil erosion, destroying freshwater springs, damaging Aboriginal cultural sites and competing with native wildlife for food.
But they say the vast overpopulation of the animals should have been dealt with years ago, and shooting the brumbies from helicopters was the result of years of brushing the issue under the carpet. "For years and years the problem of wild horses has not been addressed," Jan Carter of Save the Brumbies told AFP. "And then the idea is 'Well, let's go in and shoot them.' "It's very inhumane. You've only got to see the photos to know they died in agony."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2007111...imalshorses;_ylt=AmHbdCivuLpK5HYmDKtMeEa9IxIF
SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian state government's plans to shoot more than 10,000 wild horses to protect the environment were Sunday attacked by some animal rights activists as inhumane. The Queensland government had attempted to keep the cull of the horses, or brumbies, a secret because of fears of a public outcry.
But government documents confirming the cull were obtained by the media while the Save the Brumbies charity reproduced photographs it said are of the cull on its website. One of the images shows a foal standing over its dead mother while the second shows a horse left to die with a wound to its rump and gut.
Animal rights groups accept the government's argument that the horses are causing soil erosion, destroying freshwater springs, damaging Aboriginal cultural sites and competing with native wildlife for food.
But they say the vast overpopulation of the animals should have been dealt with years ago, and shooting the brumbies from helicopters was the result of years of brushing the issue under the carpet. "For years and years the problem of wild horses has not been addressed," Jan Carter of Save the Brumbies told AFP. "And then the idea is 'Well, let's go in and shoot them.' "It's very inhumane. You've only got to see the photos to know they died in agony."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2007111...imalshorses;_ylt=AmHbdCivuLpK5HYmDKtMeEa9IxIF
..if the Brumbies need culling then they need to find a more humane way of doing it.