Aerial shooting of feral horses in Kosciuszko national park begins

Pantheraman

Pantheraman

Well-Known Member
"The New South Wales government has begun trialling aerial shooting to reduce the number of feral horses which are destroying fragile alpine ecosystems in Kosciuszko national park.

In November, 270 feral horses were shot during a two-day trial with no reported adverse animal welfare events, after a Senate committee examining the effect of feral horses in alpine regions called for aerial culling to be allowed in NSW. Two helicopters were used and independent veterinarians observed the trial."

Aerial shooting of feral horses in Kosciuszko national park begins

Good. Now if only this would happen in North America.
 
I for one very much hope the US does not do this, and that the BLM finally starts funding PZP instead. Besides, the US context isn’t comparable because cattle are doing huge amounts of damage there as well - arguably much more than the mustangs.

Shooting may be more humane than round ups, but it’s absurd to say that killing members of a herd won’t have an ‘adverse animal welfare ’ effect on the rest of the herd. Just because they’re not running around on 3 legs bleeding to death doesn’t mean that their welfare hasn’t been affected.

If they’d managed the population sustainably with fertility control, they could have avoided it coming to this.
 
equidae said:
I for one very much hope the US does not do this, and that the BLM finally starts funding PZP instead. Besides, the US context isn’t comparable because cattle are doing huge amounts of damage there as well - arguably much more than the mustangs.

Shooting may be more humane than round ups, but it’s absurd to say that killing members of a herd won’t have an ‘adverse animal welfare ’ effect on the rest of the herd. Just because they’re not running around on 3 legs bleeding to death doesn’t mean that their welfare hasn’t been affected.

If they’d managed the population sustainably with fertility control, they could have avoided it coming to this.
Click to expand...

Ah yes, the old "horses are being scapegoated for the damage cows do." or the "BLM simply wants more cattle." idea.

Trying to make the cattle look worse than the horses doesn't change the fact that mustangs cause quite a bit of damage to native ecosystems themselves. And the problem with using fertility control is simply that it takes too long and they often aren't effective beyond one or two years.

And here's a question we need to ask: Why bother using contraceptives? Feral horses are an invasive species and with any other invasive species fertility control isn't used but lethal control is. And I fail to see why that should be any different here.
 
equidae said:
I for one very much hope the US does not do this, and that the BLM finally starts funding PZP instead. Besides, the US context isn’t comparable because cattle are doing huge amounts of damage there as well - arguably much more than the mustangs.

Shooting may be more humane than round ups, but it’s absurd to say that killing members of a herd won’t have an ‘adverse animal welfare ’ effect on the rest of the herd. Just because they’re not running around on 3 legs bleeding to death doesn’t mean that their welfare hasn’t been affected.

If they’d managed the population sustainably with fertility control, they could have avoided it coming to this.
Click to expand...
Cattle probably are worse then horses, you're right on that account at least. But that doesn't mean horses aren't causing issues. They're just causing different issue than cattle, and IMO both need to be removed from the landscaping.

This would be like if I said obesity isn't a problem that needs to be solved because hunger is a worse problem. No, they're both problems affecting people's health, just different problems.
 
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