Worldwide Response To Aerial Shooting Of Australia's Brumbies

COLDEN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, April 4, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Aerial shooting of the Brumby, Australia’s wild-living horses, has been banned by anti-cruelty laws for 20 years. Standard Operating Procedure law has been re-written and Government ordered shooting is taking place in Kosciuszko National Park (KNP). Equine Collaborative International (ECI) and Australian animal rights attorney, Marilyn Nuske, are leading the charge to condemn the shooting and calling for boycotts of tourism to Australia and purchasing Australian products.

According to Nuske, claims of Brumby overpopulation are unfounded. Repeated requests to Penny Sharpe, New South Wales Minister, for environmental impact studies related to horses have been ignored.

Britta Hesla, US Legislative Liaison for Advocates for Wild Equines Lobbying Coalition stated, “To be in the presence of wild horses is to experience connection and healing from the deepest part of ourselves.” Quoting the Australian Brumby Alliance, “The Brumby’s significance embodies expressions of identity and experience, reflects the diversity of communities, the past that formed us and our landscape. They are irreplaceable and precious. Brumbies represent living heritage values and face imminent, complete extinction.This must not happen.”

American Wild Horse advocate, animal law specialist, Scott Beckstead commented,
“Like our wild American mustangs and burros, Australian Brumbies are being targeted by disinformation to benefit private interests, except in Australia, wild horses are also caught in a carnage of prolonged suffering and death. Australia must immediately cease its horrifically inhumane mass slaughter of its historic wild horses, and adopt a science-based approach to wild Brumby management centered on compassion and respect for these living icons.”

It is nearly impossible to get kill shots shooting from a helicopter. According to Dean Marsland, who documents Brumbies with trail cams and in-person photography, some carcasses are found on disturbed ground with multiple wounds, indicating the painful struggling of their death. Shooting is supposed to be suspended during foaling season, but Marsland has photographs of dead mares who have aborted nearly full term foals and has reported foals, too young to survive without mother’s milk, pawing at dead or dying dams to rouse them for nursing.

“The perpetrators of these acts are both those who hold guns and those who give them orders.”, said Barbara Moore, ECI Vice-President.

Marsland has witnessed horses killed and left to decay fouling water sources for all inhabitants.

Representing Wild Horses Of Alberta Society, Ann Van Avermaet commented, "If countries want to be seen as a civilized society, they have a duty to act with care towards sentient beings who have proven they can thrive for decades without human interference. A government cannot order eradication indiscriminately and in the cruelest way possible. Government’s duty is to make decisions based on impartial research. It is beyond comprehension that Australia claims there is no room for these magnificent animals. It is short sighted and barbaric."

Tom Burlinson, UK actor, brought global attention to the Brumby with the movie, ‘The Man From Snowy River’. When asked about the shooting, he answered adamantly, “It is just cruel, plain wrong, an unnecessary slaughter to shoot animals from a helicopter, and should be abolished!”

The Australian people have taken a stand against these government decisions. Nuske, speaking for the Brumby Action Group (BAG) said, “The battle for our Brumbies continues today, as we fight for the right of the wild living descendants of our famous war horses to continue living in National Parks, free from the barbaric cruelty of aerial shooting.”

Marsland defines the problem, stating “There are better ways to manage wild horses than killing them. Locals managed Brumbies successfully until the Parks Service took over with no background, knowledge or experience. Never utilizing local people who cared for the horses for decades. They simply shut the gate, took over managing a species of which they had no knowledge whatsoever. They got it wrong from day one, they have got it wrong now. Brumbies may need management, they just don’t need to be shot.”

Stand with Australian protestors. We urge the global community to call the Australian Consulate close to you, tell them you will not be spending your money there until the Brumby execution by firing squad is stopped.

Barbara C Moore
Equine Collaborative International
+1 716-912-2100
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