Kosciuszko: Minister Vows to Control Brumby Population in National Park

The NSW Environment Minister has announced a plan to manage the brumby population in Kosciuszko National Park, sparking debate among conservationists and wild horse advocates. The draft management plan proposes a significant reduction in the brumby population over the next two decades, aiming to protect the park's delicate ecosystem.

The NSW Environment Minister has vowed to deal with what he describes as an out-of-control brumby population in Kosciuszko National Park, despite strong opposition to the Government's wild horse draft management plan.

Minister's Determination

"You can have wild horses in many parts of Australia," Mark Speakman said. "I don't want to see Kosciuszko National Park continue to deteriorate on my watch as Environment Minister and I am determined that we have to intervene."

The draft plan has proposed reducing the brumby population in the state's biggest national park by 90 percent in 20 years, from an estimated 6,000 to 600. But wild horse advocacy groups said that would be a tragedy.

"It's part of our cultural image and one that we need to protect at all cost," Peter Cochran from the Snowy Mountains Bush Users group said. Colleen O'Brien from the Victorian Brumby Association said there was "nothing quite like actually seeing wild horses being wild."

"The plan as it stands is the death knell for our brumbies in Kosciuszko."

'Very Little Suffering' in Ground Shooting, Speakman Says

While aerial culling has been ruled out as a control method in the draft plan, the report recommends using ground shooting as a management strategy.

"As I understand it, an expert shooting at the cranium of a horse can kill it in eight or nine seconds so there is very, very little suffering," Mr. Speakman said.

RSPCA chief inspector David O'Shannessy said ground shooting was a humane way to euthanize horses if it was carried out by skilled professionals in a way that caused no distress or suffering to the animal. But Mr. Cochran, a former National Party MP, said that was unrealistic.

"It's folly to think they can put snipers up there and shoot horses without some of them escaping wounded. It's an outrageous proposition," he said.

"There is nobody on the brumby advocacy side which would support any form of culling under the current proposal."

Brumbies Threatening Habitats of Endangered Species: NPWS

The draft plan aims to reduce the environmental impact the wild horses are having. The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) said the brumbies, among other feral animals, were damaging the wetlands and bogs of the Snowy Mountains and threatening the habitats of endangered animals like the broad-toothed rat and the corroboree frog.

Graeme Worboys from the Australian National University said people did not understand what was at stake.

"The catchments and the water supply and the damage to that has an effect on so many millions of people downstream all the way to Adelaide," he said. "And secondly, these Australian animals are only found in the high country. I like horses too, but I like Australian animals as well and why shouldn't they have a chance to live, to survive, to continue?"

But Ms. O'Brien said the ecosystem was healthy and that in some cases the horses were helping the environment by keeping introduced grasses under control.

"What we're seeing in Kosciuszko is lots of healthy horses and lots of healthy environments," she said.

Mr. Speakman said the group of scientists assembled to look at the situation in Kosciuszko had found there are no ecological benefits from having wild horses in the park.

"I think there's a lot of wishful thinking in the minds of some people who have this emotional attachment to wild horses that they aren't causing significant damage," he said.

To take the pressure off the environment, park staff have in recent years relied on what they call passive trapping. Brumbies are lured into yards using salt and mineral blocks or molasses and, if they are lucky, sent to new homes.

'A Wild Horse is Honest and Genuine'

Ms. O'Brien has been rescuing Snowy Mountains horses for 15 years and has trained and re-homed 350 in that time. She said it was a rewarding but costly and time-consuming process.

"We actually find they're safer than domestic horses to train," she said, from her brumby sanctuary west of Melbourne. "They're absolutely delightful to have around and they bond with you in a way that almost a dog would bond with you."

Since the trapping program started in 2002, more than 3,200 brumbies have been caught, but fewer than a fifth have found new homes. The rest have been trucked to abattoirs and knackeries and killed.

It is a wasted resource New South Wales pastoralist Joe Hughes now wants to tap into.

"The offer that I've made to National Parks is that we will take all the horses that are available to us," Mr. Hughes said.

The former cattleman turned sheep producer recently picked up his first lot of Kosciuszko horses. While other re-homing groups are unfamiliar with him, he said he was addicted to training brumbies after growing up breaking in wild horses on remote stations.

"I don't know what crack's like but God, it can't be anywhere near as good as this," he said, from his Belarabon station southwest of Cobar.

"A wild horse is honest and genuine. They are the best horses to deal with."

Brumbies 'Can Be Trained, They Can Be Useful'

While he is a brumby lover, Mr. Hughes has been involved in controlling wild horse numbers in the past and supports the State Government's draft proposal to reduce the Kosciuszko population to 600.

"The community has said let's make it a national park and now a certain amount of the community is saying, well, let's thrash it out and destroy it. It doesn't make any sense," he said.

But he said he would prefer to save, train, and sell as many Kosciuszko brumbies as possible and, in the process, create a profitable business.

"People think that stallions can't be trained," he said. "We've got six and seven-year-old stallions here that we're training and crawling through their legs within a matter of hours. They can be trained, they can be useful, they can become somebody's companion for many years."

Under the draft plan, the trapping and re-homing program would continue. But Mr. Speakman said other management strategies were also needed.

"The numbers are now out of control basically, so business as usual is not working and we need to do something more," he said.

The public is being invited to comment on the draft plan, with submissions closing on August 19.

Posted by ABC.net