It would appear that we are likely to have another Corella massacre in the Noarlunga area, judging by what Lorraine Rosenberg, Mayor of Onkaparinga Council, said on fiveaa to Leon Byner on 24/2/15.

Shooting Corellas is not humane. The vast majority of birds shot fly off to die a lingering and agonizing death, watched by their lifelong mates who suffer also. Those that fall to the ground are often battered to death with sticks.

The people wanting the birds killed are the same type of people who are constantly screaming that we must kill all the cats because they kill native birds.

A friend of mine, the late Kathy Van Emmerick who lived in this area, expended almost her dying breath fighting this over a decade ago.  She will be turning in her grave. 

Christine Pierson of C.A.T.S. said on the subject:

“I know corellas can cause some problems but none that require such cruel and barbaric methods as shooting or killing to try to solve them. 

Shooting corellas is like duck shooting. Some birds are killed outright but the majority fly off with beaks smashed, legs shot off, eyes blinded and internal injuries. These wounded birds suffer for days in agony as they slowly die. Furthermore corellas mate for life so the suffering is made even worse with the heartbreak felt by the mates as they watch their partner dying.

I am the President of C.A.T.S. Cats Assistance To Sterilise Inc. and we care about all animals not just cats. We would never resort to this kind of action for any animals as we know the trail of misery and pain that it leaves behind as well as the dead bodies of the birds.

It seems illogical that if one cat kills one bird there is an uproar from the anti-cat people and the birdlovers and yet human beings can massacre thousands and wound many more and it seems to be condoned, not only by some people but governments and councils as well. These double standards are not acceptable to us.

At C.A.T.S. we have reduced the number of kittens born by organising the desexing of over 100,000 cats through assisting with low price cat desexing. By preventing literally millions of unwanted kitten births we have no doubt saved countless birds in your area. What have we saved these birds for if your Council is now going to shoot them?

If we, as a voluntary organisation can go to these lengths to assist in reducing the suffering of animals then I should expect that a large Council such as Onkaparinga would and should be able to find an alternative solution to your Corella problems that does not have a "lethal" component, or one that maims and causes a lifetime of pain from the shooting.

Just because one "so called expert" says the solution requires killing does not make it so. C.A.T.S. was told 26 years ago by one "so called expert" that the humane "Desex and Return to Home" of cats did not work but we have proved her wrong. We now have the proof that this method does reduce cat numbers and cat related problems on a large scale. The success of our priority councils proves this as they claim they no longer have a significant cat problem.

I am a retired school teacher and as such raise the ethical question of how is this shooting, maiming, killing and brutality going to affect the students at Willunga High School? Are you teaching these young people that if you have a problem then it is quite OK to use violence to solve it? What will this use of cruelty do to the young minds of the boys and girls who still have compassion for living creatures? The lasting effects of this corella massacre may be much greater than you have anticipated. Certainly this aspect alone requires a non-violent method of problem solving.

There is already enough violence in our society without it being encouraged by our authorities who can't see past a few piles of feathers, birds droppings and chewed tree branches. I am sure that the mental damage which the massacre would cause would far outweigh the relatively minor damage caused by the corellas.”

Ian Temby, M App Sc, Churchill Fellow 1999, says in his report on Managing the little Corella: 

“5.8 Lethal control to reduce populations. Many people believe that killing birds that cause problems is the obvious solution. In reality, killing birds is time consuming, relatively ineffective and likely to attract adverse publicity (DEH 2007, ENRC 1995). There is also a real danger that attention will be focussed on improving the means of killing birds, and on achieving a high tally, rather than on focussing on methods that reduce the problems being caused.” 

There are many non-lethal alternatives, including solar bird repellers, holographic tapes, fertility control measures and destruction of eggs, not to mention tolerance towards our fellow creatures.