Brumby Action Group Incorporated is calling upon Brumby Advocates to support Brumbies by attending a Protest in Melbourne, taking place around the time of the outcome of a Federal Senate Inquiry into the future of wild living Brumbies in the Australian Alpine National Park.
The outcome of the Senate Inquiry will impact Brumbies in Victoria and New South Wales.
The Protest to be held in Melbourne, on the steps of Parliament House on 30 August 2023 at 12 noon.
Beverley McArthur MP and Wendy Lovell MP, both staunch Brumby supporters will support the Protest by speaking to the crowd from steps of Parliament.
Brumby Advocates are calling upon both the Federal and State Governments for non-lethal management of Brumbies. Brumby opponents have been calling for cruel and inhumane aerial and ground shooting of Brumbies, which is being strenuously opposed.
A request has also been made that State Governments and the Federal Government undertake new population counts of Brumbies following release of a report prepared by independent biostatistician Claire Galea, that has proven that the past population counts of Stuart Cairns cannot be relied upon, that numbers are flawed, and that as a consequence management plans must be revisited.
Key findings of Ms Galea's report :
1. The survey methodology contains significant flaws that put in question the counting of wild horses.
2. Insufficient numbers of wild horses were seen to apply statistical modelling
techniques to estimate populations. For example: Values from surveys conducted in 2014 and 2019 were combined together as
insufficient numbers were seen and population estimates done from this one single value which means that population estimates over time are fundamentally flawed.
Further, new Research by David Berman delves deeper into wild horse impacts on the environment, a new study that, for the first time in the Australian Alps, correlates horse density to environmental impact provides a more cost effective way to manage horses in the wild.
Working in two areas of the Victorian Alps, the Bogong High Plains and the Eastern Victorian Alps, the study found that less than 1% of the Bogong High Plains and less than 18% of the Eastern Victorian Alps had significant horse impacts.
This indicates that culling horses in areas below the the threshold limit will have no effect on improving environmental outcomes related to horses. However, if management programs work to keep horse populations to the threshold limit, they will be more cost-effective in achieving environmental goals.
Link to the research paper at Wiley online Use of density-impact functions to inform and improve the environmental outcomes of feral horse management
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wlb3.01107
(Source: Australian Brumby Alliance)
We urge everybody who has signed this Petition to please attend the Protest in Melbourne to call upon the Federal and State Government to oppose any plans to aerial or ground shoot Brumbies, and to look to alternative means of managing Brumby populations that does not incorporate inhumane practices. That a solution could be the introduction of a Bill for Commonwealth Legislation, to recognise the Heritage value of Brumbies to the Commonwealth of Australia, and to protect that value with appropriate management in the States.
The Protest "Solidarity for Brumbies Protest @Parliament House Melbourne" Link https://fb.me/e/1ej6MlWgf
If you have not already signed the Petition, please do so and share widely.
Brumby Action Group Incorporated