4,000 à 6,000 chevaux seront abattus en Australie

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Ils seront abattus par voie aérienne

Shooters to cull Carnarvon Gorge brumbies
May 06, 2008 12:00am

A SECOND cull of feral horses at Carnarvon Gorge National Park will start today with 4000 to 6000 to be shot.

About 4000 were shot in August last year after they over-ran the park.

Two sharpshooters will operate from helicopters in remote and steep sections of the park in a plan reluctantly approved by the RSPCA.

The second shooter's sole job is to ensure all animals die as quickly as possible.

The high numbers of horses were destroying freshwater springs, causing erosion, damaging Aboriginal cultural sites and destroying habitat for native creatures, Sustainability Minister Andrew McNamara said yesterday.

So he had no choice but to order the shoot to go ahead.

The shoot has been opposed by Save the Brumbies Foundation spokeswoman Jan Carter, who argues aerial shooting does not give clean kills.

A place should be found for brumbies in national parks and the animals had bred up into such high numbers only because the State Government had not managed the situation, she said.

Mr McNamara said he was committed to cutting the impact of feral animals in all parks, including wild dogs, goats and pigs.

"The RSPCA is on board the same as last time," Mr McNamara said.

"There's an audit of the plan, trained marksmen are used in two choppers. We're doing this as humanely as possible, recognising the fact that it is not possible to get in and muster horses in such remote areas."

Wildlife Preservation Society spokesman Des Boyland described the feral animal problem as a crisis.

While some people had romantic notions about brumbies, in reality they did enormous damage to parks and surrounding properties, he said.

"These animals are shockers. The Government has got to keep going on this," Mr Boyland said.

"Parks are acquired to protect native flora and fauna and these animals destroy it."

RSPCA spokesman Michael Beatty said his organisation would rather there be no culls but believed it was being done as humanely as possible.

He urged the Government to look for alternative ways of dealing with the problem such as immuno-sterilisation


http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23657482-952,00.html

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C'est donc bien barbare, l'Australie. La chasse aux kangourous de nuit, les cheveaux abattus des airs En 2008, on se croirait encore au temps de la préhistoire.