PETITION TARGETS: Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek, NSW Minister for Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Heritage Penny Sharpe
PETITION UPDATE (7/3/2024): Over 800 wild horses have been shot and killed in Kosciuszko National Park after the government approved aerial shooting in October of 2023. Because of the aerial shooting, which will also target deer, pigs and other wild animals in addition to horses, large sections of the park will be closed for up to seven months. Unfortunately, a volunteer-run community group that took the government to court to stop the shootings, saying the decision to allow the killings was based on misleading advice, failed in court. We will continue to campaign to stop this aerial gunning and will report updates as they arise. — Lady Freethinker Staff
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Thousands of wild horses in a national park in Australia will soon be brutally shot to death from the sky following a government-sanctioned approval of the gruesome gunning.
The New South Wales Environment Minister recently approved the lethal “management,” claiming the estimated 19,000 wild horses — known to Australians as brumbies — who call the Kosciuszko National Park home are causing damage.
But the current plan to reduce the herd down to 3,000 wild horses by 2027 — including by aerial gunning — will create a bloodbath and unnecessary suffering, said Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst.
“When the last government-sanctioned aerial shooting of brumbies took place at Guy Fawkes National Park, horses were found days later still alive with bullet wounds,” Hurst told the Maitland Mercury. “This is the sort of bloodbath we will likely see again.”
An aerial gunning in 2000 saw more than 600 wild horses shot down in three days — leading to public outrage, condemnation, and a decades-long hiatus on the shootings.
No wild horse deserves to be gunned down from the sky and left to suffer an agonizing death. The Australian government must find a more compassionate path forward.
Sign our petition urging Australian leadership to recommit to non-lethal alternatives for these wild horses and so save countless lives and stop horrific suffering.
