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updated
21/11/02 Save
Ningaloo Reef - Stop The Resort
ACTION
BARBARIC
BEHAVIOUR
Peta
Rakela, Bullsbrook 6084
Every
night while you sleep, thousands of kangaroos will die.
Many will face a horrendously painful death. In the darkness
of the night, these gentle creatures will be pursued by
vehicles, blinded by spotlights, become disorientated, confused
and terrorised. Some will be killed outright; others maimed.
All will be mutilated.
Dependent
ex-pouch joeys will flee, left to die from stress, cold
starvation or predators. In-pouch joeys will be ripped from
their mother's pouches and bashed to death. If this is '
humane' then our society still wallows in the bowels of
barbarism.
But
Australians don't want to know. It's all about greed. Human
greed and self -interest. Mankind will always find ways to
justify its actions. Do we care if a kangaroo screams in pain?
Wake up, Australia! WA Wildlife Protection Council
HUNGRY
EMUS EYE CROPS
The
Sunday Times
Box D174 GPO Perth 6840
West Australia
fax: 08 9221 1121
"Huge
flocks of emus, driven south as drought grips the wheatbelt,
are threatening to wipe out valuable crops. The invasion
by thousands of the big birds is a double blow to farmers
already struggling to grow crops in parched soil."
"
The birds, most in poor condition, are destroying crops
and breaking fences in a desperate search for food. Rotting
carcasses litter the track alongside the emu barrier, built
originally as the rabbit proof fence."
"
Farmers along the fence that stretches from the Zuytdorp
cliffs north of Kalbarri to Ravensthorpe in the south, have
shot thousands of the birds. A further 2000 have been caught
in a trap near Ravensthorpe and will be poisoned this week
as thousands more move towards the fence. The cull will
exceed last year's figure when 7000 birds were killed by
62 farmers granted shooting licenses by the Department of
Conservation and Land Management (CALM). Emus are a protected
species and can be culled only on private property and under
license."
Please
Write to
Dr
Judy Edwards
Minister for Environment,
29th Floor Allendale Sq.
St Georges Terrace
Perth 6000
West Australia
There
are many good, dedicated people working in CALM and they
do some excellent work, but it appears the Department is
slack when it comes to protecting kangaroos and emus, which
are considered pests and vermin in WA. Farmers trying to
eke out a living on marginal, uneconomic land should not
be there in the first place. They are trying to make fragile
lands produce unsuitable crops on parched, degraded land
and grazing with introduced domestic stock on fragile lands
that were never meant to sustain destructive alien European
farming practices. They are not only causing salinity but
turning the land to dust, and causing untold misery to our
native animals, degrading their habitat beyond saving.
Farmers
have usurped the habitat of our native animals, and declared
our wildlife, like kangaroos and emus, pests and vermin
and instead of learning to live with them and accommodate
them , they want them all killed or used for target practice.
And all the time CALM does nothing to help kangaroos and
emus simply because they consider them to be pests.
WHAT
PROTECTION DO THEY GET ? ASK CALM THAT !
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Doug
Reilly S.A. macropod expert writes on page 37 in
' The Kangaroo BETRAYED'
'" Where farmers and pastoralists (with sheep, cattle and crops)
are in competition with any native animal, the government administrators
always favour the land owner. Whatever native animal is involved,
that animal is marked for destruction."
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AN EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT AT AN
EMU FARM AT MT. GIBSON, W.A., FOUR YEARS AGO.
(This
person has asked to remain anonymous)
"
totally appalled at the conditions the emus had to endure…they
were in yards without food or water, the ground was bare
and a woman who was supposed to be running the place was
trying to make it look as if she knew what she was doing…there
was nothing on the ground but rocks and stones…the
emus were in pens and there were a few hundred…the
woman said they would be OK as they were eating the grasshoppers…there
was NO vegetation to sustain anything and not a grasshopper
in sight…we found some vegetable scraps and threw them
over the fence to the emus, but felt so bad when the poor
birds rushed to the food as we didn't have enough for all,
they were starving hungry."
"…
the birds (emus) were in such poor condition with stunted
growth…this I assume is a government endorsed operation
and I doubt that even if the RSPCA had been informed it
would have made any difference…wanted to take it further
at the time but was hesitant about making trouble …
…but I wish I had done something…I didn't know
then what the situation was with emu farming but that still
doesn't excuse my negligence in not taking it further.
Mt
Gibson Station is now in the hands of the Australian Wildlife
Conservancy who are using the land to establish new populations
where threatened species have become locally extinct. Enquiries
have confirmed that the emu farm has now been closed down.
The
following accounts of animal cruelty are from people who
wish to remain anonymous because of repercussions from some
members of the aboriginal community.
-
aboriginal children playing with joeys like a football,
after their mothers have been killed
- some
wildlife carers have received joeys from northern missions
where they have been abused and starved and female joeys
have had cigarette burns to the inside of their pouches
- wildlife
carers have received joeys with injuries around the neck
where they have been repeatedly chased by children and
dogs into snare traps over and over again, until they
are totally traumatised. Some of these animals never recover
psychologically and have had to be put down
-
Officers
working within CALM have very little power in dealing
with these issues and as no one dares to speak about such
things they are not dealt with.
NO
ONE in Australia should get away with cruelly treating
any animal, let alone one of our native species. The way
that some aboriginal communities treat joeys is wrong
and must be addressed!
Our
wildlife is in CRISIS and they NEED OUR HELP!
We
maim and injure them, we harm and poison them , we turn
a blind eye to abuses and cruelties to them and to their
young. We run them down on our roads and we fail to provide
for them. We FAIL to respect and treasure them. We all have
a moral and ethical duty to act and
EACH
OF YOU CAN INSIST THAT CALM
PROTECTS KANGAROOS AND EMUS, ALL OUR
NATIVE ANIMALS, IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA
A
letter from Pat O'Brien National Kangaroo Protection Coalition
Coordinator, and President of the Australian Wildlife Protection
Society has been sent to Francis Logan MLA, 'warning' about
the disastrous consequences for emus on emu farms and the
failure of CALM in protecting our emus and kangaroos and
crocodiles from abuses on so-called 'farms'.. Pat said that
allowing any further farms for emus, crocodiles and kangaroos
or allowing the proposed kangaroo 'farm' at Chittering to
go ahead, legal action will follow.
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