Call to end aerial brumby culling - ABC Western Australia

[h=2]Call to end aerial brumby culling[/h]
By Alex Hyman
Wednesday, 24/02/2010
The W.A. Horse Council is calling on the State Government to end the aerial culling of wild brumbies.

The Council is concerned that many of the animals that are being shot from the air don't die instantly and instead suffer injuries.

Dianne Bennit from the WA Horse Council says aerial culling is an inhumane way to kill feral animals.

"To hang out of a helicopter at about 60 kilometres an hour it's a bit hard to get a killing shot of an animal and the animals are usually running because of the noise of the helicopter."

Damian Collopy is the Director of Invasive Species with the Department for Agriculture, he'd be happy to replace aerial culling of wild horses but he's yet to find a viable alternative.

"The reason we carry out aerial culling is that there is no practical, reasonable alternative to reducing the problem of feral animal populations when they get out of control, especially in the remote areas we're talking about. There is just no practical alternative to aerial culling at the moment."
In this report: Dianne Bennit from the WA Horse Council and Damian Collopy the Director of Invasive Species with the WA Department for Agriculture