Opponents of ‘deeply flawed’ brumby culling plan bring their protest to the city

HUNDREDS of brumby advocates opposed to a plan to cull wild horses from the Snowy Mountains are bringing their protest to the city.

HUNDREDS of brumby advocates opposed to a draft plan to cull wild horses from the Snowy Mountains will bring their protest down from the mountains and into the city, with a rally at NSW State Parliament on August 2.

To drive their message home, they plan to bring three of the wild horses and present a request for “a stay of execution and clemency” to Premier Mike Baird on the horses’ behalf.

It’s part of a continuing protest against the NSW government’s Kosciuszko Draft Wild Horse Management Plan 2016, which wants to cull the 6000 brumbies it estimates are in the national park by 90 per cent – and perhaps shoot them to do it.

Those opposed to the plan dispute that number, saying the methodology used to come up with it is ‘deeply flawed’.

“When you look at the plan the estimates of the numbers of brumbies vary between 3600 and 9000,” said Snowy Mountains Bush Users Group president Peter Cochran.

“They’ve given themselves a 60 per cent margin of error.”

He says that’s one of a number of flaws in the draft plan is that the forecast growth in brumby numbers is deeply flawed.

Plea for clemency: Snowy Mounatins Bush Uders Group president Peter Cochran. Picture: Stephen Cooper

“It’s based on ridiculous information including that female horses can foal at the age of one to two years, which is ridiculous when the gestation period for a horse is 11 months,” says Cochran.

He added brumby advocate groups believed that a population of 4000 brumbies was reasonable and sustainable, and says united advocate groups will continue their calls

Members of the Snowy Brumby Coalition continue their calls for ground shooting — proposed in the plan as one way of culling brumby numbers — be abandoned for all but horses who are badly injured and beyond saving.

“Ground shooting by marksmen is just not on,” Mr Cochran said.

“Definitions of ground shooting in the draft are vague.”

The group continues to call for locals to be involved in the process of brumby control, saying allowing trapping and roping by brumby runners is the best method of control.

It also continues to dispute the damage brumbies do in the park, saying scant attention has been paid to the damage caused by other feral animals including wild pigs, wild dogs, foxes, wild cats, deer and rabbits and deer.

Supporters of brumby culling say the horses damage sensitive waterways and bogs which are home to critically endangered native species, and the damage from brumbies because of their size and weight is worsening compacting wetlands, eroding stream banks and spreading weeds.

The public exhibition phase for the draft plan has been extended by more than a month, to August 19.