MARIA ISLAND

Since 1992 the Tasmanian National Parks and Wildlife Service has been slaughtering tens of thousands of wallabies and Forrester Kangaroos on Maria Island in the name of animal welfare and environmental protection. However our Freedom of Information investigation into this revealed that the NPWS has little interest in animal welfare or environmental protection. Veterinarian reports in 2006 revealed that wallabies were killed inhumanely and left to die from body and chest wounds. Joeys were left in their pouches after the mother was shot, and would have died a slow and painful death from hypothermia and dehydration. Post-mortems also revealed that NPWS had failed to provide water or food for the animals on the island during drought, despite being a captive population. These acts are in clear breach of the Animal Welfare Act Tasmania.

FOI documents also revealed that despite the justification for the culls being to protect and enhance vegetation on the island, not one botanical study had been conducted since 1995 to assess the effects of the killing. Nor has there been any attempts to re-vegetate the island or trial contraception or non lethal management.

In 2010 the Australian Society for Kangaroos offered the Tasmanian NPWS volunteer veterinarian assistance to vasectomise the entire male kangaroo and wallaby on the island in an effort to initiate long term, economical and humane population management. However to this day, they have failed to accept our offer.

Please see the MEDIA REPORTS section for further information on this issue.

Forrester Kangaroos

Information also obtained through Freedom of Information by Australian Society for Kangaroos, revealed that the estimated population of Forrester Kangaroos, which are unique to Tasmania, had been all but wiped out by landholders under permits obtained from Tasmania’s Department Primary Industries and Water. Population estimates conducted for 20 years on Forrester Kangaroos revealed that only 20,000 of these unique animals remained in Tasmania in 2000. Consequently they were supposed to be part of a conservation program designed to protect them from extinction. However government data shows that landholders have been killing around 5000 annually since 2003. Australian Society for Kangaroos will continue to investigate this disturbing state of affairs.

Tasmanian Wallabies

Every year the Tasmanian government gives landholders permits to kill 1,000,000 wallabies, Yes 1 million!!. This is despite reports from farmers, in their Alternatives to 1080 Newsletter, that wallaby proof fencing is a viable and economical alternative to killing.

You can view just some of the news reports on this at the links below;

• https://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2010/s2952285.htm
• https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-25/20110725-maria-island-cull/2809526
• https://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-06-26/maria-island-cull-labelled-as-inhumane/2484906
• https://www.smh.com.au/national/kangaroos-wallabies-to-be-killed-in-tas-20080626-2xf0.html
• https://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/600-marsupials-to-be-culled-in-tasmania-20100713-1096k.html

• Mercury 2011 – Island Roo Cull Starts