Best practice aerial shooting carried out by skilled, highly trained shooters under appropriate operating protocols delivers animal welfare outcomes that are comparable to or better than other control methods such as passive trapping or mustering, and transport to a knackery or shooting in trap yards.
Aerial shooting of wild horses in Kosciuszko National Park will be carried out to the highest animal welfare standards. This includes the development of a standard operating procedure informed by independent expert veterinary and animal welfare advice, and involving ongoing auditing by animal welfare experts. The National Parks and Wildlife Service's standard operating procedure meets Australian and NSW legislative requirements.
National Parks and Wildlife Service conducted a preliminary program of aerial shooting of wild horses in Kosciuszko National Park in November 2023.
The program was observed by 2 independent veterinarians. The independent report from the program found no adverse animal welfare incidents, including no non-fatally wounded animals, with a median time to insensibility of less than 5 seconds.
RSPCA NSW also independently observed the preliminary program and confirmed they did not observe any departures from the standard operating procedure or any non-compliance with the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1979.
The standard operating procedure for ongoing aerial shooting operations will be revised after considering the independent veterinarian report and RSPCA NSW feedback.
More information
How will aerial shooting be carried out?
Aerial shooting will be very carefully implemented using specialist shooters and aircraft to ensure it is safe and meets the highest animal welfare standards.
National Parks and Wildlife Service shooters are highly trained, accredited and competent. The latest state-of-the-art equipment is used in aerial shooting operations and shooters must undergo rigorous testing to be approved to carry out aerial shooting.
National Parks and Wildlife Service has extensive experience in delivering safe aerial shooting operations over many years. Since 2019-20, over 1,300 hours of aerial shooting have occurred annually in national parks and reserves, including in high visitation locations close to urban areas such as Royal National Park. These operations target a range of feral animals, including pigs, goats and deer.
Why isn't reproductive control being used?
Reproductive control is not viable for the wild horse population in its current numbers and distribution in Kosciuszko National Park.
A trial of reproductive control options will commence after the overall population is reduced to 3,000 wild horses. This may assist in maintaining the population at 3,000 horses as required by the plan.
Why can't all the wild horses be rehomed?
Trapping and rehoming will continue as a control measure. However, trapping and rehoming in many parts of the park is not practicable or consistent with implementing the highest animal welfare standards.
In 2022–23 513 horses were rehomed from the park. This rate is not sufficient to remove enough wild horses from the park.
Demand for wild horses to be rehomed from the park represents a very small number of those needing removal in the next 4 years. There are not enough people with suitable experience willing to take wild horses of any colour, size, age or gender and that can also meet the required standard of care to look after them. Rehoming cannot be implemented at the scale required to reduce the population to 3,000 wild horses by 2027, as required by the Act and the plan.
All authorised methods, including passive trapping and rehoming, will remain and be used as part of the ongoing implementation of the plan.
References