2 June 2016 Thirteenth Edition

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Tyler Parks
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SMBSMG's objective is- "To ensure that, through Government legislation, the snowy brumby is recognised as part of the history, cultural heritage and social values of the Snowy Mountains and that

with some early, heavy snow falls, as seen at Bullocks Hill. We can only hope that the foul weather has and will disrupt NPWS's winter trapping programme and removal to slaughter activities.

1 SMBSMG's objective is- "To ensure that, through Government legislation, the snowy brumby is recognised as part of the history, cultural heritage and social values of the Snowy Mountains and that sustainable populations of the snowy brumby are present and protected within Kosciuszko National Park" Hi all and welcome to our winter 2016 newsletter, so far this winter's beginning has been wet with some early, heavy snow falls, as seen at Bullocks Hill. We can only hope that the foul weather has and will disrupt NPWS's winter trapping programme and removal to slaughter activities. As we have previously mentioned, NPWS have spent an absolute fortune of tax-payers money re-surfacing and re-baiting ALL trap sites and it is pretty obvious that the State Government is all-out to remove as many as possible snowy brumbies. 1 June 2016 Thirteenth Edition

2 Reports are that the re-homing facilities are pretty close to full so that means that almost all of the trapped horses will go to slaughter. SMBSMG have on a number of occasions, called NPWS in an effort to come up with some other re-homing outcomes, but as is usual we have been bulls...d to by all levels of NPWS about their re-homing policies. It is pretty clear they have no cares about what happens to the horses once they have been pulled out of Kosciuszko NP, contrary to their media releases. SMBSMG's position on the fate of the horses has always been and will not change from the policy that all the horses currently running in KNP should remain in KNP, regardless of the fraudulent science that NPWS and the Government claim in the Draft Plan of Management (DPoM). We have lobbied heavily at all levels of Government for a suspension of the 2016 winter trapping programme but our representations to politicians are either ignored or they continue to feed us political double-speak. It is apparent that the so-called vigorous, evidence based science of the DPoM being promoted by NPWS and the extreme greens is being used by the Liberals/Nationals State Government to support those clauses within the DpoM, which enables the removal and slaughter of literally thousands of snowy brumbies over a period of time. So far the only political support that SMBSMG have is that from the Animal Justice Party, reproduced here is AJP Upper House member Mark Pearson's motion that was adopted unanimously at SMBSMG's community interest meeting held recently in Jindabyne. To support that the Draft Plan of Management and brumby management in NSW generally be referred to relevant Legislative Council Standing Committee (GSC5) for detailed review and to call on the local member and National party to support this review SMBSMG welcome this motion and political activity as it is the first time, ever that a politician has gone to this length to support both the brumbies and brumby supporters. The whisper from Macquarie Street, home of the NSW State Government, is that the Minister for The Environment is opposing the Review. It also appears that some of the local political representatives are playing games with us by refusing to support the DPoM review we think that is what we would call behind the scenes and out of sight politics. Below is a copy of the presentation made by Frankie Seymour, a candidate in the just-gone Federal election, presented at the Jindabyne meeting (Appendix 1) The document is an excellent read and puts forward some science that the greens and the State Government refuse to recognise, Frankie is an environmental scientist in her own right, adding to the quality of the document. Some interesting research has been done on the 2014 Alps Wild Horse Population Survey document, yes the same one that NPWS and the State Government point-blank refused to release to SMBSMG. The research proves pretty well that the population figure being promoted by NPWS and the Government of 6,000 is an absolute fraud. SMBSMG will be providing members with a research document that supports our claim that the population is no more, at best, between ,000 horses. 2 June 2016 Thirteenth Edition

The following pic was taken at last week's Brumby Gate Watch at Death-Pen Central, Blowering Ranger Station and shows SMBSMG President Alan Lanyon with Helen Day President from Wagga Wagga Trail

The Brumby Gate Watch must have upset somebody, the camp's first visitor was a police officer from Tumut checking that Lynne had appropriate permits...sounds pretty close to harassment to me.

3 The following pic was taken at last week's Brumby Gate Watch at Death-Pen Central, Blowering Ranger Station and shows SMBSMG President Alan Lanyon with Helen Day President from Wagga Wagga Trail Riders and a leader in the Save our Brumby Action Group, members from Wagga Trail Riders and Lynette and John Sutton from Hoofs 2010 who travelled up from Berrigan to support the snowy brumbies cause. The Brumby Gate Watch must have upset somebody, the camp's first visitor was a police officer from Tumut checking that Lynne had appropriate permits...sounds pretty close to harassment to me... Members should be aware by now that there are some pretty serious clauses in the DPoM, here is an extract for you to consider... Courtesy of Snowy Mountains Bush Users Group - An area of 689,600 ha, will result in the brumby population being reduced by 90%. The options to get the numbers down to only 600 horses are: Ground shooting Trap and kill onsite Trap and remove to abattoir or for rehoming Aerial/ground muster to yards and kill on site Aerial/ground muster to yards then remove to abattoir or for rehoming Fertility control (in the longer term when populations are reduced) Fence around fragile areas A rally in response to this plan is being held in Sydney on Tuesday August 2nd to coincide with the Horses Birthday and the first sitting day of the NSW Parliament after the winter recess. 3 June 2016 Thirteenth Edition

4 We need you to be there to make it known we oppose the possible shooting/removal of a large number of the Snowy Brumbies. We will assemble at the Domain on Hospital Road at 9.30am and from there walk to State Parliament House, Macquarie Street. Three brumbies will accompany the walkers carrying a letter on behalf of all Snowy Brumbies that will be presented to the Premier requesting a stay of execution and clemency A coach will leave Tumut at 3am and pick up in Gundagai at 3.30am Wagga - leave 3.30am pick up Shanty and Sturt Hwy/Hume Hwy Young - leave 4am pick up Harden, Yass and Goulburn Cooma - leave 4am pick up Queanbeyan 5am Bega - leave 2am pick up Cobargo 2.30, Narooma 3am, Moruya 3.40, Batemans Bay 4am and Nowra 5.30am. Depart Sydney 1 pm Cost $25 return To book and for further information phone Deanne Kennedy Also, please google the draft document and lodge a submission/letter registering your concerns with its contents. Closing date Friday August Write to Mark Speakman, Minister for Environment, PO Box 125, Cronulla, 2230 expressing your concern at the possibility of any shooting and the loss of 90% of the horse population. SMBSMG committee members will be attending the rally and we urge all brumby supporters that can, to attend and show the government that there is some pretty serious and strong feeling out here in the bush, in the cities and all over as to the Liberals/Nationals plan to cull the snowy brumby. We are tipping that the State Government will make some sort of announcement, hopefully, that they will suspend trapping but that won't help those horses that will already have been trapped this year and sent to slaughter... we reckon that if the Government can stop the traps then, they can stop them now and save the horses from slaughter. As we have said before, our face book page continues to grow, we have people from all over Australia, USA, England, France, Poland and NZ watching our commentary, so we really do have an international following. SMBSMG can even boast a prospective member in England. SMBSMG have been talking with Ross McKinney since March 2015 regarding his plans for a rehoming project based on joining corrective services inmates with the wild horses and is based on a concept successful in the USA, below is a transcript from an ABC interview with Ross (Appendix 2). Another Tumut local has also shown interest in running a similar concept with the wild horses, we can tell more once the position with trapped horses is clearer. 4 June 2016 Thirteenth Edition

Trap pens heading south SMBSMG will be entering into consultation with NPWS and other brumby advocacy Groups starting with a meeting this Sunday in Adaminaby but we won't be holding our breath

5 Trap pens heading south SMBSMG will be entering into consultation with NPWS and other brumby advocacy Groups starting with a meeting this Sunday in Adaminaby but we won't be holding our breath waiting for a suspension to the 2016 trapping campaign... Until the next newsletter Alan Lanyon President Appendix 1 Exert from full presentation NSW PROPOSED BRUMBY SLAUGHTER May 2016 address to public meeting in Jindabyne by Frankie Seymour, AJP Candidate for Eden-Monaro I am an environmental scientist by training and I worked as one in the Commonwealth department of the environment for many years. I am here to tell you that the NSW government s proposal to kill the Snowy Mountain horses has no basis in environmental science. Aside from the overarching ethical issue of the cruelty of killing healthy wild animals of any species, there are a number of ways. Firstly, their rationale itself is flawed. They justify this slaughter on the basis of an alleged increase in numbers but they admit they have no real idea what these numbers are. 5 June 2016 Thirteenth Edition

6 Secondly, there are two things that can happen when you engage in any mass slaughter of animals. Most land managers who engage in mass slaughters agree that it is impossible to exterminate an entire population. There will always be a few left alive. Below a certain level, a surviving population and that level varies with species and the prevailing environmental conditions following the slaughter simply cannot survive. The remaining population is simply not viable or genetically sustainable. A major fire, drought, a flood, an excessively cold winter, and the survivors are gone. This is more likely to happen with slower breeding animals that produce only one young a year like kangaroos and flying foxes and horses. With faster breeding animals, such as rats and mice, rabbits, pigs, cats and dogs and to a lesser extent, foxes, any time you take individuals out of the population but leave even a few individuals alive, invariably you will get an immediate increase in population, as younger, more fertile individuals are born of the survivors, with plenty of food and space to share, and quickly fill and exceed the niches left by those killed. So killing these animals actually ensures you get more of them, at least for a while until the population stabilises around the same level it was before you managed it. In the meantime, you have more - not less of the alleged problem animals. All you ve done is made the problem, if there ever was a problem, worse. All that pain and suffering you have caused to innocent individual sentient being just to make matters worse. The NSW government does not intend total wipe-out of the brumbies, nor has anyone suggested this is even possible. The reduction they are proposing is extreme and horses are relatively slow breeders. A couple of years of bad conditions could wipe them out completely, all that beauty and heritage gone forever. But if they do survive, they will start breeding up again. Even in the wild, horses can live quite long lives compared to other wild animals, and the mares may produce foals almost every year. To maintain the government s target population level in perpetuity, they won t just be killing 5000 or so brumbies. They will also have to kill almost every foal born to the survivors over the next 20 years; and after that, they will have to keep killing and killing and killing to keep the level where they want it. There is another ecological principal which this kind of slaughter invariably ignores. Once a species is naturalised, found a niche in the ecosystem, it is impossible to remove it in large numbers without doing harm to that ecosystem, sometimes more harm than good. In a rapidly changing environment, as Australia has been for the last 200 years, the harm of removing brumbies (or any other naturalised animal) is very likely to exceed the good. I can t tell what ecological harm killing the brumbies will cause because nobody is bothering to consider or study that aspect. And to conduct any kind of animal massacre when you don t have a clue about the ecological consequences is a crime against not just the animals but the whole planet. And all this unknown and unmonitored damage to other species of animal is on top of the whole huge overarching cruelty to the horses themselves. 6 June 2016 Thirteenth Edition

7 Appendix 2 7 June 2016 Thirteenth Edition

MEDIA RELEASE ANIMAL JUSTICE PARTY OPPOSES PROPOSED BRUMBY SLAUGHTER

MEDIA RELEASE ANIMAL JUSTICE PARTY OPPOSES PROPOSED BRUMBY SLAUGHTER Animal Justice Party candidate for Eden Monaro, Frankie Seymour, has spoken out forcefully against the NSW Government s proposal for