Parks Victoria is seeking feedback on its draft Feral Horse Action Plan 2021 which sets out a proposed approach to improve the management of wild horses in the Victorian Alps in order to address their impacts on environmental values.
Unfortunately, advocates for protecting and maintaining wild horse populations too regularly seek to conflate the impacts of wild horses with those of wild deer and pigs in order to make the flawed and illogical argument that the impacts of horses should be ignored whilst other wildlife is also having impacts on the same or similar environmental values.
There are areas where wild deer are having unsustainable impacts, whilst we might argue about the method of control employed and we certainly argue for Parks Victoria to be transparent and accountable for control programs, we do not argue against deer control.
The draft Feral Horse Action Plan 2021 proposes a hierarchy of control measures for wild horses.
Perversely the least effective measures take precedence and the most effective, humane and cost-efficient means of control is slated as the “last resort” – this has nothing to do with a purist focus on environmental values and everything to do with political expediency and either an inability or unwillingness to take truly put natural values first.
In the context of this deeply flawed and compromised approach it is unsurprising that recreational deer hunters have little trust in Parks Victoria’s aerial deer control programs which have no animal welfare oversights, no clear targeting of high value environmental assets and no transparency of cost or effectiveness. The double standards are on clear display.
You can read more about the draft Feral Horse Action Plan 2021 and make comment on the Engage Victoria website.
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