Conservationists call on NSW Parliament to repeal Barilaro's 'Brumby Bill'

I am more concerned about what I perceive as an abuse of the scientific process to produce a desired response.
Anyone who has visited the area regularly, as I have, mainly in the northern and southern part over 60 years noticed two things.
1. The horse population fluctuated quite a lot. Most noticeably during the millennial drought the numbers dropped of substantially the numbers came back after about 2005 and then a decline between about 2016 and 2022.
Since then the numbers have increased. I rarely noticed damage to the river edges, however smaller creeks and swampy areas had obvious signs of damage. Until I was told otherwise told I always felt that the damage was by pigs, they are really obvious in the northern part.

2. The Southern part, especially around Tin Mine Hut and the Thredbo river is a different story. Here there are many Sambar deer and they have caused noticeable damage to many parts of the river. Especially the Diggings and Ngarigo have obvious damage, which is quite different to the damage seen on say the Eucumbene and Upper ‘Bidgee.

As has been mentioned, whilst there is plenty of proof that horses are photographed near the ‘scene of the crime’ any logical scientist would be seeking proof they are a threat to the creatures/diversity.
1. Actually prove that a species is in fact in decline, don’t assume
2. Identify what is actually causing the decline – horse, pig disturbance, rabbit etc.
3. Identify an appropriate control method

Otherwise it is simply a knee jerk reaction. Drinking the Kool-Aid and not using critical thinking.

Peter Philip, I was referring to the rare rabicano gene studied by a Texan University as well as Sydney University, not the horses breeds, although it’s proven the horses carry many wonderful breeds now extinct!
You know nothing about me or how I’ve acquired my knowledge of the situation, thankyou.
I understand perfectly the situation with the Corroborree frog, broad tooth rat, Pygmy possum and every little thing the horses are blamed for!
I reiterate again , there has been No scientific peer reviewed research done ( impact studies) in KNP on how the horses affect anything they are blamed for ! That’s a fact!

Yes totally agree that the ‘Brumby’ bill be repealed. It was such a bad decision made by a bad politician pandering to a vested interest. The only legislation I know of the puts an invasive animal over the native species which should be protected.

One feral animal in our fragile land is one too many , yet we allow thousands of horses , pigs , deer , camels ,goats , and millions of lovely fluffy bunnies , to eat , trample and destroy . You name it , if it’s feral we have it . Wake up Australia , repeal stupid laws passed by ignorant people in the misguided belief that they are preserving an imaginary heritage .

Margaret Wood pumps out the same rhetoric she has be told by horse supporters but doesn’t really understand it. She talks about rare DNA found nowhere else in the world but that is not true. DNA from these horses is actually linked to many other breeds found throughout the world. Not rare at all. How is it these horses came to be in KNP? The culture these people want to protect is one of neglect. The horses were of no value and simply abandoned. Margaret shows her lack of understanding and respect for the endangered Corroborree frog. Yes, a fungus is killing it but it also requires suitable habitat that the horses destroy. Pugged up streams and dirty water just doesn’t cut it. She then compares Kosci to Western Australia. This only highlights her lack of knowledge and concern for the environment but I am sure she loves horses.
The legislation is flawed and is in contradiction with federal environment legislation. Will it be repealed? Probably not in this round but it will be eventually. Perhaps Margaret and her cohorts could point us to the origins of these horses. You will find they were considered a pest in Banjo’s time and slaughtered in the thousands by the ancestors of many how now call them ‘iconic’. Those wishing to see the damage horses do in KNP (and elsewhere) need only open their eyes.

So lets just be HONEST here and cut through the doubling-down garbage used again by blackhearts like Swain Gough Sharpe Fleming Cox and McGirr etc who will in time be exposed with regard this terribly cruel and unnecessary Brumby Cull/Slaughter. FACT 1) Not a single injured or dead native animal caused by a Brumby, including the Corroboree Frog and Broad Tooth Rat etc, has ever been shown (despite repeated asking). 2) The alleged Brumby Population numbers used/abused to justify disgustingly cruel aerial shooting were more than doubled by this lot from what we now know the true number was. So 25,000 has now become more like 10,000 across an area larger that Greater Outer Metropolitan Sydney (with most of these 10,000 Brumbies now all cruelly shot dead with their carcasses rotting on the KNP floor of course). 3) The areas the Brumbies are in and are to be retained per this important Brumby Bill are designated Retention Areas that ARE NOT ‘Fragile and Pristine’ as the deceivers in your article would have you believe (again). They are in FACT areas with cleared open land by earlier pastoralists and where massive power lines and towers (with huge areas cleared by necessity underneath) dwarf the KNP landscape, as many man made roads and camping areas and walking tracks wind through these same areas where the horse peacefully graze. And lets talk about the way the ISC constantly corrupt proper transparent honest informed process with their use of pro-forma Petitions and Submissions thrust in front of an ill-informed/deceived public at countless Shopping Centres (with McGirr helping) and even used in Upper House Inquiries (i.e Sharpe says 82% of people who ‘Submitted’ to the Inquiry supported Aerial Shooting – yet we know most of those 82% were ‘copy and paste/generic’ submissions utilised by the ISC. Its what they do to deceive to kill and they and the ALP and Parks NSW (even the RSPCA) care less about the humane treatment of animals in this regard, which is a disgrace.

There is no peer reviewed studies on horse damage in KNP, there are plenty of opinion pieces!
While they have a petition with 11,000 signatures Brumby advocates have a petition with 212,880 signatures against aerial and land shooting our wild horses!
When a Kimberley farmer can turn his red rocks and desert into an oasis using donkeys, the outer grassy areas of KNP can benefit from a certain number of equines !
They build diversity, they don’t harm native wildlife , most of us know by now that the stocky galaxis fish is eaten by trout not horses and the Corroborree frog is dying of climate change and a fungus.
This wilderness ideology will cause the park to burn so hot nothing will survive !
Firefighters have told me they rely on the brumby tracks to get into remote areas to fight fires!
The horses carry rare genetics found nowhere else in the world and are cared about by hundreds of thousands of Australians !
Enough to warrant the government putting aside a decent amount of land the let the horses live freely!
Wild horses have inhabited the planet for 55 million years ! The last 10 years has seen man wipe most of them from the planet ! Like it or not they have played a huge part in the planets diversity!
Before you say they don’t belong in Australia , we’ve had mega fauna in Australia’s past, and we could do with our topsoils being built.
A whistle blower has informed Brumby advocates that there was 626 horses shot over the last winter not the 8,000 claimed, there’s plenty of propaganda happening here on this matter.

At last! Misplaced sentiment about ‘our history’ has no place in the preservation of this unique ecological area. Those ‘Men from Snowy River’ were fevered imaginations by an urban Sydney man working in an office. Yes, lovely poetry, but ultimately romanticising land theft and degradation. The world is on the brink, and opponents of this overdue legislative proposal clamour for the continuance of this scientifically proven degradation of a unique, diverse and fragile landscape by an imported, feral beast. If nothing else, the least we can do for the robbed indigenous population is to preserve their Mountain Mother – as the whole Snowy Range is for them. The only problem is finding a humane way to remove these creatures from the landscape. I am sure that a solution will be found which does not involve cruelty to animals. But if we want to show respect to the natural world, we must enforce these invaders’ removal. Ultimately, we shall all benefit, nay-sayers notwithstanding.