FINDING ways to re-home captured horses is a key part of the newest draft feral horse plan – even though interest in re-homing has been limited in the past.
Parks Victoria has released the draft of the next action plan to tackle the feral horse problem and better protect the Alpine National Park.
Preferred methods of managing feral horses under the draft Feral Horse Action Plan 2021 include trapping and re-homing, tightly managed shooting, and the construction of exclusion fences.
However to date, Parks Victoria says there has been limited response to repeated and direct public calls for interest in re-homing feral horses.
Between December 2019 and September 2020, there were three rounds of public advertisement seeking expressions of interest to re-home feral horses.
Parks Victoria received more than 300 enquiries, 10 completed expressions of interest from suitable applicants, and offers to re-home between 38 and 51 feral horses per year.
With an estimated 5000 feral horses in the Victorian Alps, a Parks Victoria spokesperson said capture and re-homing alone would not be enough to significantly reduce feral horse populations in the eastern alps.
The spokesperson said the high numbers of feral horses in the alpine area continued to cause damage.
“Increased knowledge and experience are allowing us to build the best approach to managing feral horse populations and reduce the threats they bring to our special High Country native wildlife and habitats,” he said.
“As a result, we have revised our management practices, bringing in additional methods to help reduce feral horse numbers while aiming to maximise the numbers captured and re-homed.
“We are releasing the draft plan to provide people with the opportunity to review our updated approach and give us honest and constructive feedback.”
Meanwhile, the Victorian National Parks Association has welcomed the proposed plan.
Association spokesperson Phil Ingamells said state and national laws, backed by international agreements, called for feral animals to be controlled in national parks.
“Horses are a domestic farm animal and have no place in one of our most vulnerable and prized natural areas,” he said.
“These hard-hooved grazers are wrecking the park’s highly vulnerable alpine peat beds and wetlands, and potentially pushing already threatened species of plants and animals towards extinction.
“The High Country’s beautiful but rare mammal, the Tooarrana, is threatened as well as the Alpine tree frog, Alpine water skink and many other species.”
Mr Ingamells said in the past couple of years, Parks Victoria had faced a series of legal actions from pro-horse groups aimed at protecting horses in the park, but those moves failed.
“Indeed they only served to highlight the considerable environmental damage horses inflict on the High Country of Victoria and New South Wales,” he said.
“Importantly, horses can suffer dreadfully in heavy snow, drought or fire; leaving them to fend for themselves in the High Country is not kind to them.
“Parks Victoria’s plan to re-home horses where possible, but otherwise to employ professional ground or aerial shooters, is backed by leading animal welfare authorities.”
Mr Ingamells said the Alpine National Park was still recovering from 150 years of cattle grazing.
“It’s time to increase our management of a range of other hard-hooved grazers such as deer, pigs, goats and horses,” he said.
“There is no doubt that action is needed to control horses and other pests.
“It’s time to restore the health of the High Country, to reverse declines in a host of threatened species, and to hand our precious Alpine National Park on to future generations in good and improving condition.”
The latest the draft Feral Horse Action Plan 2021 is a revision of the 2018-21 Feral Horse Strategic Action Plan, and many aspects of the management approach remain the same since the previous plan.
Parks Victoria says the latest draft action plan has been developed based on the scientific evidence, management experience and expert input from the previous 2018-2021 Feral Horse Strategic Action Plan, which received more than 1000 submissions through extensive public consultation in 2017.
The draft Feral Horse Action Plan 2021 is open for public comment until Friday, April 23.
All submissions to the draft plan will be considered as part of developing the final Feral Horse Action Plan 2021, which will be submitted to the Energy, Environment and Climate Change Minister for review.
The draft plan is available at Engage Victoria.
