MILLIONS OF NATIVE animals have been killed and survivors deprived of food, shelter and water thanks to the unprecedented bushfires sweeping the country, on the back of extensive drought. The drought is predicted to continue as well as the fires for some time.

In our own backyard, Wildcare (Queanbeyan, Bungendore, and nearby rural areas) and the Native Animal Rescue Group NARG (Braidwood area), along with individual property owners, are ramping up efforts to provide food, water, and in some cases shelter. You can help. See how, below.

The North Black Range bushfire, between Bungendore and Braidwood, is the nearest fire arena. Property owners on the periphery of the burnt-out area are seeing and reporting animals searching for food, water and shelter. Affected animals are turning up in unusual places.

Food and shelter stations being set up

Wildcare and NARG volunteers, with the help of the community, have started to deliver essential food — grass, hay, pellets, bird seed — and other food, such as fruit and native tree and shrub cuttings. Food stations are positioned in strategic locations. It’s reported to be working — with animals coming in to feed. Watering points have also been set up.

Nesting boxes for possums and gliders have started to be erected to provide shelter. Property owners and members of the public have been extremely helpful in maintaining the food and water supply and for the cash donations needed to support this program. More needs to be done.

Fire and drought-affected property owners who need assistance with the cost of helping can make use of the Food4Wildlife scheme. Food (pellets for macropods or possums and bird seed) can be picked up from one of four collection points in Bungendore and Braidwood.

Visit wildcare.com.au for specific locations. For example, in Bungendore there are two bins outside Bungendore Produce on Gibraltar Street for that purpose.

Hay is also available to support grass-eating animals (contact haydrop@wildcare.com.au).

Wildcare thanks the many businesses who have donated food and material to support this effort, which will continue for many months until the native habitat recovers.

Don’t forget the water

With soaring temperatures, creeks and dams are drying out, so providing a water source for native animals is vital, including in our own drought-affected areas.

Put out bowls and troughs, or similar large containers, in shady locations for our native friends and keep the birdbaths topped up. Place stones and branches in the container to allow access and exit by insects and smaller animals.

CAPTION: Our main picture shows a friend of  The District Bulletin in Canberra, topping up water containers on Black Mountain, while guarding against the world’s most toxic hot air … the impact of the bushfires and government climate policy.  ON RIGHT: RFS-rescued possum receiving treatment from Wildcare. Images supplied.

Cash donations to Wildcare or NARG are vital for the ongoing demand to resupply food and buy materials that support affected animals.

If people wish to donate, visit wildcare.com.au and find out the ways that this can be done. Please give whatever you can to help save the surviving wildlife from the North Black Range bushfire. Call Wildcare on 6299 1966, or NARG on 4846 1900, for further advice.

Humane Society International joins the helping hands

Working particularly with wildlife carers on private property, Humane Society International (HSI) has opened an appeal for donations and an emergency hotline for carers needing assistance.

Wildlife carers in need can call 1800 333 737.

HSI has already assisted with delivering emergency water supplies and supplementary feed for rescued wombats, kangaroos and flying-foxes.

HSI is also funding the building of additional rehabilitation enclosures for animals like koalas to ease the pressure on carers who are inundated with animals.

Many of HSI-supported Wildlife Land Trust members are wildlife carers, and many have lost everything they worked so hard to build. The organisation is pledging it will be there for the long haul.

For the many people who want to help animals in areas surrounding the fires, a simple start is to put out shallow bowls of fresh water. Fruits and vegetables can also be attached to trees to help flying-foxes, birds and possums, but some foods such as bread can be harmful to wildlife and should be avoided.

To contribute to the fund, visit: www.hsi.org.au/bushfire

Two other wildlife-friendly and helping organisations we have heard of that take donations to help surviving wildlife in Victoria, NSW and Queensland are:

• https://therescuecollective.com/
• https://www.wildlifevictoria.org.au/

Stop Kangaroo Cruelty in NSW!

Copyrighted picture by Maria Taylor

How you can Help

1. Demand an end to the cruelty of kangaroos in NSW!

> SIGN PETITION, DIRECT LINK HERE

In June 2018, the NSW Liberal/National government ‘relaxed red tape’ with regards to the already under-regulated and inhumane system of culling kangaroos.

This unethical measure paved the way for an increased number of inexperienced shooters to kill kangaroos. As a result, kangaroos are being maimed, killed inhumanely and joeys at foot left to starve to death at numbers that are totally unacceptable to the Australian community.

Already, hundreds of thousands of kangaroos are suffering unethical body-shots in the commercial industry. With these relaxed conditions, a major increase in the inhumane treatment of vulnerable kangaroos is certain.

‘The RSPCA’s research shows commercial shooters have lifted their accuracy rates from 86 to 96 percent.

The four percent variable still equates to 100,000 kangaroos. Farmers and sporting shooters, it says, have shown no improvement in their accuracy rates’
— Kellie Russell, Landline 2002

‘What happens when those does [kangaroo mothers] are shot before the shooter can get to the joey is that those joeys have scarpered off, the reality is that those joeys will die from starvation and if not from predation and that in a humane society can’t be tolerated.’
— Dr Hugh Wirth, RSPCA, Landline 2002

 

‘The problem with shooting and culling kangaroos is that when these animals are shot they often aren’t killed and it is extraordinarily inhumane. If we were processing domestic livestock the same way we do kangaroos it would shut down immediately. People would be just horrified. I think we need to have that same empathy and understanding for kangaroos as we would a cow.
— Terri Irwin, ‘Kangaroo’ the movie, 2017

2. Draft a Letter/Email to your Local and State Representatives

• Download or copy and paste our draft letter into an email or letter (example below)
• Use our letter as is, or individualise it with your concerns.
• Insert the date, your address details and the minister’s address.

We recommend you send a copy to one (or all) of the following:

NSW Premier
The Hon. Gladys Berejiklian, MP
GPO Box 5341, Sydney NSW 2001
Tel: (02) 9228 5239
To contact the Premier visit www.nsw.gov.au and use the ‘Contact the Premier’ facility

Minister for Energy and Environment
The Hon. Matt Kean, MP
GPO Box 5341, Sydney NSW 2001
Tel: (02) 8574 6150
To contact the Minister for Energy and Environment visit www.nsw.gov.au and use the ‘Contact NSW Ministers’ facility

Minister for Agriculture and Western New South Wales
The Hon. Adam Marshall, MP
GPO Box 5341, Sydney NSW 2001
Tel: (02) 8574 5450
To contact the Minister for Agriculture and Western New South Wales visit www.nsw.gov.au and use the ‘Contact NSW Ministers’ facility

AND your local MPs, Greens, Labor, Liberal, National and Independent candidates

Download the letter here.

[Draft Letter Example]

(Insert date)

(Insert name of Minister)

(Insert position)

(Insert address)

(Insert email address)

(Insert your full name)

(Insert your postal address)

(Insert your email address

(Insert your phone number)

Dear (insert the minister/candidate’s title and name),

I/WE DEMAND AN END TO THE CRUELTY OF KANGAROOS IN NSW!

NSW kangaroo management is unacceptable to any compassionate and moral Australian citizen, and it just got worse.

In June 2018, the NSW Liberal/National government ‘relaxed red tape’ with regard to the already under-regulated and inhumane system of private culling of kangaroos in addition to a huge commercial hunt across the state.

This unethical political appeal to some NSW farmers also recruits city shooters to kill kangaroos in a totally unmonitored program. More kangaroos than ever are being maimed before death and unweaned joeys at foot left to starve.

In the commercial industry hundreds of thousands of kangaroos suffer face or body shots annually before being finally killed (RSPCA statistics). The non-commercial ‘less professional’ killing, promoted by NSW Primary Industries, now with even less conditions, is unacceptably inhumane. Here is an eyewitness account from NSW landowners who have witnessed commercial hunting along their property line for nearly a decade.

“We have seen hundreds of kangaroo’s heads that have been butchered and left in the field. Many do not have a gunshot wound to them. We have witnessed kangaroo heads that have been shot in regions of the head other than the brain case, often in the front of the head, [these kangaroos] may not have died until sometime after, often showing the signs of gruesome secondary trauma from a length of metal pipe or an axe.
Joeys are often not killed with their mothers but ripped from her pouch and discarded into the bushes, not even counted as a statistical ‘kill’. We hear them calling for their dead mothers until the sun comes up. We see them in the mornings lost and bewildered. We may see them again the next evening, but usually never again after that. This is considered ‘acceptable collateral damage’.
The group social structure is ruined. The mob is in disarray. The fields smell of death.”

The nature of kangaroo hunting and culling for economic purposes is inherently cruel to individual animals, destroys the kangaroo presence in natural ecosystems and bloodies our national icon, shaming Australia in other countries.

We are among many citizens who say it has to stop and will vote for reform of wildlife management.

Yours sincerely,

(Insert your name)

3. Speak for wildlife — join the AWPC

4. To make a donation to AWPC

(without becoming a member) click here.

Thank You!