Tag Archives: Carlisle River Wildlife Shelter

Call to the Victorian Government for an urgent review of the culling permit allocation.

Leave a comment

Currently, there is LITTLE to NO consideration given to local ANIMAL RESCUE SHELTERS in the area when a license to cull is approved. This effectively means that as a group rescues, rehabilitates and then releases an animal, it can be LEGALLY KILLED the same day by a neighbor with an approved license to cull.

Environmentalists recently slammed a State Government decision to allow the culling of 60 kangaroos on an Otways property next door to a wildlife shelter and a national park.

The Environment, Land, Water and Planning Department issued a permit to “scare, disperse, trap or lethally control” 60 eastern grey kangaroos just weeks after a landowner moved to a Colac-Carlisle Road property.

The property shares a boundary with the long-established Carlisle River Wildlife Shelter and the Great Otway National Park, and previous owners had grazed cattle on the land for about eight years before the new owners bought the property.

This system is DEEPLY FLAWED and all of the power is with the person with the license to cull as there is currently NO dispute process for local residents or local animal rescue shelters to challenge this permit..

Therefore, we call on the Victorian Minister of Agriculture to review the current license allocation system to take into account surrounding properties and local animal rescue shelters when allocating a permit. Further, we request an option to allow local directly affected parties and rescue shelters to dispute the approval of a cull of nominated animals within their immediate vicinity.

“Two rabbits eat the same amount as a kangaroo and a cow with a calf at foot will eat as much as 30 kangaroos; DELWP should be required to explain to the applicant the dietary differences between kangaroos and cattle so that the applicant can be properly informed about the amount of competition for pasture that actually exists,” Wildlife carer Mr Anstis said.

Do they know how many rabbits, or kangaroos, are in Victoria? probably not!

Letter to
The Victorian Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford MP

Sign the Petition to Jaala Pulford, Victoria Agriculture Minister

Share This:

Kangaroo cull approved for next to the Carlisle River Wildlife Shelter

2 comments

Carlisle River Wildlife Shelter’s Ron and Carola Anstis are heartbroken to learn animals they had spent years caring for were being shot dead thanks to approval from the State Government.

Embedded conflicts of interests exist within the State government because they have responsibilities for both administering the Wildlife Act, to protect native species, AND for administering permits to kill them! (Authority to Control Wildlife permits).

They are the only wildlife shelter in the area that cared for Eastern Grey Kangaroos, between Geelong and Warrnambool, and that’s a big area. However, the area is too small to share with wildlife, and some narrow-minded people still want to access firearms, and kill them. The Anstises take in pouch young we care for them for about two years and spend more than $1000 on each.

Ron Anstis said “we just told the department we can’t put that much into it only for them to allow someone else to kill it. This is the same department that issue us our wildlife licence.” So the same Government Department, (Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning- DELWP), that issues wildlife licences, is the same department that issues killing permits.

Ron and Carola have no ability to fight that permit what so ever, and there is no appeals process to allow residents to dispute cull permits where required.

babyjoey2

The Department admits they have no data or records on how many native animals in Victoria, of most species, except for anecdotal evidence.

The government officer was satisfied that the landholder had explored available nonlethal management measures, such as maintenance and improvement to boundary fencing, prior to applying for the ATCW. “The officer also confirmed that the kangaroos were causing damage to pasture from overgrazing….” Wonder if they’ve assessed if it’s been “overgrazed” from overstocking of livestock and/or feral animals?

“Two rabbits eat the same amount as a kangaroo and a cow with a calf at foot will eat as much as 30 kangaroos; DELWP should be required to explain to the applicant the dietary differences between kangaroos and cattle so that the applicant can be properly informed about the amount of competition for pasture that actually exists,” Mr Anstis said.

The couple left a rescued joey at government office in protest over a kangaroo cull permit at their neighbour’s property.

The Anstises were forced to leave eight-month-old Angel at the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning offices in Colac on Tuesday. Anstises had decided to stop rescuing and rehabilitating joeys and injured eastern grey kangaroos because of the contradictory action by DELWP of giving their neighbour permission to legally cull 60 roos! The neighbours want to improve their pastures, the cheap way.

The couple, with 23 years of experience in wildlife care, is calling for state government change that would see exclusion zones around wildlife shelters to prevent the allocation of culling permits.

Victoria, the most cleared and damaged State, has lost it’s balance, and has no place for EGK! Livestock, infrastructure, land clearing, roads, urbanisation and liberal distribution of ATCW means these iconic native kangaroos are doomed to be left to die, if found as joeys, in the large area of Victoria that the Anstises served.

Share This: