WILDLIFE CARERS GROUP SUBMISSION FINAL AMENDED Draft Animal Welfare and Management Strategy 2017-2022, closes Wednesday 24 May 2017.
WILDLIFE CARERS GROUP SUBMISSION ANIMAL WELFARE LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL 2019:
The Animal Welfare and Management Strategy 2017-2022 states:‘1. INTRODUCTIONCanberra’s setting as the Bush Capital means people living in and visiting the ACT have regular interaction with animals; whether it’s observing the variety of birdlife in our neighbourhoods, the threatened species in one of our many nature reserves, or kangaroos grazing in our open spaces.The Territory’s significant network of open space and community facilities mean that Canberra is a great place to keep a companion animal.As well as the intrinsic and companionship values that animals hold, they are sentient beings that have the ability to perceive and feel a range of emotions including pain, fear and joy. Animals cannot advocate for themselves and so it is our responsibility to do this on their behalf.For these reasons, animal welfare is important. Everyone has a role in ensuring animals receive appropriate care and are treated humanely. This includes being informed about issues affecting animals, practising responsible pet ownership and avoiding impacts to native animals.The Animal Welfare and Management Strategy 2017 – 2022 (the strategy) has been developed to ensure the ACT Government delivers a consistent and consolidated approach to promoting improved outcomes for animal welfare and management. In the absence of a targeted strategy, animal welfare and management practices are less likely to evolve to meet the changing expectations of the ACT community. The strategy will also be used to guide future government decision making and outlines all actions in a single document that can be easily accessed by the community.’Note that the 3rd paragraph of the Strategy under 1.INTRODUCTION, counting from the 1st paragraph in bold, declares all animals as ‘…sentient beings that have the ability to perceive and feel a range of emotions including pain, fear and joy. Animals can not advocate for themselves and so it is our responsibility to do this on their behalf…Domestic Animals
Acts of animal cruelty on a 7 year old dog raised in Canberra when she had a good home to go to in Canberra if her owners didn’t want her back.
As if DAS’s actions not to release Lily from DAS on 11/10/16 wasn’t bad enough, DAS/TAMS Directorate and staff involved in sending this poor old dog to another rescue group rather than rehoming her immediately they got the opportunity on 11/10/16 is already an animal welfare matter/crime, it was further more inhumane of DAS to have this poor old dog transported to Pipers Flat that is a 5 to 6 hours drive from Canberra past Bathurst and to rip her out of her own environment that she has lived in for her 7 years of her life.
As of 9/11/16, Lily still was not and couldn’t be assessed because she was too unsettled and miserable at the Maremma Rescue Group.
Recommendations: Under the Animal Welfare Act, I will further ask to make it mandatory that the Maremma Rescue Group and any other Rescue Groups or people taking dogs from the pound speak first with the owners of these dogs that are at the pound/DAS, to first obtain the history of the dog and speak with the owners to confirm that the owners know where the dog is,and to consider the dogs age, before any dog is ripped out of their own state, etc. and to further find out whether someone from their own state has offered to take the dog and place the dog into a good home. The Maremma Rescue Group should be the last resort. We can not keep handing the same dogs to other rescue groups over exploitation, to auction the dog off to the highest bidder.
If the owners want their dogs back, then they should get their dogs back if they haven’t abused the dogs, or aren’t deliberately let out to roam by the owners, or the owners don’t walk the dogs unleashed to place their own dogs and other pets and people in danger.
If the owners prove themselves to be loving, responsible and caring pet owners, then the dog owners should get their dogs back.
We went back to DAS on Monday 7/11/16 to check on Lily and to see Franklin to assess him, however they were both gone.
Lily was not going onto a property where she may be a risk to farm animals and stock. I don’t have any stock, she is too old for all of that anyway, and too old to be jumping fences, therefore all of their reasons are null and void for sending an old dog away from her homeland and refusing to sell her to me on 11/10/16. My property is secure anyway. I went back to DAS on Thursday 13/10/16 when she was still to be rehomed, please see attached photo I took of Lily. She was at the pound since 8/10/16. I went back again on Tuesday 18/10/16 with someone else when the rehomed sign was changed to ‘not for sale’ when I saw a real change in Lily due to being abused.
Recommendations: The temperament testing must be banned that is used by the RSPCA and dog/animal pounds, rescue groups, they are inhumane.
Under Animal Welfare, legal action needs to be taken against DAS over this case.
Franklin is apparently a farm working dog and will not be with Lily, as falsely portrayed by DAS and The Chronicle in their 1/11/16 edition, ‘Franklin has finally found a new home’, p.9 by Megan Doherty, however, since we didn’t see Franklin, we can’t confirm that he is a working farm dog.
By reading The Chronicle story on him, he is still a suburbia dog and not a farm working dog either. His age is not known that should be taken into consideration, he may be an old dog as well, in which case, it would be wrong to change his life style that he has grown up in.
Lily is a companion animal to live where she has access to go in and out of a house.
The history, the age etc must be checked before allowing any dog be ripped out of their environment and state.
I phoned Maremma Rescue Group twice on Wednesday 9/11/16 and spoke with the husband the first time for a lengthy time and then spoke with the wife for a lengthy time the 2nd time after he told me to ring back after dark to speak with his wife.
There are grounds to investigate Lily. The wife did not bother checking the history on Lily.
Lily’s history needs to be investigated on how the pound got her and why she wasn’t given back to her owner.
Franklin was not her mate.
The wife was told by DAS that the owner dumped Lily at the pound, I was told she was picked up as a stray and that it was the first time she was picked up.
The owner needs to be found and contacted to find out the truth. I would like to be contacted with this information, or let me know who the owner is so that I can contact the owner.
Lily could’ve been let out by someone with the owners not knowing, maybe overseas, or not being able to afford to pay the pound, there could be a lot of other reasons, maybe the owners still don’t know what has happened to their beloved dog.
Lily was born in 2009 which makes her an old dog at 7 years old, DAS website showed that she was 2 years old.
The wife asked me why I didn’t buy her from the pound, I told her I tried. I already assessed Lily without touching her, I knew she was not suitable to be dumped in a paddock, (which is what DAS wanted to do, and then a breeding program when she is desexed and can’t breed) that she was a pet living in a house, Lily is a Canberra City dog, not a working farm dog, she agreed with me. The wife confirmed Lily is desexed and microchipped.
The history of this dog needs to be investigated.
The Chronicle ran the article in their 1/11/16 edition, the husband told me they picked the dogs up either early November orlate October, his wife didn’t answer my question.
This poor old dog’s welfare has never been top priority by DAS and Directorate and TAMS.
This is a welfare case with Lily against DAS.
The history run down with my experience and how the dog showed abuse by DAS staff towards her through her body language with each visit by me is as follows:
https://districtbulletin.com.au/isaacs-ridge-act-delivers-bike-trails-and-death-in-the-afternoon/
(1. Kangaroos do not overpopulate. Their populations grow until they are in equilibrium with their environment and then stabilise (1, 2.) – an Eastern Grey Kangaroo doe only raises its first joey to the pouch-emergent stage by 3.5 years of age, and finishes breeding at around 12 years of age, she is only likely to produce 8 young in her lifetime.
75% of joeys are likely to die, this leaves only 2 young to survive to adulthood. If the male female sex ratio is parity, only one surviving joey will be a doe, and on average the original female will only effectively replace herself once in her lifetime – parity means that if a doe first conceives at 3 years of age, and has its first young to independence by 4.5 years of age (this assumes success in rearing, and ignores the very high reported juvenile mortality rates), 50% of the time it takes a minimum of 4.5 years for a doe to replace itself with a female offspring. If the doe has a male joey, it will be another 12 months before there is another 50/50 chance she will replace herself with another female. Pouch young sex ratios from Hacker et al (2004), being roughly parity (which was also concluded by Coulson, Kirkpatrick, Poole and Pople / Grigg, however Dawson (1995) identifies that both Eastern and Western Grey Kangaroos seem to experience higher mortality in the males, with only 5% surviving to full maturity (c. 60kg) in the wild.
2. When food is scarce kangaroos stop breeding and move on to greener pastures (3).
3. As admitted in the KMP itself (p12), kangaroos are a keystone species. This means that, at natural densities (which vary with climatic and seasonal variations), they are critical to maintaining all the other native plants and animals which share their habitat. Killing kangaroos is not protecting threatened species. It is further endangering them.
4. No base-line studies have ever been conducted in the ACT to determine how many kangaroos are needed to maintain healthy populations of other native species.
Arnold, GW, Grassia A, Steven DE & Weeldenburg JR 1991 Population ecology of western grey kangaroos in a remnant of wandoo woodland at Bakers Hill in southern Western Australia, in Wildlife Research 18 (5): 561-575
Coulson G, Alviano P, Ramp D, Way S 1999 The kangaroos of Yan Yean; history of a problem population in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 111(1): 121-130.
Burnie, David, Don E. Wilson, 2001, in Animal, pp. 99–101.
Peter B. Banks, Alan E. Newsome and Chris R. Dickman, 2000, Predation by red foxes limits recruitment in populations of eastern grey kangaroos, in Austral Ecology, 25(3) p283
ACT Animal Welfare Act, 1992, Section 20)
The mass killing and infertility program is interfering with, and genetically altering the Kangaroos natural development, weakening the species and driving them to extinction.
‘The kangaroo massacre destroys the process of natural selection. The repeated targeting of the ‘alpha’ males, the largest and fittest animals (who provide the industry with the big skins they want),’ [and that the Government also target in their violent unnecessary killing based on fiction] ‘means younger, smaller animals are left to breed, weakening the gene pool. “This has the potential to cause the extinction of a number of species”. (Dr Ian Gunn, Animal Gene Storage Resource Centre of Australia.) Australia has the worst wildlife record in the world – six species of kangaroos extinct, four more extinct on the Australian mainland, 17 species endangered or vulnerable.’
It is strongly recommended that under this Animal Welfare Management Strategy that recognises animals as being sentient beings, that it is not in compliance with:1. the violent Nature Conservation Act 2014 removing all ag-gag type sections from the Act.2. the violent Eastern Grey Kangaroos Draft Controlled Native Species Management Plan that persecutes and drives the native Eastern Grey Kangaroos to extinction and endangers public safety shooting any time and day: https://wildlifecarersgroup.wordpress.com/2017/03/19/eastern-grey-kangaroos-draft-controlled-native-species-management-plan-closes-24317/; https://wildlifecarersgroup.wordpress.com/2017/05/15/responses-to-draft-eastern-grey-kangaroos-controlled-native-species-plan-submission-from-conservator-of-flora-and-fauna-and-my-response-shown-first-15517/;(1. Kangaroos do not overpopulate. Their populations grow until they are in equilibrium with their environment and then stabilise (1, 2.) – an Eastern Grey Kangaroo doe only raises its first joey to the pouch-emergent stage by 3.5 years of age, and finishes breeding at around 12 years of age, she is only likely to produce 8 young in her lifetime.
75% of joeys are likely to die, this leaves only 2 young to survive to adulthood. If the male female sex ratio is parity, only one surviving joey will be a doe, and on average the original female will only effectively replace herself once in her lifetime – parity means that if a doe first conceives at 3 years of age, and has its first young to independence by 4.5 years of age (this assumes success in rearing, and ignores the very high reported juvenile mortality rates), 50% of the time it takes a minimum of 4.5 years for a doe to replace itself with a female offspring. If the doe has a male joey, it will be another 12 months before there is another 50/50 chance she will replace herself with another female. Pouch young sex ratios from Hacker et al (2004), being roughly parity (which was also concluded by Coulson, Kirkpatrick, Poole and Pople / Grigg, however Dawson (1995) identifies that both Eastern and Western Grey Kangaroos seem to experience higher mortality in the males, with only 5% surviving to full maturity (c. 60kg) in the wild.
2. When food is scarce kangaroos stop breeding and move on to greener pastures (3).
3. As admitted in the KMP itself (p12), kangaroos are a keystone species. This means that, at natural densities (which vary with climatic and seasonal variations), they are critical to maintaining all the other native plants and animals which share their habitat. Killing kangaroos is not protecting threatened species. It is further endangering them.
4. No base-line studies have ever been conducted in the ACT to determine how many kangaroos are needed to maintain healthy populations of other native species.The kangaroo slaughter is conducted at a time of year when, according to the KMP itself (p10-11), almost every mature female kangaroo has both a pouch young and a young at foot in her care. It is conducted under a code of practice which exists for the purpose of permitting acts of cruelty that would otherwise be prohibited by law (5).References:
Arnold, GW, Grassia A, Steven DE & Weeldenburg JR 1991 Population ecology of western grey kangaroos in a remnant of wandoo woodland at Bakers Hill in southern Western Australia, in Wildlife Research 18 (5): 561-575
Coulson G, Alviano P, Ramp D, Way S 1999 The kangaroos of Yan Yean; history of a problem population in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 111(1): 121-130.
Burnie, David, Don E. Wilson, 2001, in Animal, pp. 99–101.
Peter B. Banks, Alan E. Newsome and Chris R. Dickman, 2000, Predation by red foxes limits recruitment in populations of eastern grey kangaroos, in Austral Ecology, 25(3) p283
ACT Animal Welfare Act, 1992, Section 20)3. the violent Code of Practice,https://wildlifecarersgroup.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/autopsy-on-joey-tortured-to-death-by-authorised-tams-government-killing-4612/ (TAMS IS NOW TCCS.)4. the Ethics Committee that allows violence and suffering5. the Kangaroo Management Plan6. the ACT Kangaroo Management Plan (ACT Government 2010) and subsidiary policy instruments7. Draft ACT Pest Animal Management Strategy 2011-2021: https://wildlifecarersgroup.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/amendments-darting-currawongs-rspca-draft-act-pest-animal-management-strategy-2011-2021/8. Draft ACT Native Grasslands Conservation Strategy – https://wildlifecarersgroup.wordpress.com/2017/05/08/wildlife-carers-group-submission-draft-act-native-grasslands-conservation-strategy-closes-12-may-2017/; https://wildlifecarersgroup.wordpress.com/2017/05/16/earless-dragon-scarcity-previously-coincided-with-kangaroo-scarcity-in-act-17517/, that is consistent with9. the ACT Nature Conservation Strategy 2013-23 (ACT Government 2013a) and10. the 2005 Lowland Grassland Conservation Strategy that are all based on fraudulent reports on the Eastern Grey Kangaroos, etc. finding the Government and their agencies to be in breach of the Animal Welfare and Management Strategy by enforcing heavy fines, criminal convictions, prison sentence to any offenders, including the Government and their agencies.1080 POISON BANNEDIt is strongly recommended to ban the use of 1080 poison that causes a violent death and targets non targetted native wildlife, endangered species, domestic pets, etc. and children.‘…There’s a lot of interference from non-targets taking baits, things like varanids [goannas], ravens, kangaroos, ants, and feral cats,” Dr Kreplins said….’. Click on this link for the full Report:http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2017-03-30/lizards-eating-1080-baits-meant-for-wa-wild-dogs/8398520The cost of the killing of Kangaroos is huge and has a negative impact on society and native wildlife.The mass killing and infertility program is interfering with, and UNLAWFULLY genetically altering the Kangaroos natural development,weakening the species and driving them to extinction.
‘The kangaroo massacre destroys the process of natural selection. The repeated targeting of the ‘alpha’ males, the largest and fittest animals (who provide the industry with the big skins they want),’ [and that the Government also target in their violent unnecessary killing based on fiction] ‘means younger, smaller animals are left to breed, weakening the gene pool. “This has the potential to cause the extinction of a number of species”. (Dr Ian Gunn, Animal Gene Storage Resource Centre of Australia.) Australia has the worst wildlife record in the world – six species of kangaroos extinct, four more extinct on the Australian mainland, 17 species endangered or vulnerable.’
Our proposed Kangaroo Park and Wildlife Sanctuary has a positive impact on society, is educational, and would be a multibillion dollar revenue raising program from the tourist industry that the Government has deprived the ACT of since 2008.The infertility program, ‘Kangaroo fertility trial cost released’ in the Chronicle 31/1/17 has cost the taxpayers $600,000, and then another report shows $530,000:
This article in the Sydney Morning Herald reports that the violent infertility program cost $612,000.In 2013 the Annual roo cull cost $182 a head. I’m sure the current cost has more than tripled, crippling the economy not to mention that is weakening and driving protected native Eastern Grey Kangaroos to exinction as the Kangaroo sizes show to be smaller due to the mismangement and shooting of the mobs. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/annual-roo-cull-costs-182-a-head-20131115-2xmw9.htmlIn 2011-2012 the Directorate of Environment and Sustainable Development published their records that $244,750 was spent on the Canberra violent Kangaroo killing.This figure would’ve more than tripled up to 2017 that is ongoing abuse of taxpayers money and their positions committing professional misconduct on unnecessary violent killing based on fiction.‘Earless Dragon scarcity previously coincided with kangaroo scarcity in ACTDon Fletcher, in “Population Dynamics of Eastern Grey Kangaroos in Temperate Grasslands,” describes how, in the 1940s and 1950s kangaroos actually became rare in the ACT due to competition by European grazing stock. Even when these stock were removed, they remained rare for some time. Salt blocks were put out in the 1960s to attract kangaroos to the Tidbinbilla Fauna Reserve, where in 1963 employees went for three months without seeing one.) [12]Oddly, at the same time as kangaroos were banished from the ACT, the Earless Dragon also became scarce. It couldn’t have been because of too many kangaroos.“The Grassland Earless Dragon was very common in the ACT up to the 1930s but there are now very few left. This is mainly because there are so few areas of its native grassland habitat remaining. There are now only two main populations known in the ACT; and there is one near Cooma in NSW.” Source: The ACT Conservation Council’: https://awpc.org.au/act-roo-killings-who-profits-behind-the-earless-dragon-mask/comment-page-1/Don Fletcher’s same PhD documents also state that they were regularly killing Kangaroos in one fenced off area that caused the Kangaroos to become smaller that shows that the mass killing and infertility program are interfering with and genetically altering the Kangaroos natural development and weakening the species, driving them to extinction. This is criminal.Research has already been undertaken, with one section being fenced off with no Kangaroos. The vegetation in this section died off because there were no Kangaroos in the fenced off section due to no grazing, stimulating the vegetation to regrow.Another section was fenced off with the soft footed Kangaroos grazing in there. The vegetation in this section thrived due to the grazing of the Kangaroos, stimulating the vegetation regrowth.This clearly shows that Friends of Mount Majura – FOMM have their story back the front in the article in the Canberra Times (CT) on Friday 22 March 2013, ‘News’ Section p.7 with the subject heading ‘Majura roos in sights of cullers’ written by John Thistleton and Larissa Nicholson .Kangaroos and the grazing of the Kangaroos is extremely important as the Kangaroos only skim off the highest, tough growth of plants, exposing tender shoots, stimulating vegetation regrowth, saving the grasslands, habitat and the endangered native flora and fauna species that live there.The soft footed Kangaroos cause no environmental damage and maintain a healthy well balanced eco system.The mass killing and infertility program is unlawfully genetically altering the Kangaroos weakening the species and driving them to extinction.Animal Justice Party Kangaroo Report: https://wildlifecarersgroup.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/animal-justice-party-kangaroo-report-22513/Wildlife Carers Group Submission for the Eastern Grey Kangaroos Draft Controlled Native Species Management Plan recommending that it be abolished, and in the Nature Conservation Act 2014 is recommending that the section for the controlled native species be deleted, removing all ag-gag type sections from the Act. The submission also recommends that the no Kangaroo Policy be abolished with a ban on killing and a ban on the infertility program that is interfering with and genetically altering them weakening the species and driving the Eastern Grey Kangaroos (EGK’s) to extinction, changing the EGK’s Status to critically endangered.‘The kangaroo massacre destroys the process of natural selection. The repeated targeting of the ‘alpha’ males, the largest and fittest animals (who provide the industry with the big skins they want),’ [and that the Government also target in their violent unnecessary killing based on fiction] ‘means younger, smaller animals are left to breed, weakening the gene pool. “This has the potential to cause the extinction of a number of species”. (Dr Ian Gunn, Animal Gene Storage Resource Centre of Australia.) Australia has the worst wildlife record in the world – six species of kangaroos extinct, four more extinct on the Australian mainland, 17 species endangered or vulnerable.’
It is strongly recommneded that the EGK’s are placed in the critically endangered category with full protection under the Nature Conservation Act 2014 with all ag-gag sections removed from the Act. The Wildlife Carers Group Draft Controlled Native Species Management Plan also strongly recommends that the sick, injured, orphaned EGK’s be given full term rehabilitation status in Wildlife Rehabilitation Licences that are issued and abolishing the Management Plan. Please click on this link to view Wildlife Carers Group Submission: https://wildlifecarersgroup.wordpress.com/2017/03/19/eastern-grey-kangaroos-draft-controlled-native-species-management-plan-closes-24317/My expertise with Eastern Grey Kangaroos, I went from this as a child:to this:The Animal Defenders Office (ADO) Submission for the Eastern Grey Kangaroos Draft Controlled Native Species Management Plan opposing the Plan. Please click on this link to read ADO’s Submission: https://media.wix.com/ugd/a64856_ebdefa030f0041e28f9cd971ef3090a8.pdfI am a member of ADO.1080 POISON TO BE BANNEDIt is strongly recommended that 1080 poison be banned that causes a violent death and is a danger to the community when children can pick up the baits and eat them. 1080 poison is also eaten by non target endangered animals, pets, etc:http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2017-03-30/lizards-eating-1080-baits-meant-for-wa-wild-dogs/8398520THE CODE OF PRACTICE is violent and unacceptable.
‘The kangaroo massacre destroys the process of natural selection. The repeated targeting of the ‘alpha’ males, the largest and fittest animals (who provide the industry with the big skins they want),’ [and that the Government also target in their violent unnecessary killing based on fiction] ‘means younger, smaller animals are left to breed, weakening the gene pool. “This has the potential to cause the extinction of a number of species”. (Dr Ian Gunn, Animal Gene Storage Resource Centre of Australia.) Australia has the worst wildlife record in the world – six species of kangaroos extinct, four more extinct on the Australian mainland, 17 species endangered or vulnerable.’
This Brush-tailed Possum Joey was used in live baiting showing the Greyhound Racing Industry in a short film, dragged along the ground, spinning around on the ground while being chased. This Brush-tailed Possum Joey’s tail can be seen stick in up in the air and then flat on the ground while being dragged and rolling around along the ground, while being chased by the Greyhound, cast, and film crew.
It is strongly recommended that all racing, recreational and sport activities using animals be banned to prevent the exploitation of animals and the violent treatment that they suffer.If they aren’t fast enough, if they are injured, they are treated as liabilities, they are either inhumanely treated, neglected and/or inhumanely destroyed.
ANIMALS USED ON SETS FOR FILMING, etc
The mass killing and infertility program is interfering with and genetically altering the Kangaroos preventing the species natural development, weakening the species and driving them to extinction. The same applies to all other native wildlife that the Government is interfering with.
‘The kangaroo massacre destroys the process of natural selection. The repeated targeting of the ‘alpha’ males, the largest and fittest animals (who provide the industry with the big skins they want),’ [and that the Government also target in their violent unnecessary killing based on fiction] ‘means younger, smaller animals are left to breed, weakening the gene pool. “This has the potential to cause the extinction of a number of species”. (Dr Ian Gunn, Animal Gene Storage Resource Centre of Australia.) Australia has the worst wildlife record in the world – six species of kangaroos extinct, four more extinct on the Australian mainland, 17 species endangered or vulnerable.’
WISHING YOU A VERY SAFE AND HAPPY YEAR FOR 2017.
Recent Comments