Thank you to Gary Cotchin for the research and boots-on-the-ground work he’s done in defence of Brumbies in Australia – and for sharing the article below.
We’ve linked a PDF via buttons and links below to the pictures Gary mentions in his writing. Some of which are graphic. IF you don’t want to see graphic pictures, you can simply scroll down and read. We will always warn you before we show anything graphic.
‘Browny’ the (deceased) KNP Brumby exposes the LIES of Parks NSW Boss & Cull Spokesperson Mr. Atticus Fleming.
GARY COTCHIN WRITES:
In May 2023 the Snowy Mountain Brumby Sustainability Management Group [or SMBSMG] required 72 people to assist with a Brumby Count at Long Plain, Kosciuszko National Park [or ‘KNP’] on Saturday morning June 3rd, 2023.
All 72 ‘acceptors’ arrived from all over Australia, with many more wanting to help and ‘in-reserve’ in the event of anyone unable to attend.
A number of the attendees were on horseback, with the rest of us armed with binoculars, cameras, etc.
A thorough, methodical, legitimate, well organised Brumby Count, overseen by a highly regarded Biostatistician, was to be performed by the pro-Brumby community to dispute once and for all the terribly exaggerated Brumby population numbers that are regularly cited in the media.
Numbers that are based on inaccurate and as such an invalid/flawed Count Method and use of Distance Software by Dr. Stuart Cairns (and peer-reviewed by St Andrews University, Scotland who developed the aforementioned Software). Inflated Brumby population numbers continue to be used by those that are happy to slaughter a beautiful animal for no good reason, including the Minister now responsible for this disgusting slaughter in NSW, Ms. Penny Sharpe MP.
So around mid-morning of June 3rd we were grouped into a dozen or so morning’s groups of four, and our initial group of Sally, Maret, Amanda and I headed off to the first of our predetermined/mapped locations. One of many locations surveyed as part of this Count conducted across the length and breadth of the Northern KNP area, a broad area which is (reportedly) a “high-density Brumby population” area where reportedly around 85% of the total KNP Brumby population is according to the aforementioned ‘Cairns’ Brumby Population Survey(s).
Not long into our journey, as we drove across land that has been cleared decades earlier to make way for a massive row of High Voltage Electricity Towers & Cabling (see the image on the linked PDF below) taken nearby that same day, with cattle underneath – so much for the ‘Lie’ that is that the KNP is “Pristine” and “Fragile” and being damaged by Brumbies when Sally spotted what looked like a deceased Brumby to the left of us just 25 metres from this inner Park road we were on.
We all got out to investigate and found what appeared to be a 2- to 3-year-old Brumby who we will call ‘Browny’ for the purposes of this story.
Browny hadn’t been there long, perhaps about 2 days we think, and sadly [WARNING: there are 2 graphic images if you click to read the full article below] Browny had either died of natural causes (unlikely) or (more likely) from injuries received as a result of the nearby Brumby Trapping process.
Browny had no visible head or chest bullet wounds, so we safely assumed Browny had not been shot (as 67 other Brumbies had been shot quite some distance away within the KNP two weeks earlier).
About 175 metres to the right of us was one of many Brumby Traps (see by clicking the button to the article below) set up in the KNP.
We found five Traps in the general area around Long Plain that had recently been used in there.
These traps lure in some or all of a (often) small mob of Brumbies who seek out the molasses placed inside that is used as ‘bait’.
When inside the back gates of the Trap are often triggered by a Brumby that is inside at the time, leaving some of the mob in and some outside of the Trap.
This process often results in the separation of a Stallion from Mares and Mares from Mares and Mares from Foals etc.
In fact, it was heartbreaking to see evidence outside of one particular Trap where a separated horse had clearly laid in the surrounding mud, perhaps even slept in the mud outside the Traps, hoping that those trapped would be able to get out, only to later be chased off by Parks NSW Staff. Those trapped were trucked off to their end destination, separating the mob forever.
Upon later inspection, this nearby Trap had clearly lured horses (with molasses) and had been emptied of trapped Brumbies just a day or so earlier. Brumbies whose fate would either be to end up at a Re-homer’s premises or (more likely/often) be corralled off in trucks en route to an Abattoir or Knackery to be inhumanely slaughtered.
Browny’s fate we suspect may have come about as a result of a few possible scenarios just days earlier.
Browny was perhaps half-in & half-out of the Trap when the Trap doors snapped closed, and perhaps Browny escaped but was injured and later died not far away.
Or Browny may have been injured as part of the truck loading process, or perhaps caught in the Trap with others for some time, and in the panic that is inevitable when horses are trapped together (with the rest of the mob outside the trap wanting them out) Browny was injured and escaped or was released by Parks Staff when they eventually (over the next day or so) attended to load the trapped horses onto a truck.
So, it is entirely possible that Browny fled the Trap area and struggled some 175 metres away, before collapsing and dying.
Regardless of the circumstances that led to Browny’s death, we believe one thing was clear, and that was that Browny had been there for only a matter of 1-3 days.
What was also (sadly) apparent, was that in that short space of time, wild/carnivorous animals (likely wild dog or dingoes and or foxes or wild pigs) had fed heavily off Browny’s carcass (see pictures on the article button below).
PLEASE NOTE ALONG WITH THE FULL ARTICLE – THERE ARE 2 VERY GRAPHIC PICTURES EMBEDDED ON THE PDF ON THE ARTICLE LINK/BUTTON ABOVE.
This same day Channel 9 (NSW) News put to air a story about the 67 Brumbies (some of which were pregnant) that were cruelly shot (some terribly cruelly shot multiple times) the week prior elsewhere in the broader KNP. These 67 Brumby carcasses were left where they lay in and/or near local waterways and close to Family BBQ/Camping areas and public access paths/walkways.
THE BUTTON IMMEDIATELY ABOVE LINKS TO TEXT.
NOT DIRECTLY TO GRAPHIC PICTURES.
Some of the 67 carcasses showed clear/cruel ‘gut-shots’ as well as images of dead foals half in and half out of pregnant Mares/Mothers that had aborted their foal as part of the dying process after being cruelly and fatally shot.
As part of this aforementioned news story, the Head of Parks NSW, Mr. Atticus Fleming was interviewed about the 67 Brumby carcasses that were left to rot where they were cruelly shot in the KNP.
Mr. Fleming was seemingly asked by the Interviewer whether or not this manner of slaughtering these Brumbies ‘en-masse’, then leaving them there ‘in-situation’ would feed (and make stronger/more prevalent in the Park) a range of resident carnivorous animals – to which Mr. Fleming stated,
“The fact that there are some horse carcasses in the Park will not lead to an increase in wild pigs or dogs.”
Mr. Fleming, also said, in support of his statement above, that “…we’ve increased baiting for wild dogs by…. it’s almost six times what it has been historically.”
Well, we are not sure what ‘’…historically….” means in this context? But we assume that Mr. Fleming is talking about the use of terribly cruel 1080 Poison baits that Parks NSW use to kill wild dogs etc in the KNP.
A poison that when a dog ingests it, the Crookwell Veterinary Hospital state what follows as “initial symptoms (that) include vomiting, anxiety and shaking. These quickly develop into frenzied behaviour with running and screaming fits, uncontrolled paddling and seizures followed by total collapse and death from lack of oxygen to the brain.”
So if it’s the 1080 Baiting program Mr. Fleming is referring to that is supposedly controlling the wild dog population in the Park during this cruel Cull, then his comment above would also appear to be false and misleading given that we saw one single 1080 ‘Bait Warning’ sign in the massive area we searched across a full weekend in the KNP.
And that sign (see picture taken on 3/6/23 here – again there are some graphic photos on the attached PDF document) was referring to a laying of 1080 baits way back in 2022. Mr. Fleming then went on to say (in the only other comment he made in this News item) that “Its standard practice to allow carcasses to decompose, they are only there temporarily, and those nutrients are returned to the Park”.
Well, that ‘standard practice’ Mr. Fleming speaks of is a clear breach of the NSW Department of Primary Industries’ ‘Inappropriate Carcass Disposal’ Policy (see image on attached PDF here).
So again, the fate of Browny (the Brumby) shows this comment of Mr. Fleming’s to be misleading and untrue, because clearly in the KNP a horse carcass hardly ‘decomposes’ when so many predators feed off the flesh of the deceased horse so soon after it is left ‘in-situation’, with not much more than manure, some organs, tendon, and bone only remaining just days after death if we take into account what came of Browny’s carcass following his sad demise.
Pro-Brumby supporters have become used to the lies and misleading commentary coming from those that use totally exaggerated Brumby population numbers to justify this most unjustifiable Brumby Cull.
However, Mr Fleming’s media presentation on the Channel 9 News that night showed just how far he and Parks NSW will go to mislead the public as to the operating procedures they employ to conduct this cruel ongoing Brumby Culling Program.
Any reasonable person would know that leaving 67 fatally shot Brumbies laying on the ground within the Park for the public to see and smell, is not acceptable. And the attempt by the Parks NSW boss Mr Fleming to somehow suggest that what happened here is normal, acceptable, and ‘common practice’ belies belief.
In fact the lack of evidence and truth for this ongoing Brumby Cull remains a key issue regarding the absence of any real substantive evidence of the supposed environmental damage, as well as a total lack of truth in term of the ridiculously inflated Brumby population numbers that continued to be fed to media outlets by those that clearly are quite OK with cruelly slaughtering aninnocent, sentient, non-predatory creature of Mother Nature.
So, it is somewhat ironic that in wanting to count the remaining living Brumbies in the Park, it was this one dead Brumby (Browny) that we found that evidenced the extent to which Parks NSW will go to mislead the public so as to justify its cruel Cull conduct and operation.
An operation that is of course overseen and directed by the ALP NSW Minister, Ms. Penny Sharpe and her ALP State Leader Mr Chris Minns as part of their ongoing Brumby slaughtering agenda. R.I.P Browny, your life and then untimely death has not been in vain, as it has once again exposed the untruthful commentary, false rhetoric and disgraceful conduct measured out by those individuals named above (and connected by association to the above) as part of this cruel ongoing Cull/Slaughter of your
fellow Brumbies in the KNP.
A group of still living (at last report) Brumbies within the Park that are there in numbers that are most likely less than 25% of the completely in-error population numbers cited by those that will slaughter our Brumbies out of existence if they continue this barbaric Cull in the cruel manner in which they currently are.
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