ABA Media Release 21 Nov 2022
This weekend, the Victorian Brumby Associations is holding its Australian Brumby Challenge
(ABC) https://victorianbrumbyassociation.org/aus-brumby-challenge at Yarra Junction, VIC
to showcase how wild Brumbies are transformed over 150 days from “Wild to Wonderful”.
Wild horses live in sentient, family orientated groups learning skills that will enable them to
survive. BUT the Andrews Government stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the values that
wild Brumbies offer; instead Labor insists that ALL must be cruelly shot. No animal deserves
to suffer the raw, brutal slaughter that this current Government is conducting.
Viable alternatives exist to gentle and rehome these intelligent Brumbies, for example, the
Australian Brumby Challenge where once wild horses demonstrate how well they have been
able to adjust to a wide range of domestic areas.
The Australian Brumby Alliance (ABA) is taking Parks Victoria (PV) to Court on December 1st
and 2nd 2022 to stop PV’s inhumane Brumby shooting. The ABA urges PV to return to
trapping for skilled volunteer Rehomers to collect, gentle and prepare for domestic life.
The ABA believes PV’s contractors have shot 100s of Brumbies since 1-Aug-22, thus denying
many Brumbies a chance of being rehomed. But in 5 days Victorians can choose to vote for
candidates in any party or Independents that have a No-Shoot Brumby policy.
The Labor Government and Parks Victoria continue to claim that their shooting complies to
the welfare standards, but we have not yet found any Brumbies with a clean headshot. We
do find Brumbies with bullet holes in their back, neck, legs and chest areas, evidencing PV’s
failure to meet relevant standards that PV have listed in their current wild horse action plan.
Brumbies deserve rehoming, not being surrounded by Parks Victoria’s contractors cruelly
spraying bullets from silenced guns, then leaving helpless Brumbies to die slowly in agony.
Jill Pickering of the Australian Brumby Alliance says “it should not be up to our charity to
take PV to court to ensure welfare needs are met”, adding “Labor has lost control – a new
government is required to ensure its departments meet all relevant legislation and ensure
PV returns to honouring their Prioritise Rehoming policy for Rehomers to collect, gentle and
prepare wild Brumbies for new life as a valued, versatile and sentient domestic Brumby.
For comment: Jill Pickering 0400 558 772 or pi******@ho*****.com
For legal background: Vanessa Bleyer 0412 586 848
