30/10/2026
With respect to the Traditional Owners of this land and their continuing connection to Country.
Last time I checked, settlers did not build this country on foot. The horses from which today’s brumbies descend carried people, supplies and heavy loads through settlement, gold rushes and wars. Now their descendants are treated as disposable—chased by helicopters, displaced, wounded, slaughtered and left to die a slow, agonising death.
While shooting is paused in Kosciuszko pending population survey results- which have ALREADY been independently verified by volunteers- many lives still hang in the balance. A pause does not mean these horses are safe. Their suffering does not become acceptable because a population estimate reaches a particular number. That their slaughter remains on the table at all, while people fight desperately to save them, is disgusting.
Reports of repeated body shots and wounded mares surviving long enough to abort their foals demand independent scrutiny and accountability. Legal authority cannot make that suffering humane.
Multiple alternatives have been offered. Sanctuaries and rehomers have put forward their own land, money and labour to take brumbies out of the parks. Environmental protection matters, but it cannot excuse cruelty or replace proper consideration of those options and the heritage protections recognised for Kosciuszko’s brumbies.
It should never have to reach a courtroom. Let alone countless protests and applications/ petitions to parliment.
Sanctuaries, volunteers and advocates should not have to fight day after day for basic animal welfare while the government defends its authority with false information and intentional ignorance to advocate slaughter of sentient beings knowing full well their 'cause' is not just- they're just TOO FAR INTO THE FIGHT TO BACK OUT.
This is brutal. It is unconscionable. It has got to stop.
