Horse culling protest ahead of national park closure

The closure of Kosciuszko National Park (KNP) comes into effect two months ahead of the regular closure on June 10 and is part of a state management plan aimed at reducing brumby numbers below 3,000 by 2027.

More than 400 protesters met on Sunday March 30, both on foot and on horseback, to oppose the NSW park's closure and aerial shooting of brumbies, which will continue until October 4.

Veterinarian Lynne Bodell from Wagga attended the rally at KNP and believes aerial shooting of wild horses is an inhumane practice.

"It's inhumane because you can not get an accurate shot of a galloping horse from a moving helicopter," she said.

"Some of these horses are going to escape into the rugged terrain and have a horrible death."

Wild horses are a threat to native plants and animals as they cause degradation to the environment.

Ms Bodell said that "everyone agrees brumby numbers must be managed", but suggested rehoming more brumbies was as an alternative to shooting.

"They need to be controlled ... that's not contested," Ms Bodell said.

"Even if they [the NSW government] put a fraction [of funds] into rehoming, it would be a much nicer alternative, there wouldn't be all this outcry."

In response to the rally at KNP, Invasive Species Council advocacy director Jack Gough said if protesters got what they wanted, environmental damage would increase.

"We have a choice to make, and that choice is between urgently reducing the numbers of horses trashing and trampling the high country of Australia, or we start to see those numbers remain out of control and the headwaters of the Murrumbidgee being polluted and the high country of Australia be damaged beyond repair," he said.

Mr Gough said that the aerial shooters were operating according to standards set out in the KNP Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan (WHHMP) that was implemented in November 2021.

"It's not a nice task, it's not an easy task, they're making sure it's done to the highest standards, humanely and safely," Mr Gough said.

The WHHMP requires feral horse numbers to be reduced to 3,000 by June 2027, retaining horses in 32 per cent of the park on the basis of their historical and heritage value.

The NSW Government estimates there are between 12,797 - 21,790 wild horses in the Snowy Mountains, according to a study peer-reviewed by CSIRO and the Queensland Department of Agriculture.

Brumby activists have challenged this number suggesting it could be as low as 10 per cent of government estimates.

The activists are calling for a pause in the shooting operations and park closures in order to reassess the numbers.

Biostatistician Claire Galea and Rocky Harvey created a crowd-funded project for an independent count of wild horses in the KNP.

"We are confident that the density will be significantly lower than what NPWS states, which will demonstrate the need for the government to cease relying on the current inaccurate counting methods," the GoFundMe page said.

The count uses AirborneLogic aerial images and shows a count of 403 horses at April 2.

However, the project "fails to detect a proportion of the horses, particularly those obscured by vegetation", according to spokesperson from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

"Aerial photos are useful tools, but they can only show a small proportion of the horses in the given area at a point in time," the spokesperson said.

"When viewing the images, lines are seen across the landscape. These are not natural lines - they are horse tracks. Such tracks would not naturally exist and should not exist."

A NSW legislative council inquiry into proposed aerial shooting of brumbies in KNP was created in August 2023 and remains ongoing.

The inquiry committee received 538 submissions.

Popular tourist spots including Yarrangobilly and the ski fields are unaffected by the northern zone closure from April 4 until October 4.