Wild Horses sent to Slaughter while Cattle Graze?

From Animals Australia:
Thousands of wild horses in Western Australia desperately need support today.

For decades wild horses have grazed peacefully around Lake Gregory in the Kimberley. Bred from two purebred Arab stallions taken to Balgo Mission in the 1950's, these beautiful part Arab horses were considered so unique and valuable that the Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, chose 13 for his stables.

Now the 5,000 horses at Lake Gregory have been issued a death sentence by the WA Department of Regional Development and Land who say they are causing 'unacceptable environmental damage'. The lake that these horses graze around is over 100 Km in circumference, and the entire area the horses inhabit is a huge 400,000 hectares. The Department has no issue with the 5,000 cattle grazing on the same property remaining.

The indigenous groups that live around Lake Gregory have grown up with these horses and love them. Despite the Department being aware that the horses were increasing in numbers every year, they provided no assistance to indigenous groups to introduce humane population control. Now they have ordered that the horses be rounded up and transported 3000 Km to an abattoir in South Australia for slaughter; their meat to be exported for human consumption.

Local group Wild Horses Kimberley are calling on the government to allow them to geld the stallions and inject the mares with a fertility drug. Despite this, the WA government is proceeding with the plan to round up the horses for slaughter as early as next week.

Please urgently demand of Minister Brendan Grylls — the minister whose department is responsible for the proposed cull — that the horses not become the innocent victims of government mismanagement, and to instigate Wild Horses Kimberley’s humane alternative proposal.

Learn more