Post by FWS on Jun 28, 2014 16:07:05 GMT -6
How to combat feral animals: Eat ‘em
Des Houghton
The Courier-Mail
June 28, 2014
HARDLY a month goes by in Queensland without trained marksmen using high-powered weapons going on a killing spree.
From helicopters and from suitable vantage points on the ground, the shooters hunt and kill thousands of kangaroos, deer, feral horses, wild pigs, goats and camels.
The mass slaughter of environmentally destructive pest animals is undertaken by state and federal governments with the agreement of the RSPCA and sensible wildlife groups.
Biosecurity Queensland Unit Land Protection officer Shaun Seymour shooting feral pigs on Cape York Peninsula.
It’s a bloody business conducted in secret so as not to inflame loony animal rights zealots.
And the culling has to continue because of a looming ecological disaster caused mainly by introduced species.
FORUM: Do you support a meat export trade from feral animals? Tell us below
More than 30,000 pigs have been knocked over in the Gulf in the past two years. In Queensland alone, pigs cause up to $100 million in agricultural losses a year and they are driving turtles and small mammals to the brink of extinction.
Brumbies in their hundreds are culled regularly around Carnarvon in western Queensland. Like pigs, they cause serious erosion, spread weeds, destroy freshwater springs and other water courses, damage Aboriginal cultural sites and compete with native wildlife for fodder.
Roos and wild deer are regularly culled.
Feral camels roaming between Queensland and the Northern Territory graze native plants to the point of local extinction. They are being culled at the rate of 75,000 a year.
Young buck has nerves of steel
In the 1920s, there were an estimated 20,000 camels. Now there may be a million, destroying grazing land and reducing the carrying capacity of cattle.
Regrettably, most of the animals culled in Queensland are left to rot where they fall. This is a colossal waste of protein considering the large numbers of people in the world suffering malnutrition.
CHOPPER ASSAULT: Snipers zero in on Queensland’s feral pigs
More than 870 million people on the planet are suffering from chronic undernourishment, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation reports.
This means one in eight of the world’s 7.1 billion souls are undernourished.
A shooter culls kangaroos north of Broken Hill. Picture: Lindsay Moller.
These are not just people who often go hungry; these are people facing starvation.
Millions of children in Africa, India, South America and Asia go hungry every day.
Save the Children rang alarm bells recently in London by reporting that a quarter of the world’s children are at risk of underperforming at school because of chronic malnutrition.
Vegetarians might not like to hear it but missing out on a nutritious diet that includes meat can severely damage a child’s ability to read and write. It means they will not escape poverty.
Malnourished children suffer irreversible damage; they grow up smaller and weaker, and their brains might not develop fully.
Recent reports suggest half of all children in Afghanistan are malnourished.
With up to 26 million pigs in Australia – most of them at the top end – there is the potential for a massive meat export industry.
South Sudan is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster, with the UN warning conflict and famine will claim the lives of 50,000 children this year. More than 3.7 million people are already at risk of starvation there.
Queensland and other Australian states have millions of edible animals that are culled and wasted. There is a moral argument that we should offer them to a hungry world.
In the past decade, Queensland kangaroo, goat and wild boar meat has been exported to 35 countries. However, the trade in these animals is in very small quantities compared to the beef and lamb trade.
Kangaroo is Australia’s venison, and in the hands of a competent chef it is a tasty, low-fat meat fit for a banquet.
Queensland roo sausages are a budget meal in Russia. A curry made from Queensland goat meat is a meal to savour in the Middle East, and Germans swear by our wild pig snags. Meanwhile, the French rave about our kangaroo fillets with a red berry coulis.
Toad kill
A group of beef traders met in Alice Springs recently and were blown away by the flavour of the camel steaks surreptitiously served to them as beef.
The kangaroo and wallaby meat export trade was around three million to four million kilograms a year, according to Department of Trade figures tabled recently in Federal Parliament.
Much of it ends up in Germany, Russia, Papua New Guinea, Japan, France, Belgium, Canada, Hong Kong and other Asian nations.
There is also a buoyant, but small, trade in roo hides. Roo meat is exported as pet food.
Despite the best efforts of our shooters, kangaroos, camels and pigs are breeding faster than they are being culled. They remain a great source of food just waiting to be harvested.
* * *
Feral pigs grind their tusks into ferocious weapons that can kill a man.
“IF YOU CORNER THEM, THEY WILL EAT YOU”
WILL science come to the rescue in the war against feral animals?
Trappers Sam Leo and Mark Gladwin believe they can turn pigs into a valuable food source while providing business opportunities for Cape York Aboriginal communities.
Their company Reset, based at Port Douglas, uses satellite technology, hidden cameras and drones to monitor pigs travelling in family groups.
The men have manufactured large circular cages to trap up to 60 pigs at a time.
“We have developed a Wi-Fi system that allows us to monitor 20 traps at a time,’’ Gladwin, 34, said.
They can check traps on screen from their boat moored up to 25 nautical miles away.
They are in talks with the State Government.
They are also talking to traditional owners who may prepare captured pigs for human consumption in Australia and abroad.
With up to 26 million pigs in Australia – most of them at the top end – there is the potential for a massive export industry.
Leo, 37, said the state government was throwing money at culling with limited benefit.
“The trouble is they breed so quickly,’’ he said.
“Every 114 days a sow can have another litter of two to 16 piglets, depending on local conditions.
“In the course of one year, a four-year-old sow can be pumping out up to 50 piglets.’’
On the Western Cape the pigs are killing up a large percentage of turtles.
“We have seen them knocking the turtles off their nests as they are laying their eggs,’’ he said.
Gladwin says the pigs are so smart they have learned to stand still when helicopter hunting parties approach.
The helicopter flying at its slowest speed of around 100km/h will fly past.
By the time it turns around the pigs have vanished into the undergrowth.
And pigs are dangerous, Gladwin warns.
“They grind their tusks until they are a sharp as hunting knives,’’ he said.
“They can hear a pin drop at 50m. And they are so aggressive.
“If you corner them they will eat you to get away.”
Des Houghton
The Courier-Mail
June 28, 2014
HARDLY a month goes by in Queensland without trained marksmen using high-powered weapons going on a killing spree.
From helicopters and from suitable vantage points on the ground, the shooters hunt and kill thousands of kangaroos, deer, feral horses, wild pigs, goats and camels.
The mass slaughter of environmentally destructive pest animals is undertaken by state and federal governments with the agreement of the RSPCA and sensible wildlife groups.
Biosecurity Queensland Unit Land Protection officer Shaun Seymour shooting feral pigs on Cape York Peninsula.
It’s a bloody business conducted in secret so as not to inflame loony animal rights zealots.
And the culling has to continue because of a looming ecological disaster caused mainly by introduced species.
FORUM: Do you support a meat export trade from feral animals? Tell us below
More than 30,000 pigs have been knocked over in the Gulf in the past two years. In Queensland alone, pigs cause up to $100 million in agricultural losses a year and they are driving turtles and small mammals to the brink of extinction.
Brumbies in their hundreds are culled regularly around Carnarvon in western Queensland. Like pigs, they cause serious erosion, spread weeds, destroy freshwater springs and other water courses, damage Aboriginal cultural sites and compete with native wildlife for fodder.
Roos and wild deer are regularly culled.
Feral camels roaming between Queensland and the Northern Territory graze native plants to the point of local extinction. They are being culled at the rate of 75,000 a year.
Young buck has nerves of steel
In the 1920s, there were an estimated 20,000 camels. Now there may be a million, destroying grazing land and reducing the carrying capacity of cattle.
Regrettably, most of the animals culled in Queensland are left to rot where they fall. This is a colossal waste of protein considering the large numbers of people in the world suffering malnutrition.
CHOPPER ASSAULT: Snipers zero in on Queensland’s feral pigs
More than 870 million people on the planet are suffering from chronic undernourishment, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation reports.
This means one in eight of the world’s 7.1 billion souls are undernourished.
A shooter culls kangaroos north of Broken Hill. Picture: Lindsay Moller.
These are not just people who often go hungry; these are people facing starvation.
Millions of children in Africa, India, South America and Asia go hungry every day.
Save the Children rang alarm bells recently in London by reporting that a quarter of the world’s children are at risk of underperforming at school because of chronic malnutrition.
Vegetarians might not like to hear it but missing out on a nutritious diet that includes meat can severely damage a child’s ability to read and write. It means they will not escape poverty.
Malnourished children suffer irreversible damage; they grow up smaller and weaker, and their brains might not develop fully.
Recent reports suggest half of all children in Afghanistan are malnourished.
With up to 26 million pigs in Australia – most of them at the top end – there is the potential for a massive meat export industry.
South Sudan is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster, with the UN warning conflict and famine will claim the lives of 50,000 children this year. More than 3.7 million people are already at risk of starvation there.
Queensland and other Australian states have millions of edible animals that are culled and wasted. There is a moral argument that we should offer them to a hungry world.
In the past decade, Queensland kangaroo, goat and wild boar meat has been exported to 35 countries. However, the trade in these animals is in very small quantities compared to the beef and lamb trade.
Kangaroo is Australia’s venison, and in the hands of a competent chef it is a tasty, low-fat meat fit for a banquet.
Queensland roo sausages are a budget meal in Russia. A curry made from Queensland goat meat is a meal to savour in the Middle East, and Germans swear by our wild pig snags. Meanwhile, the French rave about our kangaroo fillets with a red berry coulis.
Toad kill
A group of beef traders met in Alice Springs recently and were blown away by the flavour of the camel steaks surreptitiously served to them as beef.
The kangaroo and wallaby meat export trade was around three million to four million kilograms a year, according to Department of Trade figures tabled recently in Federal Parliament.
Much of it ends up in Germany, Russia, Papua New Guinea, Japan, France, Belgium, Canada, Hong Kong and other Asian nations.
There is also a buoyant, but small, trade in roo hides. Roo meat is exported as pet food.
Despite the best efforts of our shooters, kangaroos, camels and pigs are breeding faster than they are being culled. They remain a great source of food just waiting to be harvested.
* * *
Feral pigs grind their tusks into ferocious weapons that can kill a man.
“IF YOU CORNER THEM, THEY WILL EAT YOU”
WILL science come to the rescue in the war against feral animals?
Trappers Sam Leo and Mark Gladwin believe they can turn pigs into a valuable food source while providing business opportunities for Cape York Aboriginal communities.
Their company Reset, based at Port Douglas, uses satellite technology, hidden cameras and drones to monitor pigs travelling in family groups.
The men have manufactured large circular cages to trap up to 60 pigs at a time.
“We have developed a Wi-Fi system that allows us to monitor 20 traps at a time,’’ Gladwin, 34, said.
They can check traps on screen from their boat moored up to 25 nautical miles away.
They are in talks with the State Government.
They are also talking to traditional owners who may prepare captured pigs for human consumption in Australia and abroad.
With up to 26 million pigs in Australia – most of them at the top end – there is the potential for a massive export industry.
Leo, 37, said the state government was throwing money at culling with limited benefit.
“The trouble is they breed so quickly,’’ he said.
“Every 114 days a sow can have another litter of two to 16 piglets, depending on local conditions.
“In the course of one year, a four-year-old sow can be pumping out up to 50 piglets.’’
On the Western Cape the pigs are killing up a large percentage of turtles.
“We have seen them knocking the turtles off their nests as they are laying their eggs,’’ he said.
Gladwin says the pigs are so smart they have learned to stand still when helicopter hunting parties approach.
The helicopter flying at its slowest speed of around 100km/h will fly past.
By the time it turns around the pigs have vanished into the undergrowth.
And pigs are dangerous, Gladwin warns.
“They grind their tusks until they are a sharp as hunting knives,’’ he said.
“They can hear a pin drop at 50m. And they are so aggressive.
“If you corner them they will eat you to get away.”