A member of parliament has raised allegations of cruelty in the Barmah brumbies culling program.
Parks Victoria has engaged contractors to shoot the remaining Barmah brumbies in Barmah National Park.
State Member for Northern Victoria Georgie Purcell criticised the culling during a sitting of the Victorian parliament in Echuca.
“According to Parks Victoria’s inflated and flawed counting system, there were 540 brumbies in 2020, with locals now saying only a herd of approximately 100 have survived the mass flooding and shooting in the Barmah area,” Ms Purcell told the upper house sitting.
“Yet this government has embarked upon indiscriminate slaughter of brumbies.”
Ms Purcell, a member of the Animal Justice Party, said the brumbies were being killed in a ruthless and indiscriminate way which caused pain and suffering to the animals.
“Highly inaccurate aerial and ground shooting leaves brumbies horrifically injured, with missing eyes, bleeding out to a long and painful death and left to rot in the forest.”
She said the shooting did not always result in immediate death, but the animals could die from infection or predation.
She said the party acknowledged that the horses were not natives to the bush, but they were asking for control methods which were far kinder to them.
Ms Purcell, who has horses of her own, said she had visited the park while on a school trip when she was younger.
“I saw the aftermath of a cull when I was in high school and went home completely traumatised by it. There were a number of brumbies rotting in the forest.
“It has helped me become compassionate about these issues.”
Ms Purcell said there were environmental reasons for not dumping the bodies in the bush.
“We call for increased rehoming efforts and we refute the claim that there are not enough people willing to take them.”
In parliament, Ms Purcell asked the environment minister to run an independent recount to determine the number of brumbies left in the bush.
No answer from the minister has yet been offered.