New estimates have indicated that well over a billion animals have now lost their lives in the unprecedented wildfires that are still tearing across Australia.
Chris Dickman, an ecologist at the University of Sydney, told HuffPost this week that “over a billion would be a very conservative figure.”
Sadly, the animals may have a lot more to worry about than just the bushfires, as not all of the small creatures have been deemed worthy of rescue, while others are even being considered pests and are marked for extermination.
Aboriginal leaders in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands, have reportedly ordered over 10,000 camels to be shot for drinking too much water in the drought-stricken region of Southern Australia. The order comes after complaints from local residents that camels were wandering into neighborhoods in search of water.
“We have been stuck in stinking hot and uncomfortable conditions, feeling unwell, because the camels are coming in and knocking down fences, getting in around the houses and trying to get to water through air-conditioners,’’ Marita Baker, a board member of the APY executive, told the Australian.
A spokesperson for the South Australia Department of Environment and Water confirmed the complaints from community members in an interview with news.com.au.
“This has resulted in significant damage to infrastructure, danger to families and communities, increased grazing pressure across the APY lands and critical animal welfare issues as some camels die of thirst or trample each other to access water. In some cases, dead animals have contaminated important water sources and cultural sites,” the spokesperson said.
The current camel population in Australia is roughly 1.2 million and officials are saying that this measure is necessary to control it. Technically, camels are an invasive species and were only recently brought to the country from India and Afghanistan during colonization in the 19th century.
However, it isn’t only camels who are it risk though. First responders have been ordered to kill baby kangaroos and koalas instead of rescuing them in some cases. According to a government-issued document The Victorian Response Plan for Wildlife Impacted by Fire, not all creatures are worthy of rescue and rehabilitation in an unprecedented situation like this.
The document states that any orphaned “milk dependent joeys” found in a wildfire should be killed.
The Australian government has defended this policy by suggesting that animals who fit this description “require significant long term care and cannot be successfully returned to the wild.”
The document describes the policy as “euthanasia,” and approves various methods for accomplishing the job, including lethal injection, shooting, and even blunt force trauma.
However, wildlife experts and local animal hospitals are up to the challenge, and are willing to take in any animal brought to them.
Nikki Medwell of the Rex Box Wildlife Shelter in Victoria, told Yahoo! News that the government doesn’t care very much about the animals.
“Overabundant animals like macropods or koalas they don’t deem necessary to rescue. It doesn’t matter whether they’ve been burnt, if they’re found on the fire ground they’re shot. So that’s totally healthy, viable wildlife, including koalas which some are saying are on the brink of extinction,” she said.
A Victorian Department of Environment (DELWP) spokesperson said that the decision about whether or not to euthanize an injured animal is made on a case by case basis.
Humans can be really disgusting creatures. It's not enough to mass murder each other? Now humans are going after baby kangaroos and koalas too?
So sad and all because of a bunch of people (around 200) lit the blaze that lead to the current situation. The government certainly hasn’t helped and they are not in the business of helping anyway. Also, green movement influence has lead to policies that make the situation worse. Outlawing property owners from taking preventative measures to stop the fires around their own homes has lead to the destruction of many homes. The wild life in Australia are so precious and iconic. It’s a tragedy that so many have been lost. On the positive side I hear there have been donations made to help fund response efforts and facilities have been set up to rescue wild life and nurse them back to a healthy state.
Congratulations @johnvibes! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
Plus the water crisis/privatization of water in Australia
would be worth to mention!
1 Billion animals!!! :(