Protect our Wombats - Online Petition
 RSPCA Inspector stands on top of a collapsed burrow system with a slain wombat at her feet. This was legal!
Wombats are wonderful animals living only in some areas of Australia. Sadly, in these areas they often come into conflict with farmers who complain about their burrows and their delight in digging under fences.
Some people just don't like sharing their properties with native animals and even when they cause no harm, these people want to kill them as if they don't feel pain or have a will to live. Lots of problems can be resolved but government regulators still issue licenses to kill without insisting property owners try alternative ways of solving problems first and no regulating of culling is undertaken.
What really upsets us and many people is that these same government bodies that undertake no research, misinterpret what little there is, have no monitoring or welfare programs to assist wombats with mange, make unsubstantiated claims about population numbers, mange and behavioural issues like relocatability to justify culling.This, to most normal people, is outrageous science; to justify cruelty is certainly not "Protection."
Most of the world and certainly most Australians think wombats are "protected", but this isn't true.
(Pictured right:)WAO volunteers re-open wombat burrows after they were filled in at a council run rubbish dump. 
We tell the Government that most people's idea of "Protection" doesn't match how laws pertaining to Australia's Native animals are applied. This is your chance to tell them too.
Most normal humane people believe if a native animal is "protected" is should be afforded some rights. Were anyone in Australia to walk out and shoot all the neighbourhood dogs they would be charged. Not so when the same is done to all the wombats in an area. If the dog shooter was a lousy shot or didn't know what they were doing (as many people who shoot wombats don't), and one of the dogs crawled into a kennel and died slowly over days, they'd be pilloried even by the hard hearted. Not so when it happens to a wombat. If the dog was a bitch and her pup died slowly over days from starvation, the shooter would end up in jail. Not so when same happens to a wombat's joey.
Protecting animals is more than the simple minded conservation paradigm that says if there's quite a few of them, don't bother about them. Only the ones that we are on the very edge of losing are worth our time. Most people think protecting animals means not letting them get to the brink of extinction. Most people believe protection affords some degree of quality of life, habitat protection and protection from pain and disease. Most people think protection means caring for and supporting those we have and treating them kindly and humanely. You can help! Please sign our petition or contact us to help. |
