'Who does this?' Orphaned foal found after mum shot in 'inhumane' act
Residents in a small Queensland town have reacted angrily to the treatment of a baby wild horse who was left for dead after his mother was fatally shot.
Wild horses in Bluewater, outside of Townsville, have been declared a pest by the local government which has sanctioned a cull of the animals over concerns about them causing traffic accidents.
But many locals say the docile animals don’t pose a danger and should not be killed.
Local Budd Young, who has worked with horses for decades, spent his weekend rescuing a young foal after a couple came across a grisly scene in the aftermath of the brazen killing of his parents.
Sharing photos online, he lamented the amateurish and heartless nature of the kill.
“I hope this pulls on every heart string there is. But my day was spent saving a brumbie foal. His [sic] was found trying to suckle off his dead mum, shot dead with the rest of them, and he was left to perish,” he wrote on Facebook.
“Who the f*** does this.”
A husband and wife had been out walking when their dog took off into nearby bushland. The couple followed their dog when they came across the newly orphaned foal.
Looking for someone to help, the woman search local Facebook groups where she found Mr Young.
“I went straight down there, myself and a couple other people,” he told Yahoo News Australia.
“There was nothing we could do so I just carried the foal out of there.”
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He believes the young horse would only be about a week old. “He wouldn’t have weighed 25 kilos, I know that as I carried him a long way,” he said.
“I cried for hours when I got home.”
The animal has since been taken to the vet and is on a drip while he gets treated for a bug. He will be re-homed as Mr Young works to find him a foster mare.
“He needs his mother, or another horse as a companion so he knows it’s not all lost. When you look in that little fellas’ eyes he’s not a spritely little foal like foals are supposed to be.
“Its inhumane to leave that baby foal the way they did.”
Highway accidents behind brumbies cull
Two people died in 2015 in separate accidents on the highway north of Townsville after collisions with horses, thought to be coming from the neighbouring state forest areas.
Responding to increased sightings of horses on or near the Bruce Highway both north and south of Townsville, the local council in September 2017 renewed an emergency declaration of feral horses as local pests.
A coronial inquest following one of the highway deaths initially prompted the move.
“Feral horses are also closely monitored and controlled as a result of coronial inquest findings to reduce the risk of collisions with vehicles,” a Townsville City Council spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia.
“Townsville City Council undertakes feral animal control programs for several pest species tat pose a risk in the local government area and the issue is very complex in rural-urban environments.”
According to the council, there are an estimated 150 to 200 feral horses in the area.
“Council does not have a quota for removing feral horses from Bluewater and the surrounding Clemant State Forest. In the last five years Council has humanely euthanised 19 feral horses,” the spokesperson said.
The council confirmed the latest killing was not part of the authorised cull, saying: “No feral horses have been euthanised since the start of November.”
However hundreds of locals, who have banded together online, including Mr Young, don’t think the killings are necessary.
“The reason the council gave is these animals are supposed to be dangerous ... these horses sleep on my back lawn,” Mr Young said.
“These horses aren’t wild at all, this is why they got shot near the creek, because they’ve lost fear of humans.”
The area where the young foal was located was more than 10 kilometres away from the highway, he said.
While environmentalists have welcomed new federal funding announced this month for the culling of brumbies in NSW national parks affected by the bushfires, Mr Young said there is no environmental argument being pushed for the local Queensland killings.
A Change.org petition against the cull of brumbies, launched after the shooting of the foal’s mother, has attracted more than 156,000 signatures in just over 24 hours.
“Reports have been made to RSPCA and the local police. It is believed this shooting was not part of any authorised cull,” the petition says.
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