Who Protects Our Wildlife
I live surrounded by lovely trees and bush a little out from the high density areas and enjoyed watching nature and experiencing its unique beauty. But as some people moved away we seemed to get a new breed of person moving in. They would buy acreage properties, but then cut down trees, and turn what was nice into a wasteland of concrete, and little yapping dogs.
A while later I found some deceased wildlife that had vomited up substantial blood yet had no visible injuries, and started noticing odd things with some of the other bird-life. Some would be vomiting, stumbling, and have trouble supporting their wings in a normal position. At first I was under the assumption it was a virus, however a short time later another couple exhibited similar behaviour but had a weird blue/green paste on their beaks. There was also an unusual increase in a few with apparent broken or paralysed legs, so I started researching further into what was going on.
I soon noticed that whenever this occurred the same people would be hanging around. These peoples interest in our yard seemed extreme, and bordering on an obsession. I had a fairly good idea of who was a local and had noticed some people would actually drive out here, park around the corner, just to walk or cycle along our very short street. Spotting a drone with a mounted camera hovering and finding a number of strangely sliced containers nearby certainly peeked my interest and I thought someone needed to look into what was happening.
Doing Some Checking
So I began examining our CCTV footage, and when a couple of birds started appearing sick again, we made enquires to the local Council as they had been sitting outside our house quite often, yet apparently not doing anything. They replied basically stating that they do not engage in any bird culling activities, and recommended us to refer to The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection Queensland which has now been called the Department of Environment and Science (DES). While I did also notice some familiar cars sitting in the Council depot car park I doubted I’d get any further, and the advice to look at this Department certainly opened my eyes to what is happening to our animals.
Upon checking into this Department further, it appeared they were involved in the culling of our wild animals and they can permit it for up to three years! This surprised me as they often posted pictures of kangaroos and various wildlife on their Facebook page. It seemed hypocritical to me that Rangers would tell people how they protect our animals and environment, yet they also had a substantial role in culling animals. It certainly made me wonder about Rangers and the Department tasked with protecting habitats for future generations to enjoy. How many animals do they save versus how many are they actually culling? And why would a Department designed to protect the environment also issue licences and permits to allow the pollution of our environment? The DES also seemed to issue permits for others to do culling operations and if a member of the public reported finding possibly poisoned wildlife the Department of Environment and Science and the Council would be the ones to investigate it. It looked like I’d found a place that was judge, jury, and executioner, all rolled into one. I was surprised, yet could certainly understand why Australia had become known as the extinction nation.
What was considered Humane
While investigating what was considered humane culling for our wild birds in Australia I found something both shocking and disappointing in this day and age. The methods used on our birds appeared to be by: shooting, poisoning, trapping and breaking their necks, and trapping then gassing them (often apparently done in a barrel). That didn’t even include the options available to the more qualified people – Lethal injection and decapitation. It didn’t sound humane at all to me and I would have thought that with such a high rate of animal cruelty in Australia, it should be front page news in the media hopefully leading to a ban on this type of activity.
If you are thinking the RSPCA can do something about how our birds are killed and the duration of a culling, you may be surprised. In its simplest form it works like this: RSPCA enforces the Animal Care and Protection Act 2001 (ACPA). But if a cull is part of a Government or Council mandated animal management plan then there may be no breach of this Act, unless it was being cruel to them. However, killing humanely is apparently not a breach of this act, and the RSPCA has no power to oversee decisions made by the Department of Environment and Science.
As the strange behaviour continued I decided to lodge an official complaint to make sure this was legitimate. I included some footage and plate numbers to help identify if this was Ranger activity or someone they authorised, and if it was standard practice by them. I then submitted it using their online form (taking screenshots as I went luckily). Apart from their system showing ‘Your complaint was successfully sent’ and that it was ‘..referred to a departmental officer for appropriate action’ there was a complete communication blackout. So I waited, and waited….
In reviewing the CCTV footage while I waited I noticed a huge increase in traffic to our little dead-end street, often accompanied with a ‘toot’ of the horn, or rev of the engine. We had vehicles coming up to sit outside for a time, some whose registration plates returned a ‘Registration not Found’ when checked, some had the plate covered up, while others had the registration plates missing. We suddenly had people driving to our street to walk their dog alongside our boundary then drive off again, people pushing prams around which seemed empty, and strangers out the front waving up at our place when nobody else was outside. It was all getting pretty strange for a once very quiet little street.
Going nowhere
I contacted the usual places to check if there was something dodgy going on after I noticed some locals complaining about birds, were actually feeding birds, and to find out if what was happening was official. The Ombudsman was friendly enough to my questions but basically explained that the Government set the rules for animal control in this case and also the length/intensity of a culling and there wasn’t much they could do. Another place I contacted didn’t really seem to look too hard, but I’m sure they are busy and wildlife isn’t high on the list. However, after dealing with the two, one did later inform me that the Department concerned had told them that they did not receive my complaint at all. Due to the confirmation message, the waving strangers, and people calling out various things that were only mentioned in my submitted complaint I found that hard to believe. I asked an independent branch if Rangers employed a tactic loosely termed ‘lawful harassment’, however they didn’t answer this question even though they were asked about it more than once. When someone in the area also yelled out that nobody would help me – they were absolutely right. But it made me ask myself: How did they know I’d even contacted these places? Someone was remarkably well informed. It suggested to me Council, Ranger, or Animal Control may be the occupation of one of the new arrivals to the area.
I found out later on that the DES basically investigate themselves. It appeared there was no truly independent body to review their actions, or their permitted animal management teams. And permits for up to three years? That seems extreme. Interestingly, I found they liaise with the Police, Councils, RSPCA, and the Courts, so they’ve got all the bases covered fairly well in regards to who they work with and the resources available to them.
This is why you see activists
After contacting every place I could think of to check the validity of the various things occurring and find out who exactly was responsible I was at a dead-end and still had no further information. This is why you see activists trying to draw attention to our wildlife and environment using unconventional methods. Activists aren’t trying to annoy you, they aren’t crazy, it’s just the system is geared towards keeping it all as hush-hush as possible, and making it very difficult for the average person to find out what is really happening. If you’re thinking at least the Police would be interested in vehicles with no plates and registrations that went nowhere – they weren’t. Even the same vehicles outside multiple times yet never calling into any houses in a dead-end street wasn’t considered suspicious. I did get the impression that their job was to ensure these sorts of things continued.
I had asked if they could simply check out one particular vehicle I had photographed sitting out the front. It was a perfect example of the weird things that had started occurring and clearly showed a Queensland plate number, yet it didn’t return as registered, nor expired, instead it returned a ‘Registration not found’ message. I knew the plate number was accurate as I had used a DSLR to ensure it was clear and had even zoomed onto the drivers side mirror so as to photograph the drivers face. The Officer was going to definitely get back to me on it… nobody ever did. However I did notice some newly modified mirrors on another vehicle out the front afterwards, and yes, it also returned with a ‘Registration not found’ message. I was unable to bounce a photograph off of those mirrors.
Another example was while having prank call issues we had our phone line monitored by the telecommunications provider for two months to trace it and the Police simply refused to issue a reference number to have it looked into. This of course results in no action once again and no way to move forward with the complaint. I found them to be incredibly unhelpful and it seemed to me they knew exactly what was going on and weren’t about to assist someone researching what’s happening to our wildlife. At this point I was of the mindset that lawful harassment was certainly alive and well in Queensland, as was a strange fear of people concerned with our environment asking questions. Definitely something to be aware of when dealing with the various Departments. In my research I had also found that the Police actually had specially trained members tasked with shooting Magpies in some areas, so I should have expected resistance rather than assistance. I also found that the Police all across Australia have the ability to add ‘events’ to your file held in their database – and you are not even notified. Seems that would be an extremely easy way to justify a great many things, and I wondered if my squeaky clean record was now awash with ‘events’.
I was trying to be thorough, to see who exactly does help in this sort of situation. Yet it seemed to me like I’d kicked a hornets nest of dodgy. Trying to find out if what I had experienced so far was a common tactic was harder, as there appeared to be very little documentation on peoples experiences with DES and other departments. After some searching all I could find was an article about an elderly farmer who cut down trees on his property without a permit and the local environmental agency were pursuing this person. It appeared to continue over a long time period however the end result unfortunately was that a Ranger was shot by the farmer. It seemed such an extreme reaction from the farmer I was left wondering about the possibility he was being harassed in a similar way. After all, who could he report harassment to that would actually take action? In my own experiences I had tried the various departments available to the public, yet was pretty much sent in an endless circle. I doubted his generation would be of the mindset to simply document his experiences on what was happening.
“I was surprised at how many people were more than keen to help destroy our wildlife.”
The destruction of our wild birds doesn’t happen without a great deal of help from people of all ages and backgrounds, many of which seemed to get a thrill from assisting. I found the whole thing extremely distasteful but it certainly appeared a common theme amongst the ‘true-blue Aussie’ type.
I had also noted the locals seemed very focused on our property. Even going so far as to mount CCTV cameras directed towards much of our private property. People standing at our gate and staring into our backyard was fairly common as well. I had even overheard a person instructing another on what words to use in a complaint for maximum effect. Of course, once you have a group of people apparently able to do whatever they want, it only ever gets worse.
The appearance of dead animals at the fence-line didn’t stop either of course. The wildlife once again had no animal attack injuries, nor were their feathers spread around as you would expect from a predator animal being responsible. I wondered who to report this to, and if any department would actually care.
It appeared Government departments looked after their own first and foremost, we are just there to fund them. The whole situation made me question their integrity on many levels. Why did the ones dedicated to protecting our animals have such a huge role in killing them? How far do they go to keep quiet on what is actually happening to our wild animals? And when developers clear land for our constant expansion, who is ensuring our animals aren’t just killed off?
The video below shows the surrounding area birds are seemingly not allowed. It appeared to me the type of place where you could expect to enjoy seeing birds and wildlife, yet it seemed as people moved into the area, they could simply have things in nature they didn’t like destroyed very easily. There are considerably more dogs in the neighbourhood than parrots, but people appear very tolerant of animals that are theirs, because that’s different. As more and more people spread into the hinterland areas with their big 4×4 used simply to take their kids to school, what happens to the people that moved there to enjoy nature and the wildlife? From my experience they simply get harassed until they are driven out to somewhere else where they wait for the expansion to reach them once again.
If you ever wondered what predator kept bird numbers in check before people got involved, the Wedge-Tailed Eagle was one such natural predator. Have a guess what happened to them. They were shot and poisoned by the thousands, for years. In fact I believe around 30,000 were killed in a single year, and the total ended up into the hundreds of thousands. They are now classified as protected. UPDATE 1 (2018) – Unfortunately that hasn’t stopped some farmers killing them, as approximately 400 have been killed in Victoria. UPDATE 2 (2019) – Approximately 200 wild birds have been killed by poisoning once again in Victoria. I found a brief article written about the personality type of people who harm animals which you can read about here if you are interested.
Of course these things still continue to this day with many people living disconnected from nature and our environment. It seems even the massive fires that raged across Australia killing approximately three billion animals wasn’t enough of a wake-up call for our various officials. If you have read this story and wondered “who is actually looking after our environment and animals?” you are not alone. I can see exactly why people become protesters, environmental activists, or feel the need to form their own organisation to help wildlife.
