Landing image - yes they are even going after Purple Swamphens! And Cormorant species, not to mention the Lorikeets. Why?

‍

‍

The data describes an alarming increase in the number of native Australian animals being killed in Victoria in 2023 using Authority to control wildlife permits (ATCWs). The ATCW statistics for Victoria in 2023 (all Australian species) are as follows:

• For lethal control, 2,482 permits were issued to kill 119,367 native animals covering 57 native species. The number of native animals targeted for lethal control is significantly higher than in 2021 and 2022; and
• For non-lethal control, 81 permits were issued to ‘move on’ 15,847 native animals covering 39 native species.

The actual number of Australian native animals killed or ‘moved on’ is unknown as records are not kept. It appears that the number of native animals killed on public lands, National and State parks etc, is monitored and the data is held by the Victorian Government.

‍

‍

Given the secretive Koala killing spree in 2022, it seems odd that the 2023 ATCW list includes Koalas, with just one non-lethal permit for just twenty Koalas issued in 2023. The lethal column has a zero. The questions to ask are do the Victorian Government's Koala killing efforts remain off the books or is the current resistance to issuing permits for their relocation doing just that job of lethal control?

‍

‍

Overkill

Just to ensure this slaughter is as unsustainable as possible the quota for Grey Kangaroos (non-commercial ATCWs) in 2023 was supposed to be 69,600, instead the Victorian Government issued permits to kill 74,450 of these wonderful animals.

For those animals subject to lethal control 83,056 were Kangaroos or Wallabies. That is 69.5 per cent of all Australian native animals targeted in Victoria. Given the shockingly inaccurate population estimates for Kangaroos in Victoria (hyper-inflated), it is most unlikely that this number of animals was actually killed in 2023.

‍

‍

The Victorian Government and its recent string of Environment Ministers continue to ignore advice that the combination of the recent commercial exploitation of Kangaroos in Victoria (trial from 2014, full exploitation from late 2019) will inevitably destroy populations of these engaging animals across the state. Worse again, the commercial exploitation of Kangaroos extends into public lands, including State and National Parks, at the beginning of 2025.

‍

‍

This compares with 2022:

2,428 permits were issued for the lethal 'control' of 90,301 Australian mammals and birds covering 52 native species.

In total 59 native species appeared on the ATCW list in 2022, of which 7 species were listed as 'controlled' by non-lethal methods only, of which three were reptile species.

Permits issued for non-lethal 'control' totalled 115, covering 36 species and 29,261 animals, the majority of which were for scaring off birds. There were 4,665 Grey-headed Flying-foxes on the non-lethal list, harassing these animals does have fatal results.

‍

‍

This compares to 2021:

For the first time in 2021 the Victorian Government provided a split between lethal and non-lethal permits. Just 2.6 per cent of the permits issued were for non-lethal control.

The total numbers of animals reported killed through the ATCW system was lower because of exclusions which include permits not being required, the commercial trade in wildlife is also excluded from the ATCW data, including no published account of the young animals killed (there are very many), killing of Koalas and so on. The split is as follows:

• In 2021 a total of 2,573 lethal permits were issued to kill 89,364 native Australian animals – this number is a long way from telling the complete story of how many native animals were killed in the year); and
• Non-lethal permits – 69 (that was a total of 2,082 native animals from the general control list plus the scaring of 5,470, Corellas and Cockatoos).

‍