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Fire Ants Down Under – our national emergency tour is on

We’ve just received confirmation that US fire ant expert Dr Robert Puckett will join our Fire Ants Down Under tour next month, visiting five capital Australian cities in just one week.
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Fire Ants Down Under - our national emergency tour is on

Dr Robert Puckett
Dr Robert Puckett

We’ve just received confirmation that US fire ant expert Dr Robert Puckett will join our Fire Ants Down Under tour next month, visiting five capital Australian cities in just one week.

The key task of our whirlwind tour is to warn as many Australians as possible of the dangers to our nation if we fail to eradicate Queensland’s current fire ant infestations – they need to know we can’t afford to let this genie out of the bottle.

Now we need your help. Can you come to one of our national fire ant forums, and bring your friends and family? We’re holding forums in Brisbane on March 20, Canberra on March 21, Sydney on March 22, Melbourne on March 23 and finishing in Perth on March 24.

Book your tickets online >>

We also need help advertising the tour, can you share our post on Facebook and put up our poster in your workplace or anywhere else you think it might get attention?

You can also support the campaign to eradicate fire ants by signing our petition and donating to support the national emergency tour.

Why is this tour so important?

In less than four months Australia’s agriculture ministers will decide what to do about fire ants. To eradicate fire ants, they must commit to a 10 year, $380 million program this year.

Failure to eradicate fire ants means Australians will be forced to confront a terrifying future, one where no capital or regional city will be free from the threat of fire ant invasion. A future where a family picnic can turn into a life-or-death situation if someone stumbles into a hidden fire ant nest.

Fire ants are a super pest – if we fail to eradicate them now in the future they will exact a devastating toll on our environment, farming communities, lifestyle, health system and infrastructure. They will cause human deaths, hospitalisations and animal extinctions.

The projections sound extreme, but more than 85 deaths have been recorded in the US alone from fire ant attacks.

Home truths

If anyone can bring home the dangers of living in a country where fire ants are out of control it’s Dr Robert Puckett.

Robert lives in Texas, a fire ant hotspot, and has been part of the United States’ decades long fight against fire ants.

As well as speaking at our national forums Robert will meet key state and federal government politicians.

We look forward to seeing you at one of our forums and remember, you can also support the campaign to eradicate fire ants by signing the petition and donating to support the national emergency tour.

 

More info

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    [YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

    The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

    This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

    Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
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    Dear Project Team,

    [YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

    The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

    This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

    Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]