Media+Statement.jpg

Brumbies Saved - For Now

Today in the Supreme Court of Victoria, the State of Victoria did not oppose an application for an injunction which was lodged by Phil Maguire, a mountain cattle farmer from Omeo, to stop the state government agency, Parks Victoria, from executing a cull of the alpine region’s wild brumbies.

Locals reported sightings of shooters being placed in position over the weekend, ready to commence the slaughter today.

Leading the fight to save the brumbies, champion of the brumbies, Phil Maguire told Neil Mitchell on 3AW this morning that he would continue to shelter them “until Daniel Andrews is no longer Premier.”

Bev McArthur said “While today is a small victory, it demonstrates that with enough rural resistance, the bureaucrats from Bourke Street and their masters in Spring Street who have proven themselves too incompetent to manage our parks and forests, will not succeed in their mission to destroy an irreplaceable part of Victoria’s history and heritage.”

“The efforts by so many living near the Bogong High Plains to save these iconic horses, particularly Phil and Louise Maguire, is a victory for real people who love these remarkable horses and this rugged alpine area. It’s a victory of considerable proportion and a welcome stay of execution for these majestic animals.”

“Daniel Andrews, Lily D’Ambrosio and Parks Victoria, should hang their heads in shame for allowing this sinister plan to be hatched under their watch and worse, being directly complicit in what would have amounted to a massacre of the descendants of Victoria’s great equine soldiers.”

“This plan is emblematic of this government’s preoccupation with matters inside the tram tracks of Melbourne, their disdain for country life outside the tram tracks, as well as their complete inability to properly manage our parks and forests. This particular failure resulted in great tracks of land, forest, wildlife, homes and livelihoods and lives being devastated by bushfires, exacerbated by government failure to manage forest and roadside fuel loads.”

"The fight to save these wild horses is not over and the battle must continue but this ‘stay of execution’ is a welcome development." 

18 May 2020