Ban the Inhumane Slaughter of Flying Foxes Facing Extinction

UPDATE: 48 various wildlife, conservation groups and scientist have published a 28 page report as a call to the NSW government to cease to issue licenses for the shooting of flying-foxes.  Contained within this report is strong conservation, welfare, human health and legal reasons to do so yet the ruling on this is still yet to be changed.  

It is time to get the government to cease this cruelty against these very important animals.  The flying fox is listed as a vunerable species yet the NSW government continues to allow permits for farmers to shoot these animals as a means of damage mitigation.  This results in horrific injuries to the bat as they are very often shot in the tree and left there to die a slow and painful death.   Most shooting occurs within the breeding season and a high proportion of females are shot.  Lactating females can spend days dying and then the young baby being carried on the mother also starves to death as a result or is left orphaned in the colony where it again starves to death.  The baby flying-fox is reliant on its mothers milk for the first few months of its life.  The shooting of flying foxes is no longer allowed in QLD and NSW MUST address this issue and follow suit in protecting this enviromentally vital animal.    

Australian Flying foxes are ecologically vital in maintaining the genetic diversity of our remnant forest areas through long range seed dispersal and pollenation.  To effectively perform this role these animals MUST be preserved in adequate numbers within a colony that will continue to migrate along the full extent of their range.  With climate change, flying-foxes will become increasingly important in maintaining gene adaptation in plant species to ensure survival in changing climate patterns.  Current mortality rates will see flying foxes become functionally extinct within a few decades and no longer able to peform this vital role in ensuring the biodiversity of the forest risking the conservation of native plants and the other wildlife that relies on them.  Australia has ashamedly, the worst extinction rate of mammals on record worldwide. 

Farmers are not required to be trained in marksmanship and this results in horrific and messy injuries to these animals with many of these animals being shot outside permit guidelines illegally each year.  The slow death of the flying fox once shot is agonising they feel pain similar to humans and it can take days for the flying fox to die either due to exposure, predator attack or starvation

There is no valid reason for this inhumane type of crop protection when there are other viable non-lethal long term alternatives like netting, yet the use of non-destructive deterrents, such as netting  to limit flying-fox damage to fruit crops is not universal in the orchadist industry. While licences continue to be issued to cull limited numbers of Grey-headed Flying-foxes, uncontrolled and illegal culling using inhumane methods such as shooting will continue to threaten the survival of this species.  

The volume of land clearing in rural areas is escalating resulting in a reduction of food availability and colony sites forcing these animals to source food elsewhere which is why the government must ensure  alternative non lethal long term methods for protection of crops.

So please join the fight to save these vital animals by signing this petition and help protect the flying fox against inhumane culling and eventual extinction and assist in ensuring their survival and the continuation of remnant forests and the many other species of wildlife that rely on this  for future generations.