MAY 2, 2016
by John Hopton
The lives of thousands of wild horses are to be ended within the next ten years by government in Australia, the Daily Mail reports.
Horses in Kosciuszko National Park, New South Wales (NSW), have been involved in 26 car crashes since 2003. However, more major concerns regarding the feral horses, known as brumbies, relate to their impact on habitat.
The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) detailed how the horses are a threat to other wildlife and even to humans as they damage riverbeds, streams, natural bogs, wetlands and soil structure when trampling the ground as they feed or look for water.
Species threatened include the broad-toothed rat, the alpine water skink and the alpine tree frog, while the fouling of waterways by brumbies poses a risk to domestic and industrial water supplies.
In addition, the horses can spread cryptosporidium - an infection of the bowel carried by a parasite - and diseases such as equine influenza, African horse sickness and tick fever, which can have a severe impact on farmers in the area.
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