A PROPOSAL to use aerial shooting to cull feral horses in Victoria’s alpine parks has been abandoned by the Victorian Government.

The Government has instead drafted a strategy to trap 1200 feral horses at a cost of about $700 a head over the next three years, plus conducting some limited mustering.

The draft Protection of Alpine National Parks — Feral Horse Strategic Action Plan states once horses are trapped they “will be transported to holding locations and offered for rehoming by volunteer organisations where this can be done humanely”.

“Where remote trap locations are established and transporting horses from these areas is likely to be inhumane, or horses are not suitable for rehoming, horses will be culled humanely on-site.

“Where possible, carcasses of horses will be removed from capture sites and disposed of appropriately (possibly by burial).”

The decision to focus on trapping flies in the face of expert advice outlined in a 15-year management plan released by Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio last Dec­ember.

That plan received technical advice that aerial shooting was the most humane culling technique and that trapping was resource-intensive and risked stressing and injuring feral horses. Not only is the cost of trapping high, each trap usually only captures one to three horses.

The latest strategy, which is open for public comment on the Government’s engage.vic.gov.au website, estimates trapping 1200 horses will “mean a significant trapping increase of between 10-15 times the average over the period 2007-2017”.

Omeo Victorian Farmers Federation president Simon Turner said trapping on its own was not enough to rein in the explosion in feral horse numbers across Victoria’s Alpine National Park and state forests. He and wife Rowena said the 2003 bushfires destroyed forest canopies, opening up vast grazing areas that fed the brumby boom.

“Now the scrub has grown again and the population is being squeezed, putting pressure on smaller (pastured) areas,” Mr Turner said.

“Trapping on its own is very limited. My suggestion is you go in and do helicopter mustering first to get the numbers down and then use trapping to mop up.”

The Government’s report says aerial shooting will not be used “due to public perceptions and preference for passive techniques such as trapping”.