What part of hunting a horse by helicopter is humane?

A resident of New Lambton in New South Wales, Australia, wrote a letter to the editor of the “Newcastle Herald” on June 9, 2013, decrying a planned horse cull by park officials in Kosciuszko National Park, southwest of Sydney. The National Parks Association of NSW (NPA) is calling for professional hunters to kill feral horses, or brumbies, in the park by helicopter.

The letter writer said, “Remember the last time they tried to cull brumbies?”

She goes on to describe the previous cull’s carnage, and I should note here that graphic material follows.

She said: “Footage was shown on television, days after the bloodbath, of horses limping around with their legs blown apart by stray bullets. One had been shot in the back and was dragging his paralyzed body around. A foal was standing beside its mother’s lifeless, bloodied body. Then the same foal was shown days later starved to death. Other horses took days to die from their gaping wounds. This was one of the worst pieces of animal cruelty footage I have ever witnessed, and it is appalling that this is allowed to continue.”

The “Canberra Times” did a piece May 30, 2013, on the planned cull. It quoted NPA chief Kevin Evans saying in a statement that a professional cull is necessary to protect unique sub-alpine ecosystems and native species.

“(We need) a professional aerial culling program that follows stringent animal welfare protocols approved by the RSPCA,” Evans said. “Current horse removal methods are completely failing to keep up with the breeding rate.”

The article said that this population of feral horses has almost doubled in three years, from about 7,700 in 2010 to 14,000 in 2013.

The helicopter strategy is not far removed from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s helicopter roundups of wild horses on public lands that also have resulted in many gruesome injuries and deaths for horses.

Perhaps the Australian park officials should read the latest scientific review of the BLM’s horse removal policy that was released in June 2013 before continuing with this plan.

The review said removal of the horses doesn’t achieve herd reductions. Quite the opposite, the herds will just instinctively work harder to replace the horses that have been removed.

And, oh, by the way, shooting horses from the air doesn’t meet my standard for humane euthanasia. My definition of humane euthanasia requires that the person doing the euthanasia would gladly submit to being put down by the same method.