Page 3506 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 23 November 2021
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We Greens and the ACT government understand that animals are sentient beings. They deserve to be free from direct and indirect harm caused by people, and we have made a lot of progress in the ACT on this front. We have ended battery caged hens and sow-stall farming, we have regulated puppy and kitten farms, we have banned greyhound racing, we have given people the right to have pets in their rental properties and we have legislated to have written definitions of cage, barn-laid and free-range eggs displayed in retail outlets. It is time now to help our wildlife.
ACT Wildlife has told me about the injuries and often fatalities that our fruit tree netting can cause. They have shown me some truly heart-wrenching photographs. Our wildlife carers do wonderful work removing injured wildlife from household netting and then nursing the animals back to a full recovery when they can.
I was out visiting a little baby flying fox called Roper today. But the problem is that our wildlife does not always survive entanglement and our wildlife carers are really, really tired. They have been caring for injured wildlife from the Black Summer fires and from climate change migrations and from the gradual loss of habitat that is bringing the wildlife into our city. And it is our responsibility to do everything we can to protect the animals and avoid further injury.
I will explain the problem to you with that particular victim in mind, Roper, whom I visited today. He is a grey-headed flying fox. I showed his picture to my daughter and she had one response: “Adorable.” These flying foxes are recognised as a vulnerable species in the ACT, New South Wales and Australia wide. Grey-headed flying foxes are threatened because their numbers are declining due to the loss of roosting habitat by development and other pressures. Conflict with people, electrocution on powerlines and entanglement in netting and barbed-wire fences are causing their numbers to decline, along with climate change.
Like most things, flying foxes are also impacted by changes in our weather. Heat exhaustion, hailstorms and fires have all decimated their numbers. As a recent example, our February 2020 hailstorms resulted in the death of over 600 flying foxes in Commonwealth Park alone.
Grey-headed flying foxes play a really important role in our environment. They feed on flowering trees and fleshy fruit trees. Traditionally this has been rainforest fruits and the flowers of eucalyptus, banksia and melaleucas. They scatter the seed and they pollinate our bush. But, over time, with the destruction of their habitat, they have moved on to feed on whatever is available.
Feeding on fleshy fruit trees means that sometimes the flying foxes like to munch on the fruit trees in our backyards, particularly as they are searching for food in these hard times. Flying foxes and other wildlife do this too; so people are using netting draped over their trees and their crops to stop the animals taking their food.
Protecting your crop is perfectly understandable. We all do it. But what I have learnt is there is a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it. The wrong way kills animals like little Roper, the flying fox. The right way to use netting stops animals from taking
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