LOCAL wildlife carers have been told to keep members of the public in the dark about the euthanasia of eastern grey kangaroos.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The treatment of eastern greys has been a major point of contention fuelling a damaging rift in the Central West branch of the Wildlife Rescue and Information (WIRES) group.
The issue dominated a long crisis meeting called by the state board of WIRES on Saturday to thrash out issues in the local branch.
Several disgruntled WIRES members have contacted the Western Advocate over the past week claiming that all eastern grey kangaroos handed in to local wildlife carers were euthanased because the branch had failed to identify suitable release sites for the animals.
WIRES Central West chairman Jim Watt last week flatly rejected that claim, but the Western Advocate has now received a copy of the minutes of a 2010 meeting that urges members to not even discuss the issue with the public.
“Members are not to tell MOPs [members of the public] that the joey may be euthanased,” the minutes state during a broader discussion about the treatment of eastern grey kangaroos.
And an email to members from the local branch’s macropod co-ordinator last August said they were “desperately short of release sites” across the Central West, and particularly around Bathurst, Orange and Blayney.
“We have a number of EGKs in care at present with no release sites allocated for them,” the email says.
“We cannot continue to take joeys into care if we can’t release them into suitable habitat.”
State board chairman Bill Thompson, who was in Bathurst on Saturday for a crisis meeting of the local branch, said “members’ expectations that all eastern grey joeys will always be able to be cared for and successfully released need to be matched with the reality that currently there are not enough release sites”.
“To overpopulate current release sites would be a mistake,” Mr Thompson said.
“WIRES will be working with the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water for better outcomes for these animals.
“If local landholders would like to offer their properties for the release of native animals, WIRES would gratefully consider these as long as they meet the conditions of our licence.”
Mr Thompson said the WIRES Central West branch currently had 28 eastern grey joeys in care, “with the expectation that they will all be able to be released locally”.
“There is no truth to the claim that all eastern grey joeys that come into the care of WIRES members are euthanased,” he said.
