The Cost

Even in economic terms, the wholesale slaughter of feral animals must be questioned. In 1990 a full scale eradication program run by US Department of Agriculture was criticised as a waste of public money. The Department utilised helicopters and planes to shoot the animals, as well as trapping and poisoning them. The average cost of destroying each animal is was $100.00, or a total expenditure of $4.2 million for the whole operation. The damage claimed to be CAUSED by the animals was $1.4 million. Therefore over and above the savagery of the slaughter, nearly $3 million dollars of public money was thrown away. Killing programs, without fertility control, don't work. And with fertility control, they are pointless.

Whose Interests Are Served??

When considering a reduction in numbers of feral animals it is important to remember whose interests are served. Most often it is HUMAN interests which demand the removal of feral animals. As we saw earlier, they are often seen as 'pests' because they occupy an area desired by farmers to graze their non-indigenous sheep and cattle - there is no argument about the extraordinary amount of damage sheep and cattle cause to the land. Removal of feral animals, by any means, in order to accommodate increasing numbers of sheep and cattle, for human gain, cannot be defended morally, ecologically, or even economically in the long term.