14th -20th April

 · Letter to BATLINE, Gwen Parry-Jones. Co-Director, Wambina Flying-fox Education and Research Centre. 17th April, 2001

Hi Folks, This is a report from the Front..... Every night WildPro are in the Gardens shooting. Strangely they are shooting from 10am to 2.00pm each night so they are killing the foragers not the colony animals as they fly in and out of the site. This is probably because if they shot the bats at dusk or dawn on fly-out/in there wouldn't be enough time to keep people away from the Gardens and kill the animals discretely. There also wouldn't be enought time to clean up the bodies and blood and guts before the Gardens opened. For the first time since the controversy started the paths around Fern Gully are being cleaned on a daily basis...pity it is for such a cause.

The cost of the security at the Gardens must be phenomenal! Security guards, sniffer dogs (who are trained to hunt out people), hidden cameras etc etc. Its a no-go area at night! Still some people feel that when Government money is being spent in such a irresponsible way there should be some scrutiny!

On Palm Sunday morning one such person was trying to watch the cull when he/she stumbled upon the warm body of a bat in the middle of a path. The bat was brought to a vet who was shocked at its injuries. It had had its nose and tongue blown off. Both forarms fractured. And various other horrific injuries. The vet believed that it had not died immediately.

So much for the "humane cull" touted by the Government and supposedly supported by RSPCA. So much for the renewal and peace that Palm Sunday is supposed to represent. The vet is at present doing a more complete autopsy. However in the interum a news conference (with bat) was called on the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne and TV Channels 7,10 and 2 were there. Also Melbourne's The AGE newspaper. It may make the news. Watch it if you can.

I would like to say how much I admire the volunteers from the Humane Society who have been camped outside the Gardens for so long. They have done a superb job trying to educate a predominently uninformed uncaring Public. They have felt very isolated however they have kept going. The amount of propaganda being waged against the bats by the Gardens and the Government is amazing. All through the Gardens there are posters saying how disease ridden this plague species is. And how flying-foxes are just like mice or rodents and have to have their numbers controlled. Obviously there is no mention that the official Victorian Scientific Committee considers this "plague species" is native, endemic and is likely to go extinct in Victoria within a human generation! Words fail me!

Gwen Parry-Jones

 · Dead bat dumped in cull protest. The Age. Tue, 17th April.

 · Bat cull branded cruel. Herald Sun. Inga Gilchrist. Tue, 17th April.

 · Launch of web site. Press Release. Allen McIlwee. Wed, 18th April.

 · Letter to BATLINE. Kathy Davis. Wed, 18th April.

Myself, and another have been down at the MBG for a few days.... I regard the following as important points:

1. I photographed all trees containing bats. Very few trees (perhaps only four, according to a botanist I know) have significant long-term damage.

2. There appears to be NO positive information to the public regarding Flying-foxes from the local wildlife care groups.

3. The "billboards" and "information sheets" at each entrance to Fern Gully, set up by the Gardens' management, are controversial and encourage a negative view of the bats.

4. The human populace do not seem to have had previous significant close contact with native fauna.They, in general, believe the MBG propaganda, about the bats.This appears to make it more difficult for them to transfer their understanding to this FF population.

5.There seem to be about eight security persons, who do not keep consistent surveillance within Fern Gully, throughout the night.

6. When 'shots' were heard at about 11 pm Sunday, two HS members entered, and found a dead adult male Flying-fox (shot at least twice, once through the side of the abdomen, once through the face) , within "Fern Gully". They carried the body out, called two TV stations and had the media with cameras present within a short time.

7. The MBG Management seems to be embarrassed by this incident. They obviously plan to clean up any dead bodies before the public may come across them, and become distressed. The Management claims this animal is a 'plant' (botanical species unknown?). It is not. We will get photos of this Flying-fox onto the website.

8. No one, outside the management, knows how many have been killed (culled). Estimates range from 40 to 1000, excluding the 100 killed in January (presumably to find 'Lyssavirus - results, you may recall, negative.) It would seem that silencers are being used on their guns.

9. Some cars, carrying various people, were seen to be repeatedly driving around the Botanic Gardens circuit to observe and threaten members of our small group. These appear to belong to families of the security people.

10. Lawn sprays, outside the Garden's fence, were set on spraying us throughout the night. As we moved away, so those sprinklers stopped, and others commenced so that a 'message' was conveyed that they knew where we were, and wanted us to know that 'they knew' where we were.

11. Last Monday night, after the dead bat had been removed and photographed on Parliament House steps, at least one security guard was sent to 'hide behind a tree' across the road, to observe 'if' the two HS members were entering, or leaving the MBG grounds. A security guard also called to those of us outside the fence, warning us not to enter, since they would call the police. No one seems certain as to when the adult male bat died. No one seems to know how long it suffered. A forensic autopsy is being carried out.

Things I feel we need to do:
*Continue to lobby politicians, the gardens management, the RSPCA (where are they?) and other relevant people/groups about this issue.
*Be prepared to go to Melbourne if needed to assist in the protection of these valuable animals.
*As far as education goes, all those interested in the future of Flying-foxes, and other native fauna, need to focus on urban native populations, not just "wild" populations of many species. For many species, the future lies in their ability to adapt to human interference, not our ability to "manage" them.

Kathy Davis

 · Experts go to bat for flying-foxes. The Age. Jan Rickaras. Thur, 19th April.

 · The killing of flying-foxes. 19th April. Gwen Parry-Jones. Co-Director, Wambina Flying-fox Education and Research Centre.

The Killing of the Flying-foxes in the Royal Melbourne Botanic Gardens has turned into a much more sinister senario than at first thought.

As Kathy and I have reported, it is reminiscent of Germany in the Thirties, armed Security Guards, Dogs, surveillance by sneaky operators and cars and hreatening conversations, all to people who are completely innocent of any crime, other than wanting the killing of Flying-foxes stopped..

The disgusting injuries of the Easter Sunday Bat, is systemic of the problem. He had both his nose and half his tongue missing, wounds in the back of the head and in his side and both elbows were smashed. The wings were holed and torn.

It is the wing injuries that concern me. He appeared to be a young healthy male before he flew into the Gardens. How could both wings have identical injuries? What injury actually caused death? Were the other injuries inflicted while he still lived? How much agony did he suffer?

The frightening aspect of this whole exercise is that there is no one of any accepted credibility overseeing what is going on in secret in the MBG each night. Surely in Victoria there are laws that govern cruelty to animals, any animal, domestic or wild. Yet the Flying-foxes in the Gardens are being subject to uncontrolled cruelty by order of the State Government, and these animals have been determined as Vulnerable by the Scientific Committee.

The Victorian people should demand to be allowed to view what goes on in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens each night under the auspices of Dr. Moors and the Gardens Board ad with the permission of Sherryl Garbutt, Minister for the Environment. They should investigate the credentials of WildPro the organisation in charge of the killing.

They should demand that the bodies be examined for evidence of cruelty. They should demand, from the Attorney General, details of the costs that the taxpayers have had to pay for all this Security, the cost of the Tidemann Harp Trap, the details of the WildPro account and the actual number of bats killed. It might be interesting to work out cost per bat.

This money could have been spent on better management of the Gardens, with the replanting of Australian native trees instead of the English ones that are past their prime. You would then have native birds who would eat the grubs and there would not be so many "lacey" leaves. The birds may even eradicate the Elm Leaf Beetle which is having a disastrous effect on the Elms. (for which the bats are blamed). The Swan Pond could be cleaned and then maybe you would have some frogs there. The noxious weeds such as Pampas Grass could be removed.

If an animal is cruelly treated, whether domestic or native, then the law steps in. Why is WildPro and the Gardens management immune from such scrutiny?

We the people of Australia DEMAND to know: Under what law can animals be killed or tortured in secret? How many animals are being killed each night? How are they being killed? Who is monitoring the killing to ensure it is being humanely done? Why are the bodies not available for inspection?

This is bigger than " killing a few bats". This is the thin edge of the wedge against the Law, democracy and basic animal rights.

Gwen Parry-Jones