List of condolences sent to Animals Australia - marking the deaths of hundreds of grey-headed flying-foxes killed by the Melbourne Botanic Gardens.

We are disgusted that these bats should be killed in the manner specified especially as the cold weather is now upon us and the bats are leaving for warmer climates. Shame on the administration of the Royal Botanical Gardens.
Peter and Bunty Jackson,
Ballantrae, Mt. Macedon.

In memory of the Flying-foxes that have suffered and died in their home at the Royal Botanic Gardens. Animal Liberation SA condemns the Gardens and the Victorian Government for allowing such an inhumane and unnecessary kill.
Necia Page,
President
Animal Liberation SA.

Shame on the Gardens of Death!!
Dominique Thiriet
Flying-fox Rescue Coordinator,
Townsville, Qld.

Stop this useless slaughter of the flying foxes. There is no sense in this kind of cruelty to them or any other animal. God put animals on the earth for us to enjoy not destroy .You all should be arrested for destroying wildlife, and if they are not considered a wild life animal, you still should be arrested for destroying them for no good reason. Thank you
Charlene Reynolds, USA.

Flying foxes are wonderful creatures. They should not be killed. Please lay a posy on my behalf.
Katherine Rogers

Sacred to the death of a species due to ignorance and greed
Gwen Parry-Jones
Wambina Flying Fox E & R Centre
Central Coast, N.S.W.

In memory of the loss of scientific expertise
Kerryn Parry-Jones

Deepest sympathy to those who have died in agony
Keith Foster & Sue Brewer

No bats.... No bush!!!
Please save the bats and save the bush!!!
Warwick, Mary, Havalah, Tali and Ma'ayan Grace

What a sad state of affairs that the poor bats are put second and their lives are destroyed. Please accept my condolences for these poor bats.
Susan Massey
Coramba N.S.W.

Beloved flying foxes,
Nature's forest workers,
Gentle beauties,
Tragically killed.
Rest sweetly.
Vivien Jones, Bellingen.

Protectors of forests,
Our beautiful flying foxes,
Killed in ignorance.
Rest in peace.
Katrina Bourke, Bellingen.

Sweet flying fox,
No longer nourishing forest trees,
Rest in peace.
June Jones, Bellingen.

As a wildlife rehabilitator in Queensland I would like to express my anger and deep sorrow over the senseless slaughter of these magnificent creatures. May they rest in peace.
Sue Matic

With deep sorrow for the cruel and pointless deaths of the gardens flying foxes. This cruel action will be remembered.
Katherine Rogers, Pymble 2073

We find the slaughter of any native Australian deplorable.
Cathy and Gary Horsfield

To the small, intelligent and persecuted animals who are dying over Melbourne. My thoughts are with you. I think of the babies I have raised and the trust and love they gave me back before I released them. I hope that they didn't choose to visit the Gardens of Melbourne this year. To their cousins I send my sympathy. I also send sympathy to the people who have never known the joy of interacting with one of Australia's most intelligent and necessary of animals. And to the forests, which will surely die if we wipe out their guardians, the flying-foxes. May the goodness and fair-mindedness of the citizens of Melbourne stop the slaughter and the torment of animals shot in flight, to die who knows where and after how much suffering? This is truly a day of mourning but also a day to be grateful for the contribution our own flying mammals make to our lives each day.
Jayelle

I deeply regret hearing of the death of some of our unique wildlife, the flying-foxes, attempting to reside in the Melbourne community, From one of your many supporters.
Wildlife artist, NAN LEPINATH.

Save the flying-foxes of the RMBG.... Save the forests of Eastern Australia. Make it a really good Friday!!! Good bless the bats!
C.N.Grace, of QUEENSLAND

In memory of the needless deaths of grey-headed flying foxes. May you now fly in heaven eternally.Yours in Sadness,
Amanda Lollar
Bat World Sanctuary, USA
www.batworld.org

Flying-foxes have the right to live, too Mr Moors. You have no right to kill.
Kathy Davis, Terrigal, NSW

Rest in Peace most beautiful peaceful souls. In your memory we pray that mankind become as gentle as you were. We will keep your memory in our hearts.
The Bat CREW
crew@batcrew.com
http://www.BatCREW.com

Save a few Foreign Trees at the Expense of the Principal Pollinators of the Aussie Bush??!!? How dare you risk what's left of our Aussie Bush!?! Unbelievable. Stop killing the bats.
David Cunningham

Melbournians are privileged to have flying foxes choose our city as their home. Cease this senseless animal cruelty. We should be protecting our native bats, not decimating them.
Miriam O'Brien
Brunswick East Vic 3057.

Victoria, a nice place to live, unless you are a flying fox. R.I.P.
Pat O'Brien, President, WPAA Inc.
P O Box 1334 Yeppoon Q 4703

The future of flying foxes is our future too. Thou shalt not kill! Save the bats of our eastern forests. People of Melbourne, they are not yours to kill. With love to the flying-foxes of the forests and those trying to save them all.
Jessi Grace

Melbournes flying-foxes do not deserve this. The grey-headed flying-fox has become a refugee in its own country. They don't deserve this.
Peter Myroniuk,
WILDLIFE CARE NETWORK

Condolences to the citizens of meobourne for the loss by murder of so many unique and beautiful animals.
ANIMAL LIBERATION
NSW BRANCH

To the Grey-headed flying foxes and flying foxes throughout Australia, I offer my deepest regret for the slaughter of your kind. Someday we humans, when we are surrounded only by our own waste and pollution and have no more trees to colour our landscape and no more animals to enliven our bleak existence, we will remember you and weep. Please forgive us our crimes against you, for we know not what we do. Sincerely,
Jennifer Holmes
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
jholmes3@utk.edu

"In loving memory of the beautiful creatures who were murdered by ignorance". Regards,
Mark Warner
Secretary
Animal Liberation ACT

May they hang in peace
Dominique Thiriet
Townsville

In memory of F/Fs who were victims of gross environmental vandalism.
Marjorie and Rolf Beck

Yesterday I visited a recently clear-felled and incinerated logging coupe in East Gippsland's Big River area. It was old growth with rainforest gullies. The understorey was covered in a thick carpet of tree ferns. There is now no colour but black and raw brown dirt - the fern gullies are just dips in the barren blackened landscape - a graveyard of felled, crushed and burnt tree ferns. And people are having a fit about a few bats pooping on tree ferns at a Melbourne manicured garden. Get them down here if these authorities are worried about destroying fern gullies! In one week these authorised destroyers with bulldozers and matches wipe off the face of the Earth about 100 times more area of natural fern gullies than any bat colony! Hypocrites!
Jill Redwood
Bonang Rd
Goongerah

Will we be satisfied when the last bat has died?
Annika Faber, Repton

In memory of those Flying Foxes who have been killed here because of the short sighted and irresponsible actions of the management of the Royal Botanical Gardens. In the past when I have been in Melbourne, I would make a point of visiting the Botanical Gardens and loved to watch the Flying Foxes there, and as they soared around the evening skies of the city. It was one of my great pleasures and something I identified as a uniquely Melbourne experience. Never again will I be able to visit the Botanical Gardens without recalling in sadness the unnecessary slaughter of these beautiful animals. It is a time of great shame for the Botanical Gardens.
Michael Shrapnel and Yvette Watt, Hobart Tasmania

To the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. This is a cruel act you have done and these animals cannot be replaced. Australian have always shown compassion for their fauna, so this is very unaustralian. You have turned the Gardens into a killing field, you have shamed all Australians. This posy is to show that we care about these animals and their welfare.
Kind regards
Judith May
WIRES SYDNEY MEMBER

In memory of the innocents
Wendy Parsons, SA

Its time to stop killing Australian animals and learn to live with wildlife not destroy them. Blessed are the meek and mild for they will inherit the earth! Rest In Peace
Sonya Stanvic

In memory of the needless deaths of grey-headed flying-foxes. May you now fly in heaven eternally.
BAT WORLD SANCTUARY, USA

In memory of the flying foxes.
Vickii & Danny Lett
KURRAJONG 2758

This is nonsensical slaughter. It solves nothing, and is only cruel. Shame on you, Phillip Moors.
Avril May

For the flying foxes
your will to live, put you in conflict with man,
who with all their knowledge, and technology
can only find explosive projectiles to solve their conflict.
The only thing we learn from history
is that we don't learn from history.
Julie Hughes
Terrey Hills NSW 2084

In Sympathy for Melbourne's Flying-foxes
Peter Frederick

Capricorn Conservation Council, Rockhampton supports the event that is planned to stop the killing of flying foxes at the Royal Melbourne Botanic Gardens. We wish you all the best in halting this tragedy.

May your spirits fly far from the cruel hands of man, dear beasts!
JoEllen Arnold Sacramento, California, USA

Hello, my name is Holly Nyblom.
I am sincerely concerned about all wildlife and animals in general. I hope that eventually animals will have more rights, just as humans do, to live in peace. It appalls me to hear that animals are shot just to please certain individuals for insufficient reasons. I will do whatever I can to help in getting the message across to people who are ignorant to the rights of animals and the joys they bring to us. We are not the only pride of our creater. Who determined that animals aren't as important as we are? Is it just because we can say so that we do say it? I am finding in my life that I feel more for animals than I do for adult humans. If I had a choice to save my dog or an adult stranger, guess which one I would choose? That may seem unethical, but so is the cruelty inflicted on innocent animals who want nothing more than to be able to live their lives just as they were meant to. Who are we to take that away?Thank You.
Holly Nyblom

Please save our little upside down people from this unnecessary slaughter
Cheryl Cochran

How dare you! "In a world older and more complete than ours, they moved finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear"
Cheryl Forrest-Smith

Melbourne Botanic Gardens. Although you are struggling to survive and your home is being destroyed daily. This cruel and inhumane act perpetrated on you and your friends has been sadly commissioned by humans who have no need or respect for life other than their own. I am deeply sorry and distressed at your passing
gonbatty@iprimus.com.au

Friends of the Flying Fox,
Please accept our moral support in your efforts to save the flying foxes from being cruelly slaughtered.
How low has humanity sunk, when it cannot empathise with the suffering of another species that is only intent on living.
How thoughtless is our race, to value leaf over grief.
We are supposed to be the intelligent race, aren't we? Brutal solution have never worked in animal control but still the arrogantly ignorant persist as though it is a duty and a right.
We are totally disgusted.
David Nicholls & Lee Holmes

Is there nothing you can do about the slaughter of bats in the Botanical Gardens at Melbourne. They are killing an indigenous fauna species to protect (?) non indigenous flora.
I had planned a trip to Australia, specifically to see flying foxes. I cannot and will not, in good conscience, visit a country that allows the heinous act of murder committed on such a beneficial gentle creature. What will you do when all the forest is gone because you have murdered the pollinator for regeneration?In sorrow
Lisa Windflower
21 Haven Lane
Walnut Creek, CA 94596-2124

Melbourne Botanic Gardens. Although you are struggling to survive and your home is being destroyed daily. This cruel and inhumane act perpertrated on you and your friends has been sadly comissioned by humans who have no need or respect for life other than there own. I am deeply sorry and distressed at your passing.
Suzanne Grzegorski