Protect the Animals, Except for Wind Farms
It has been revealed that a Queensland wind farm project is euthanising koalas to make way for wind turbines.
During a 2GB radio interview discussing Queensland’s Clarke Creek wind farm project, Nationals MP Keith Pitt said that the environmental controls for the project outlined how to get rid of any small animals injured by wind turbines, and that was by euthanising them with a “sharp blow with a hammer to the skull.”
Clarke Creek is part of the Clarke-Connors Range which is home to one of the most significant koala populations in the Queensland region.
The environment impact statement for the project (pdf) states that, “Euthanasia will be conducted using blunt force trauma,” which is the primary recommended method to “humanely kill reptiles, amphibians, and small to medium-sized mammals.”
Habitat loss is one of the worst threats for koalas, and is occurring through land clearing and deforestation, which destroys vital eucalyptus tree forests that koalas depend on for their home and their food.
When their homes are destroyed, koalas are vulnerable to dogs and car accidents.
“They used to skin them alive and put them back up the tree with no fur,” Deborah Tabart, a spokesman for the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF), told the ABC.
It is estimated that there are less than 64,000 koalas left in the wild in Australia but this could be as little as 38,648 according to figures from the AKF.
Their figures also show that there has been an estimated 30 percent decline in koalas across Australia between 2018 and 2021.
Koalas are now extinct in 47 electorates with only one electorate having more than 5,000 koalas. Some regions in Australia have populations as small as just five to ten koalas.
No Animals Are Safe From Renewable Energy Fad
It is not just the Clarke Creek project that is ripping up koala habitats.
Tanya Plibersek, minister for the Environment and Water, approved the Lotus Creek project which allowed the decimation of old-growth forest which contained 341 hectares of known koala habitat.
Tourism Australia estimates the value of the koala to Australian tourism is more than $3 billion per year.
Yet killing our wild horses—the brumbies of the snowy mountains—killing birdlife, whales, dolphins, and other sea life seems to be what our government now stands for.
It makes you wonder just how much more can a koala bear.
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