Feral horse levels in the Alpine National Park are at critical levels. Their hard hooves cause serious damage to the sensitive alpine environment. Without intervention, their impacts will cause severe long-term harm to the park’s special endangered native alpine wildlife and plant species.

Parks Victoria (PV) is expanding it’s horse removal program in the Eastern Alps and seeks your feedback. Feedback closes on 2 February.

PV’s existing feral horse removal program will be expanded in the Eastern Alps region by raising capture rates from approximately 100-160 horses per year to approximately 300-400 horses per year, over three years.

As part of drafting the plan, extensive consultation has taken place with animal welfare, community, environmental and cultural groups through a series of roundtables. A Technical Reference Group including specialists in veterinary science, horse behaviour and welfare and cultural issues has also provided specialist input.

From 22 December 2017 to 2 February 2018, you can review the draft action plan and provide feedback on:

  • Proposed control methods (Section 8.1.1)
  • Management of captured horses (Section 8.1.3)
  • Communication methods and frequency during the 3-year implementation period (Section 8.2.3)
  • Research priorities (Section 9)

Feedback is sought in the form of a survey but if you would also like to provide a written submission in the form of a Word or PDF document, use the file upload tab below.

How to provide feedback:

Check here and then download the action plan.

Then fill out the survey, which will ask you about the various options for reducing horse numbers in the park.

Wild horses, as with other hard hooved animals like deer, pose a serious risk to mountain environments in south eastern Australia. It is essential that people who have an appreciation of the negative impacts of horses do this survey to show support for this important government program.