Vic: Activists hold memorial service for slaughtered bats

AAP General News (Australia)
04-12-2001
Vic: Activists hold memorial service for slaughtered bats

By Heather Gallagher

MELBOURNE, April 12 AAP - Wreaths and sympathy messages from around the world were
presented by animal activists at a memorial service today for bats killed in Melbourne's
Royal Botanic Gardens.

According to the Humane Society for Animal Welfare a cull began on Tuesday night with
up to fifty grey-headed flying foxes shot down by contractors hired by garden's management.

Society President Lawrence Pope said a group of protesters had been in the gardens,
dodging guards and their dogs, when the shooting began.

Mr Pope said the animals fell to the ground, covered in blood and screaming. He believed
some would die a slow, painful death.

About 30 animal liberationists gathered at today's memorial service outside the garden's
observatory gates.

Messages of support came from all over Australia, from Britain and from Batworld Sanctuary
in the US, while Democrats Senator Lyn Allison wrote to implore Environment Minister Sherryl
Garbutt to halt the shootings.

"If the Gardens keep killing them, the species will be completely wiped out," she wrote.

Wreaths were laid at the garden's gates with notes attached, including "Shame on the
Gardens of Death", "In memory of the innocent" and "In memory of the loss of scientific
expertise".

Today's service followed revelations that the state's Department of Natural Resources
and Environment (DNRE) intends to create an alternative sanctuary for the bats.

Animals Australia executive director Glenys Oogjes (Glenys Oogjes) said the timing
of the announcement was ironic.

"I think it's very sad that this (cull) has happened, particularly as we've just been
told another roosting site is being set up ... of course this should've happened several
years ago," she said.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the gardens confirmed the cull had begun.

Research found 90 per cent of Victorians supported the action in order to save rare
plant species, the spokeswoman said.

The damage caused by the 20,000 strong bat population was continuing with about five
years growth destroyed within three weeks by bats on the Oak Lawn, the spokeswoman said.

The cull strategy, which includes shooting, lethal injection and gassing, had been
devised as a last resort in consultation with the DNRE and the RSPCA, she said.

The spokeswoman said the plan to develop a new site for the bats was welcome but it
was a long-term strategy and the cull would continue as planned.

AAP hmg/clr/hu/sb

KEYWORD: BATS (CARRIED EARLIER PIC AVAIL)

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