Protectors of
Public Lands Victoria Inc.
On Friday morning last, 17 August 2007, members of
Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc. (PPL VIC) picketed the Catani Gardens
in a last ditch attempt to halt Port Phillip Council contractors installing
more “possum exclusion bands” and traps on the Canary Island palm trees. This was part of PPL VIC’s bid to save St Kilda’s
famous possum colony. Council officers called the police who threatened to
arrest and charge picketers with “trespassing”. The Council has now banded most
of the Gardens’ palms and so the 35 remaining possums, which have so far
escaped being trapped and killed, have been “excluded” from their trees and
forced to crowd into several giant cypress.
These offer inadequate shelter and anyway, are being progressively
felled on orders of Council. The RSPCA
refuses to acknowledge the extreme cruelty of the treatment of the possums and
DSE denies our claim that the bands and traps are illegal under the Wildlife
Protection Act 1975 and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1986. It is
expected that, after the last batch of trees are banded and traps installed
over the next few weeks, the extermination of the remaining possums will be
complete.
Julianne
Bell, Secretary of PPL VIC, comments:
“Mayor Janet Bolitho appears to be still attempting
to con the public by claiming that “the
possums survive by eating the crowns of palm trees …and this can ultimately
kill off the palms”. (Port Phillip Leader 14 August 2007.) In our view this
is arrant nonsense. Possums simply do not chew palm fronds. And therefore
possums simply do not damage palm trees.
The Council is to be condemned for wiping out the possum colony, which
has proved over the years to be a great tourist attraction, drawing hundreds if
not thousands of tourists to the Gardens. Overseas visitors have an endless
fascination with our native wild life. Many comment that it is an absolute joy to
see possums close up in our city parks and gardens. It is a grand irony that
Tourism Minister Tim Holding has just launched his “Nature Based Tourism
Strategy 2007 to 2011” which says “Nature-based tourism is any tourism that
relies on experiences directly related to the natural environment including
…wildlife tourism.” Yet Mr Holding
has declined to visit the Catani Gardens or to meet PPL VIC representatives to
discuss how the Catani Gardens possums can be promoted as ‘nature based
tourism.’”
Mayor Bolitho has never revealed what has happened to the “disappeared” possums. She says they are being “euthanased”. The ASU (Australian Services Union) deny members collect sleeping possums in the day and despatch them. Local vets deny euthanasing them. Do Council officers do them to death in the Gardens? Answers were not revealed through FOI requests to Council. PPL VIC members consider that a detailed explanation from Council is urgently required, being long overdue.
Media contact: Julianne Bell, Secretary, Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc. 98184114/mobile 0408022408 or Jill Quirk (PPL VIC) on 040 09742927.