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Dear all,
I have forwarded my own email re Tasmanian foxes to
the list. I don't mind anyone cutting and pasting, forwarding to friends to
sign, etc as I believe this is potentially the most catastrophic environmental
disaster this country has seen in decades - although I do believe individual
letters make more of an impact on politicians than chain mail.
While I don't wish to clog the list, I can only
second Robert Read's appeals on this subject. This is too important an issue to
wish away. For all the skirmishes that take place on birding-aus this is
something I'm sure everyone can agree on.
The addresses again:
Show them you care!
AS
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Dear Dr Kemp,
I am writing to you to plead for immediate federal
assistance in the fight against foxes in Tasmania.
As you will be aware, a small number of foxes have
recently become established in the state. The ecological implications of their
introduction (whether deliberate or accidental) is immeasurable.
At present, Tasmania still supports healthy
populations of many species pushed to extinction or near-extinction on the
mainland by feral predators.
The time to act upon this disaster is extremely
short. Foxes begin breeding in the approaching winter months.
With the abundance of natural food and lack of
competitors, the fox population will quickly become
unmanageable in the absence of a rapid coordinated response by both
State and Federal governments.
It is unrealistic to expect the Tasmanian
government to cope with the financial burden of this operation alone; at any
rate, saving Australian fauna from environmental catastrophe is in the interest
of all Australians.
This is a problem that requires an immediate and
massive strike-first approach. However, a cursory glance at the ongoing
cost of mainland fox control operations, and of saving endangered species,
should be sufficient incentive to deal with the issue as an immediate priority -
just as one would deal with an oil spill or pollution disaster.
Failure to act immediately will doubtless see an
explosion of foxes and a massive diminution of the Tasmanian fauna (which plays
a vital role in the state's tourism industry). The government will also be
rightly cursed by future generations, who will lament forever the lost
opportunity to nip the problem in the bud from the start.
Sincerely,
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