Unknown numbers of koalas – possibly hundreds – have been killed during plantation logging operations south west of Portland in Victoria this week.
Friends of the Earth (FOE) reported koalas were left to starve after logging operations in late December 2019.
Last week, surviving koalas were bulldozed into slash piles, along with the bodies of those that had already starved.
Volunteer veterinarians and animal rescuers are frantically working to save surviving koalas entangled in piles of branches.
FOE also reported the plantation was operated by South West Fibre in a joint operation with Midway and Japanese company Mitsui.
This is another blow for koala populations already decimated by the ongoing bushfire disaster.
Volunteer animal rescuer Helen Oakley posted a video to Facebook saying:
Australia should be ashamed of this, I’m tired and we need help.
Clearly distressed, Oakley put out a call on Facebook for volunteers to “walk the rows” to locate koalas. She can be contacted via Facebook.
No Fibs approached the Victorian Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews for comment. We will follow up with their responses.
Latest No Fibs story on the koala massacre in Victoria: Scale and implications of #KoalaKillers crime still unknown: @jansant reports on #SpringSt
Just devastating. This has to STOP. We are allowing our beautiful country to be destroyed and our magnificent wildlife are helpless in the face of such cruelty. I have sent this article and Helen Oakley’s video to Virginia Trioli at the ABC and told her to question Daniel Andrews about it when he is on her show tomorrow.
NONE OF THE GOVERNMENT CARE ! the NATIONAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE has been pushing to cull ALL wildlife for infrastructure development & many farmers & timber industries support this ! Competition between farmer & wildlife is due to govt corruption of water theft, bad land management , pollution from industry, waste dumping, etc & GEOENGINEERED WEATHER THAT HAS FUELLED THE FIRES ! see website; GeoengineeringWatch.Org
Damn all those responsible fo this atrocity to hell we’ve just watched so many of these beautiful creature perish in an I believable catastrophe and now they have deliberately been killed.. why weren’t they relocated action has to betaken not fines jail time I’m sick of living in a Counrty that has such disregard for our wildlife we are truly blessed and yet they are treated with such disdain ..I’m thoroughly disgusted and heartbroken that these dear creatures have e hands on money hungry bastards !
Please follow up with the ministers. I’ve emailed lily d’ambrosio and told her this is unacceptable
After all the dead Koala due to the fires, do we need logging and more dead koalas ? Shame on you
The company responsible for this atrocity needs to be severely penalised so that they won’t ever do this again. I wondered if the company might be an overseas company?
This is sickening and disgraceful. I hope that the world media will hold our Government accountable for this massacre. I’m ashamed to be an Australian ????????????????
International opiniom should put presser on aussie goverment and their barbarian society.
I’m just so ….. disgusted Upset devastated and all the rest ,our government who the hell do they think they are?? They all should be put away for this. This is CORUPTION at it the highest !
STOP THIS HORRIFIC SLAUGHTER.
It’s no different to other countries eating animals ????????????
International opinion should put preassure on aussie govermane and ther barbarian society. Don’t trade with them. All world give money for koalas but they are murdring all of them.
Such disregard for our already struggling wildlife. SHAME ON YOU ALL. i AM REALLY HATING australia at the moment. Millions of dollars raised for our wildlife and then this wilful disreg
ard comes out. Shame on the VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT.
I don’t believe that after the loss of so many koalas during the bushfires, leaving koalas in the area in danger of extinction, that something like this could happen! Some people/companies have no souls!! If I lived closer I would definitely be there to help in any way I could.
How have we let this happen in our country, the company involved in this all the way to the government and councils should be held accountable, its bad enough we lost native wildlife to bush fires. And then we get this done buy a disgusting group of money grabbing humans. I am ashamed to be an Australian …
Lots of us are ashamed to be Australian ,,- our International image continues to spiral downwards..