By Farid Farid

The vexed practice of shooting brumbies from helicopters has been halted after some 6000 of the wild horses were culled from an alpine national park, but supporters say those remaining still present too great an environmental threat.

A petition with more than 10,000 signatures spearheaded by the Invasive Species Council calls for the repeal of the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act, passed in 2018 by the coalition government.

It mandated the feral horse population be culled to 3000 by mid-2027 over nearly one-third of the park for heritage reasons.

But the law has been savaged by scientific experts and environment groups as catastrophic for conservation efforts.

Richard Swain, an indigenous river guide and council ambassador, described the law as “ridiculous” in how it “still protects a feral animal over our native plants and animals”.

Between 3000 and 4000 brumbies are believed to remain in Kosciuszko National Park after a population count in October, but the release of an official number has been delayed while the figures are peer-reviewed.

Aerial brumby shooting resumed in NSW under the state Labor government in November 2023, reversing policies in place under the former coalition government.

The previous government’s approach sought to protect the “heritage value” of the horses and prioritised passive trapping and rehoming over culling, leading to an explosion in brumby numbers.

NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe told a budget estimates hearing earlier in March “to actually have them (brumbies) shot from helicopters is not needed any more”.

Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst, who chaired a parliamentary inquiry into the aerial shooting of brumbies, said the government’s lack of transparency was troubling.

“If the number of horses is genuinely causing a problem for the native animals in the area, then we need to say ‘are there more humane solutions that we can put forward?’,” she told AAP.

She described the NSW government’s shooting of the horses as “extreme” and it should have considered other, more humane options such as darting programs that induce infertility in female animals.

The federal government has supported a “zero tolerance” approach to the problem.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek previously said: “I love horses but they don’t belong in Kosciuszko National Park.”

Ms Hurst maintained brumbies were not solely to blame, citing the Snowy Hydro 2.0 power station development, climate change and recent wildfires as contributors to environmental loss.

Aerial shooting was unsuccessfully fought through the courts by a local pro-brumby group, which questioned the validity of official counts that put their population in 2022 at between 14,500 and 23,500.