RSPCA missed 500 carcasses at property, inquiry into aerial shooting of Kosciuszko wild horses hears

A recent parliamentary inquiry into the aerial shooting of wild horses in Kosciuszko National Park heard that RSPCA missed 500 horse carcasses during their inspections at a property near Wagga Wagga.

Emma Hurst MLC from the Animal Justice Party told City Hub that “Our animal protection system in NSW is broken.”

“The combination of weak outdated laws, historic lack of funding for enforcement and lack of oversight means the system has been set up to fail – and animal cruelty cases are falling through the gaps.”

RSPCA NSW chief executive Steven Coleman said the organisation’s investigators visited the property for a total of three times, and found remains “could have equated to maybe 20 horses”.

He also said inspectors did not investigate the contents of a cool room on the site, which was found to be housing over 300 kilograms of horse meat seized by the NSW Food Authority.

2GB host Ray Hadley slammed Coleman for the RSPCA’s failure to discover the horse carcasses earlier, telling the inquiry: “He should be sacked. He sent people to that property, they saw a cool room … and they didn’t think to look inside.”

“There were carcasses discovered by Wagga Wagga Council and the RSPCA, charged with protecting animals, brumbies and the rest of them … they didn’t look inside the damn cool room.

“What are we, growing strawberries? We are keeping the strawberries cool?”

“For God’s sake, there were beasts in there that had been slaughtered and they didn’t look.”

The horses had reportedly been transported to the property as part of a brumby “re-homing program”. The operator of the property disputed the number of horses found, saying the 15 to 20 horses he killed were for feeding his pet animals.