A logging company in New South Wales, Australia has buried at least 150 bare-nosed wombats while they were still alive.
About 150 burrows were marked with GPS co-ordinates in bright paint by the Wombat Protection Society in the Glenbog State Forest, so loggers could avoid the burrows. The NSW Environment Protection Authority confirmed the Forestry Corporation had agreed to ensure entrances to the burrows weren’t obstructed.
However, the contractors ignored the markings, with some observers alleging they deliberately removed them, and buried the wombats alive by allowing debris to cover their burrows.
Wombat Protection volunteers found nine collapsed burrows, as well as four burrows that had been so compacted by machinery and logs that they couldn’t be re-opened. They also found a burrow where a road had been built right over the entrance.
Logging interests have tried to argue that bare-nosed wombats make various entrances to their burrows, however, wildlife experts say they just have one entrance in and out, so if it is ploughed over the wombats are subject to a slow death due to lack of food and water.
The callous disregard of the loggers is nothing less than animal cruelty – all of them must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
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