Earthrace Conservation has joined forces with Bob Irwin and his new coalition once again in a campaign for greater protection of Australia’s wildlife.
The Bob Irwin Wildlife & Conservation Foundation has formed a coalition of animal welfare groups, including Earthrace, which is calling on the Australian government to introduce an immediate ban all hunting by anyone of any animal, land or marine based, listed as endangered or vulnerable.
This includes all six species of sea turtle, dugong, various shark species, crayfish, rock wallabies, koala and goannas.
The coalition, now 25-strong, has gained momentum quickly throughout Australia, and is now expanding overseas, with pressure mounting on the Australian Government for a change to the Native Title Act 1993.
Earthrace is using its global position to bring international attention to the situation with protests being planned in Australia as well as other location around the world, including New Zealand, Argentina, the US and the United Kingdom.
Earthrace Conservation founder, Pete Bethune, has fully endorsed the initiative, saying, “The slaughter of any endangered or vulnerable animal, whether land or marine-based, is nothing less than a total disgrace. The Australian government needs to put immediate protection in place to end this now.
“It’s all very well Australian politicians patting themselves on the back for getting the International Court of Justice to agree to hold public hearings in The Hague on Australia’s case against Japanese whaling, but what hope is there if they can’t do the right thing by endangered and vulnerable species in their own country?”
Earthrace Conservation Director of Operations, Scott Bowman, adds, “Earthrace will be using our international status to bring the very real possibility of the extinction of up to 50 animal species in Australia to the eyes of the world. We will make sure that the Australian government feels the heat from all corners of the globe.”
Earthrace already has a long and successful history working with Bob Irwin and Colin Riddell more specifically in connection with cruel hunting methods of sea turtle and dugong. Earthrace plans to do whatever they can alongside the other members of coalition, to help the new campaign succeed.
Earthrace Conservation Australian Director, Alan Winstanley, is currently planning the Australian based protest, working closely with Bob and Colin, and with Earthrace teams outside Australia, to ensure Earthrace can offer the maximum support possible to the campaign.
He says, “Obviously as Earthrace Conservation, our main issues are around marine life but it is impossible to ignore the lack of protection for the large number of different animals including birds, reptiles and land mammals also under threat from indiscriminate hunting.”
The coalition is calling for a total ban on hunting of any of the native species listed under the current Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act).
EPBC Act List of Threatened Fauna: http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicthreatenedlist.pl