Save South Australian camels from being culled
Donation protected
Approximately 10,000 wild camels are about to be culled in outback South Australia. This dramatic and desperate act is mainly due to South Australia suffering severe drought conditions for the last 3 years resulting in very little food/ water for the camels and they are dying of thirst. This gofundme is to try and prevent a similar story and to provide a better outcome to approximately 500 other camels in a neighbouring property.
My name is Shaun Branden, I am the Coordinator for Mt Willoughby Indigenous Protected Area north of Coober Pedy South Australia. Like our APY lands neighbours we are also having some major issues with feral camels but I am trying to see if there is a way to manage/ remove them from the property without resorting to culling. Here is a quick story of how I ended up on gofundme ...
On the 3rd of January 2020 and on a 46 degree Celsius day we conducted a water point patrol of a working bore to check it was still running. Unfortunately we arrived at the bore to find 30 deceased camels and 9 dead kangaroos and a bore with an electrical fault.
Amongst this devastating scene we found 3 camels just hanging on to life.
The large camel standing up was very stressed and was entangled in a considerable amount of fencing wire. The small camel was ok, the middle camel lying down was in a bad way.
As this was in 46 degree heat and the camels were obviously suffering from thirst we gave them about 30 litres of water just to keep them alive and buy some time.
The next pressing issue was cutting off the fencing wire from the large camel's back leg so we got to work with a some wire cutters, pliers and one person to look out to make sure we didn't get kicked in the head. Remembering these are totally wild and stressed camels.
Fortunately we survived the adventure and moved on to the next job of repairing the bore. Keeping in mind this is in 46 degrees we pulled the bore pump out of the well and spent about 20 minutes finding an intermittent electrical fault and replaced the now working pump back in the well.
As the pump was now working and filling the watering trough the next job was encouraging the reasonably healthy camel calf to the water to hopefully take a drink and pass on the news to the others.
The infant camel finally had a drink and we left to patrol other bores that were all thankfully working.
OK, so these are possibly ok now, so why the gofundme?
This bore is a work place for the Indigenous Rangers from the IPA and I could not leave 39 carcasses rotting where people worked so I had to arrange a contractor to bury the camels/ roos at a cost of $5k. This work has already been carried out but I don't have the funds to pay the contractor.
So, I have started this campaign to hopefully pay that burial bill with an opening goal of $5,000. However, I hope that this campaign receives some exposure and some of the people concerned about the 10,000 camel cull in South Australia will help us source enough funding to provide humane management to the approximate 500 camels on this property.
The first $5k will pay for the burial so that the animals are not just rotting in the sun and the Rangers can work. While if we are fortunate enough to receive anything over that then the funds will go towards compassionate management of the camels.
Depending on the funds we could:
1. maintain the bores to provide water
2. purchase more pumps to provide more watering points
3. maintain fencing so camels do not enter areas without water
4. capture and move camels to areas with food/ water
5. with more funding we could look into farming/ milking camels to help them and provide an income for the Rangers
6. with serious funding we could create a tourist opportunity so that the camels become a welcome asset instead of a liability.
7. Our goal is humane management and not to cull, so if you, yourself have any ideas on how to spend any funds we receive to help these animals in a sustainable, ongoing way, we are all ears.
We are going to be under major pressure from the government to just kill these camels as they are a feral animals in South Australia but please consider helping us out so we can manage them without a gun.
The really are wonderful and beautiful creatures that trust us so much that even wild camels will drink water from our hands but they do need help.
Thank you,
Shaun Branden
My name is Shaun Branden, I am the Coordinator for Mt Willoughby Indigenous Protected Area north of Coober Pedy South Australia. Like our APY lands neighbours we are also having some major issues with feral camels but I am trying to see if there is a way to manage/ remove them from the property without resorting to culling. Here is a quick story of how I ended up on gofundme ...
On the 3rd of January 2020 and on a 46 degree Celsius day we conducted a water point patrol of a working bore to check it was still running. Unfortunately we arrived at the bore to find 30 deceased camels and 9 dead kangaroos and a bore with an electrical fault.
Amongst this devastating scene we found 3 camels just hanging on to life.
The large camel standing up was very stressed and was entangled in a considerable amount of fencing wire. The small camel was ok, the middle camel lying down was in a bad way.As this was in 46 degree heat and the camels were obviously suffering from thirst we gave them about 30 litres of water just to keep them alive and buy some time.
The next pressing issue was cutting off the fencing wire from the large camel's back leg so we got to work with a some wire cutters, pliers and one person to look out to make sure we didn't get kicked in the head. Remembering these are totally wild and stressed camels.
Fortunately we survived the adventure and moved on to the next job of repairing the bore. Keeping in mind this is in 46 degrees we pulled the bore pump out of the well and spent about 20 minutes finding an intermittent electrical fault and replaced the now working pump back in the well.
As the pump was now working and filling the watering trough the next job was encouraging the reasonably healthy camel calf to the water to hopefully take a drink and pass on the news to the others.
The infant camel finally had a drink and we left to patrol other bores that were all thankfully working.
OK, so these are possibly ok now, so why the gofundme?
This bore is a work place for the Indigenous Rangers from the IPA and I could not leave 39 carcasses rotting where people worked so I had to arrange a contractor to bury the camels/ roos at a cost of $5k. This work has already been carried out but I don't have the funds to pay the contractor.
So, I have started this campaign to hopefully pay that burial bill with an opening goal of $5,000. However, I hope that this campaign receives some exposure and some of the people concerned about the 10,000 camel cull in South Australia will help us source enough funding to provide humane management to the approximate 500 camels on this property.
The first $5k will pay for the burial so that the animals are not just rotting in the sun and the Rangers can work. While if we are fortunate enough to receive anything over that then the funds will go towards compassionate management of the camels.
Depending on the funds we could:
1. maintain the bores to provide water
2. purchase more pumps to provide more watering points
3. maintain fencing so camels do not enter areas without water
4. capture and move camels to areas with food/ water
5. with more funding we could look into farming/ milking camels to help them and provide an income for the Rangers
6. with serious funding we could create a tourist opportunity so that the camels become a welcome asset instead of a liability.
7. Our goal is humane management and not to cull, so if you, yourself have any ideas on how to spend any funds we receive to help these animals in a sustainable, ongoing way, we are all ears.
We are going to be under major pressure from the government to just kill these camels as they are a feral animals in South Australia but please consider helping us out so we can manage them without a gun.
The really are wonderful and beautiful creatures that trust us so much that even wild camels will drink water from our hands but they do need help.
Thank you,
Shaun Branden
Organizer and beneficiary
Shaun Branden
Organizer
South
Philip Wright
Beneficiary
