Tasmanian Widlife Park Owners up in arms about Devil exports

Thursday, 13 Jun, 2006 0

Tassie devil adoption plan sparks outrage

Local Tasmanian wildlife park owners are up in arms about plans to send a group of Tasmanian Devils to the United States, with plans in place to send about 20 Tassie Devils to a New Mexico zoo by the end of the year in addition more Devils being bound for Europe.

Tasmanian wildlife park owners say the move will jeopardise the state’s tourism industry, because Australia was the only place to see Tasmanian Devils until April, when the Tasmanian Government gave four to Denmark to celebrate the birth of Prince Christian.

Prior to that, the last known overseas Tasmanian Devil died in a Californian zoo in 2004.

Exporter Androo Kelly supplied the Tassie Devils to Denmark and says the gift has opened the door for breeding programs overseas, saying, “Europe wasn’t really on the drawing board until the fortuitous gift from the Tasmanian Government, which has now made it available for Europe to actually plan a program.”

There had been a moratorium on moving captive devils because of the facial tumour disease that is ravaging the wild population in Tasmania, but protocols are now in place to allow for transfers and Mr Kelly says the animals could be heading to the US by the end of the year.

“The embargo of exporting devils out of Tasmania should be lifted any day now,” he said.

But this has enraged other wildlife park operators, like Ray Green, who says the Devil is one of Australia’s biggest drawcards, adding, “We’ve actually had people fly into Australia, hop on a plane, fly to Tasmania, come up and spend a couple of hours looking at the devils and looking at the sanctuary and then fly back and fly out of Australia.” He says exporting the iconic native animal overseas will put tourism operators out of business, adding, “At the moment, we’ve got people worried about a boat closing down and yet we’re going to export one of our icons to the other side of the world.” “We might as well send them on the other two ferries and send them over there because we’re not going to need them.”

The Tasmanian Government says it has not received an application from the US zoo to adopt devils but any request would need State and Commonwealth approval.

Report by The Mole (not the Tassie Devils, who are too busy packing their bags!)