Baby Possums being Killed!

Baby brushtail possums still in their mother’s pouch are being killed as part of a possum cull by the Sydney Botanic Gardens Trust. The Trust is licenced by the NSW Department of Environment to trap and cull the possums to prevent overcrowding, with 400 possums killed by lethal injection since culling began in 2002. Central can reveal that joeys caught along with their mothers in the gardens have been taken to a veterinary clinic in Kingsford and put down. Wildlife carers have criticised the Trust for killing the babies as well as the parents, saying they should be handed over to licenced wildlife foster carers.

Linda Wilson, a volunteer with Sydney Metropolitan Wildlife Services, has been rescuing injured possums in the Botanic Gardens for many years and says she is shocked at the Trust’s attitude towards the possums. “I’m really angry because I approached them a number of times and wrote to them about this, because there are ways we can help them out, such as taking the mothers until the baby’s are old enough to be raised on their own,” she said. A spokeswoman for the Trust said it was standard practice to euthanase mother and baby. “Of the possums euthanased approximately 50 per cent have been female, with about 40 per cent of these females carrying young that would be unable to survive on their own,” she said. “Frequency of trapping varies but over the last year it has averaged once a fortnight.”


Ms Wilson questioned the Trust’s claim that possums were trapped just once a fortnight. “Its eight to 12 traps a week according to people at the Trust I have spoken to,” Ms Wilson said. “That’s a hell of a lot of possums.” The Trust spokeswoman said a recent policy change meant possums with joeys were now being released back into the gardens and a contraceptive trial was being considered to control overpopulation. This follows an article in Central last month revealing wildlife organisations were calling on the Trust to sterilise some adult possums as a way of reducing numbers without killing the animals. Ms Wilson said the Trust had resisted sterilisation and passing on joeys to foster care for the last seven years, because killing them was “an easier, cheaper, option.”

The Trust spokeswoman said overpopulation caused damage to the gardens and to the possums which fought amongst themselves, causing injuries. She said illegal dumping of possums in the gardens had exacerbated this. “The overpopulation of Brush-tailed Possums is caused by a lack of predators and apparent use of the gardens and Domain as a dumping ground for captured possums,” she said. * Central News, Story by Robert Burton-Bradley