(Au) Animals Australia latest press release on rabbit disease biocide

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Animals Australia The Voice for Animals

 

Media Release

19 August 2002

 

 

MINISTER KEMP'S ANSWERS ON RABBIT DISEASE

FAIL TO SETTLE FRIGHTENING QUESTIONS

 

Federal Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Dr David Kemp, has

side-stepped several Questions on Notice posed by Senator Bob Brown

about proposals to further spread the deadly haemorrhagic Rabbit

Calicivirus Disease (RCD) in Australia.

 

Animals Australia received copies of Dr Kemp's answers to 3 of the 4

questions, but the Minister has failed to give any assurance that a new

bait delivery system for the disease is safe.

 

After its mysterious first appearance in China in 1984, and its

unexplained escape from Wardang Island (South Australia) in 1995, RCD

was deliberately released by Governments across Australia in 1996 in the

hope of reducing the wild rabbit population. The National Registration

Authority is now considering a proposal to further spread the disease in

Australia by placing the live virus on food baits.

 

The Minister was asked if he is aware of a recent study that showed

that pigs inoculated with the virus became sick. Senator Brown also

asked the Minister to give a cast iron assurance that the disease will

never spread to Australian pigs, or to any other species, including

humans. Dr Kemp side-stepped this question - merely saying all

decisions are based on a risk analysis.

 

Executive Director of Animals Australia, Glenys Oogjes, said,

" We are not surprised that the Minister is unable to give that

assurance. The only scientists who have ever claimed that this virus -

RCD - is safe for other species are those with a vested interest in

covering up the risks - and even they have never said it will not cross

species, only that cross-species infection is 'unlikely'.

The new proposal for the disease to be put in baits (rather than

injected into rabbits) will make it even more available to a broader

range of animals. It is madness! "

 

In 1996 Environment Australia (EA) gave the original proposal to

release RCD infected rabbits into wild rabbit populations the thumbs up.

A recent assessment report by EA of the current proposal to use virus

baits has (again) concluded that the chances of cross-species infection

are minimal.

 

One of the questions Senator Brown has asked Dr Kemp is 'who wrote the

two reports?'

N.B. This 4th 'question on notice' has yet to be answered.

 

Ms Oogjes notes, " We have reason to believe it is the same bureaucrats

in EA who wrote both reports. It seems pretty clear that the current

report would therefore need to take exactly the same line - or else

admit to a previous mistake in 1996! "

 

 

Page 2 of Animals Australia media release, 19/8/2002

 

A scathing critique of EA's assessment report (received after an FOI

request) on the RCD baiting proposal has been prepared by Animals

Australia in consultation with Dr Alvin Smith, head of the Laboratory

for Calicivirus Studies at Oregon University USA. It exposes factual

inaccuracies and omissions, unsupported assertions, non-sequitur

statements and illogical and circular arguments. The critique is

available at the Animals Australia website: www.animalsaustralia.org

(Issues & Debates section)

 

Ms Oogjes elaborates,

" The EA assessment notes that, if RCD were to infect another species,

it might involve no visible symptoms or symptoms entirely different from

those experienced by rabbits. Yet it goes on to argue that the apparent

absence of obvious RCD symptoms in non-target species is evidence that

the disease has not and will not cross species! "

 

" This is an incredibly dangerous disease which kills its victims in 30

hours and there have been no studies of the effect on the welfare of the

infected rabbits. Overseas researchers have reported the rabbits

scream in their last minutes of life.

International virology experts continue to warn us that it can and

probably will cross species. How can we allow our governments to

continue 'playing God with' a virus they still know virtually nothing

about? " Ms Oogjes demanded.

 

Copes of the EA assessment report and hardcopies of the Animals

Australia critique are available on request.

 

Further comment: Glenys Oogjes, Executive Director, Animals

Australia

Mobile: 041 431 2552

 

Office: 37 O'Connell Street, North Melbourne 3051 Ph: 03 9329 6333

Animals Australia, the Australian arm of the Australian and New Zealand

Federation of Animal Societies Inc.

e-mail: enquiries website:

http://www.animalsaustralia.org