More than 100 people turned out in August at a U.S. Navy base in Santa Rita, Guam, to protest an ongoing cull of carabao that graze on property the Navy uses for munitions testing.
An estimated 300 carabao roam the Naval Ordinance Magazine, which the Navy contends presents environmental and health risks as well as limiting the ability of the Navy to use the area effectively.
In May 2003 the Navy began using sharpshooters to cull the carabao, and as of August had killed 63 of the animals.
Navy spokeswoman Lt. Thurraya Kent told the Pacific Daily news that the Navy does work with the Mayors Council of Guam and the Department of Agriculture’s Division of Wildlife Resources to support an adoption program for the animals,
The Navy is always in consultation with (Aquatic and Wildlife) to find the best method of reducing the population of the carabao. The population must be reduced for safety ad health concerns, and that won’t change, but today’s protest does remind us that people have strong views about it.
Cathy Goeggel of Animal Rights Hawaii wrote a letter to the Navy complaining that the shooting of the animal is not necessary,
Fish and Wildlife has a history of preferring lethal control of feral animals, and it appears that they Navy has chosen the quick and dirty response to what amounts to an inconvenience. We are not convinced that your decision is based upon sufficient evidence that the carabao are such a danger to the environment that they must be killed.
Sources:
100 turn out to protest carabao culling. Katie Worth, Pacific Daily news, August 14, 2003.
Carabao Letters. Pacific Daily news, August 22, 2003.