Media Release

INDEPENDENT Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter says people trying to help starving cassowaries after cyclone Yasi destroyed their habitat should not be persecuted as occurred after cyclone Larry.Mr Katter saw first-hand the desperation of the endangered birds while at Mission Beach, and said concerned locals who were helping displaced cassowaries with a bit of food should be lauded, not prosecuted.

He said Qld Government environment authorities had played dirty after Larry by threatening prosecution of people who helped save the lives of many cassowaries.

“We don’t want any of the rubbish like we had last time, where people who did nothing to protect the cassowary were persecuting those who did,” he said.

Mr Katter said the late Yvonne Anich was among the birds’ saviours after Larry, and “went to her grave with bitter regrets about how she’d been treated”.

“We’re serving notice that we will not stand idle and watch the cassowaries die; nor will we be intimidated by lazy, useless people not doing enough to ensure their survival,” he said.

“I want to publicly thank those people who are going out into very hostile circumstances now to rescue these birds who have virtually no food – and I want them backed up.

“We’re happy to go along if authorities want it done in a certain way, but the argument that they will be trained to accept food from human beings is simply not correct. All our wildlife carers who fed the cassowaries after cyclone Larry continued to feed them for four to five months, and at that stage they went back to their natural foraging practises.”

Mr Katter said not only was the cassowaries’ food source gone, but the bush was practically impenetrable, blanketed by debris to a height of about two feet on average.

“It would defy anyone – cassowary or monkey – to get through that debris on the ground. Just to see how bad it was for the wildlife, it personally took me half an hour just to get through 50 metres of scrub.

“It would be nigh-on impossible for a cassowary to forage at the moment and probably for many months to come. We desperately need people to help with this feeding program - the dropped food is not a program that will by itself ensure the survival of one of our great North Qld icons.”