Turtle, dugong cruelty probe ‘biggest waste’ of money

An animal activist says an investigation into alleged cruelty to turtles and dugongs in Queensland has been a waste of taxpayers’ time and money.

Biosecurity Queensland (BQ) has finalised its investigation into allegations of cruelty to turtles and dugongs, aired on the ABC TVs 7.30 program in March, saying it is unable to take the matter further.

The program showed footage of the animals being bashed and butchered alive.

Until a fortnight ago when legislation was passed in Parliament, traditional hunters were exempt from animal welfare obligations.

However, BQ says it is unable to take this further due to the lack of available witnesses and uncertainty regarding the incident locations.

A separate State Government investigation into the illegal meat trade also failed to result in charges.

Animal activist Colin Ridell says the result was disappointing but not surprising.

“That’s the biggest waste of taxpayers’ money ever in Queensland,” he said.

“Before September 12, there was no cruelty laws and that was the whole reason for airing that vision in the first place … so they just had an investigation into something that was crimeless.”

Mr Ridell says he will continue to push for a moratorium on traditional hunting.

He says no-one tackles the problem of unregulated, unmonitored killing of turtles and dugongs.

“That’s the issue that we’ve got to face and they’ve got to face too,” he said.

Mr Ridell says he will discuss the matter with Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke.