RSPCA Victoria is thrilled the majority of its recommendations have been included in the report from the Parliamentary Inquiry into wildlife roadstrike in Victoria.
Rebecca Cook, RSPCA Victoria's Head of Prevention, said the report made it clear wildlife roadstrike is an urgent and growing problem with catastrophic outcomes for wild animals.
"This report makes it clear, coordinated work must be done to address wildlife roadstrike in Victoria," Ms Cook said.
"It's incredibly pleasing to see the report recommend not only legislative change, but also options for funding and professionalising the wildlife rescue sector, currently heavily reliant on hard-working volunteers in the community.
"We're also very happy to see the recommendations for centralising the collection of data, a single, statewide phone number for reporting wildlife-vehicle collisions, and embedding mandatory wildlife-sensitive planning measures for housing, infrastructure projects and planning schemes."
The Victorian Government now has six months to respond to the recommendations in the report.
"It's crucial the government now support the recommendations in the report, so action is taken to stem the rising numbers of wildlife being struck by cars - around 10 million[2] each year nationally," Ms Cook continued.
"Our wildlife deserves stronger protections and the recommendations in this report go a long way to helping provide them."
RSPCA Victoria's top recommendations were:
- Implementing one phone number and one app for road users to report wildlife vehicle collisions
- Establishing a reference group with expertise from different stakeholders to guide urgent priority and preventative actions
- Updating legislation to improve protections for animals
- Providing financial support and standardised training across the sector to help those responding
RSPCA advocates for the implementation of strategies to avoid adverse welfare impacts on local populations of wild animals and/or their habitat caused by human activities.
