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News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
‘First time': Snake found on Aussie flight
A flight departing Melbourne was delayed for more than an hour on Tuesday afternoon after a surprise discovery, a snake inside the cargo hold. The reptile, believed to be a green tree snake, was found slithering among luggage on-board a Virgin Australia aircraft. It's suspected the snake hitched a ride in a suitcase from Queensland, where the flight had originated, and escaped during transit. Professional snake catcher Mark Pelley was called in to safely remove the animal. Mr Pelley told Sunrise that he'd caught lots of snakes at Melbourne airport but it was the first time he'd caught one on a plane. 'Snakes are everywhere. In Australia I find them in schools, factories, offices, businesses, airports, you name it, I find snakes. It's one of the things of being in our wonderful country,' he said. 'The snake was very scared. It wasn't angry. Snakes never try to hurt people. They're always trying to get away. This snake was in a position where it was almost behind the panels. 'Had I not caught it on the first go, it would have crawled behind the panels of the plane. They'd have had to evacuate the plane and I would have been with the engineering team pulling apart the plane.' Mr Pelley said the most important thing to know was 'snakes are usually the ones looking out for you'. 'If you come across a snake, leave it alone and do what Virgin Airlines did, which is stay away from the snake, watch it at a safe distance and call the closest snake catcher,' he said. The snake will be examined by a veterinarian before a decision is made about its future. Virgin Australia thanked passengers for their patience in the matter. Following the snake's removal, Virgin Australia flight VA337 to Brisbane resumed operations.
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
RSPCA, farmers unite in criticism of WA's 'grey' animal cruelty laws
Farmers and experts say Western Australia's animal welfare laws are no longer fit for purpose, leaving residents exposed to surprising legal risks. The state's Animal Welfare Act provides the framework for the care and welfare of animals, as well as defining various forms of cruelty. But experts say the laws, and the regulations that underpin them, are "too broad". RSPCA WA chief executive Ben Cave said it was often difficult to draw the line between a humane killing and animal cruelty. He said he was waiting for recommendations from a 2019 independent review of the act to be implemented and the law needed to be modernised. Teresa Collins, from Murdoch University's School of Veterinary Science, said the laws failed to take WA's diverse environment into account. "The same legislation needs to cover the management of rangeland cattle that hardly see humans up in our northern areas of WA, compared to the management of dairy cows and mainstream beef systems in our South West," she said. Thousands of kangaroos are hit by cars on roads every year and motorists are often unsure of what to do when an animal is injured. Professor Collins said the law provided little support or structure for what an individual — who may never have encountered an animal, let alone euthanased one — is meant to do in this situation. In a statement, WA's Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions said: "The best thing to do if you encounter displaced or injured native wildlife is to call the Wildcare Helpline on (08) 9474 9055." DBCA said the helpline gave advice on dealing with the animal and who to contact for assistance, including people with the authority to carry out euthanasia. When the ABC called the Wildcare Helpline at 5:30pm on a Thursday, a recorded message said there was a shortage of volunteers to take calls and directed callers to a website containing a list of wildlife organisations. "Science would say [the injured animal] needs to be humanely destroyed as soon as possible, but if you have no implement or you have no firearm on you or you don't have a licence to use one, then you would have to seek the help of someone," Professor Collins said. "Very small animals can be potentially humanely destroyed by blunt trauma, but that's not likely to be the case in kangaroos of reasonable weight. "It's a really challenging scenario because you would think that there would be some person available to assist within a reasonable time." Native wildlife is protected under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 which is enforced by DBCA but also sits under the Animal Welfare Act which is enforced by the RSPCA. The varying way the laws can be applied was evident in two recent high-profile cases. Last month, three men in the Goldfields were fined a total of nearly $130,000 for animal cruelty offences after bludgeoning a pigeon with a golf club multiple times. Last year Mid West livestock farmer Calvin Royce found eight of his young calves dead or dying after they were deliberately run over in a paddock by an intoxicated driver. The driver of the vehicle was jailed but was eligible for parole after two months. "It doesn't sit right with me," Mr Royce said. "It's a pigeon; they got the maximum fine for a pigeon. "I'm not condoning cruelty to any animal, a pigeon, a cow or whatever, but I think there is a big difference between killing some pretty innocent calves and killing a pigeon." WA Farmers president Steve McGuire said the term cruelty was open to individual interpretation based on a person's personal experience and knowledge. "What I might think is cruel, you might not. Putting that subjective term into law becomes problematic," he said. Mr McGuire said this was problematic in a legal setting, with officials only having two options under WA law: prosecute or do nothing. "If you go into a courtroom, you're dealing with a judge or prosecutor who [probably] don't have an agricultural background," he said. "We have a general population that is so far removed from agriculture, their knowledge is a vacuum." The RSPCA's Ben Cave said it was unlikely a farmer humanely euthanasing an injured animal would ever face prosecution. "Although I can't guarantee that because every prosecution is based on fact and context," he said. "Something that is simply not acceptable when a vet clinic might be 500 metres away may be acceptable in a different context where a vet clinic is 500 kilometres away." Professor Collins said producers needed better support and education to meet society's animal welfare expectations. But she said the general public also needed a better understanding and appreciation of food production. "Farmers are asked to be innovative to adopt the changes that science is suggesting, yet they still need to be profitable," she said. "The Australian public is very concerned about the care and treatment of animals and livestock, but there isn't a necessary increased willingness to pay by those same people to have their food produced in that manner. "Society often doesn't see the link between the changes they're asking from our producers and then not wanting to pay more for any changes made."
West Australian
6 hours ago
- West Australian
Emma Garlett: With its roots in mourning, NAIDOC Week is now a celebration
Today, NAIDOC Week is one of the most significant events on the Australian calendar. Around the country, we gather to celebrate the strength, courage, leadership and resilience of First Nations people throughout our history. We honour our elders and champion our youth. We hold walks and art exhibitions, family days and award ceremonies. There are festivals and sporting events and school assemblies. NAIDOC Week has its roots in an act of protest by Indigenous activists in Sydney, who held what they called the Day of Mourning back on January 26, 1938. From those beginnings, NAIDOC Week has grown into a week-long festival to not only mourn what we have lost but to commemorate our achievements and culture. Here in Perth, we'll hold the NAIDOC National Awards, celebrating the best of Blak excellence. It is what it is today in our State because of the hard work of our elders, including Glenda Kickett. Dr Kickett has spent the past 18 years on the NAIDOC Perth Committee, 17 of which she has been its chairwoman. She's seen the event grow from humble beginnings. 'When we started there wasn't any NAIDOC Week. We had our first ceremony in Forrest Place with a tiny tent. over the 18 years I have seen it grow so much,' she said. '(Today) there are so many events across Perth and WA. It is not just Aboriginal people it is non-Indigenous people getting involved.' This year's NAIDOC theme is The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy. Dr Kickett said it was essential that we have a pipeline of talent; young leaders who can celebrate the work that has been done already and build upon it. Leadership programs such as Miss NAIDOC and Mr NAIDOC helped to bring some of those young people to the fore, giving them the platform they need to strive for progress into the future. NAIDOC Week 2025 begins this Sunday and runs for eight days. And as important as it is, and as entrenched as it has become on the Australian calendar, Dr Kickett says NAIDOC Week isn't the be all and end all. 'We should be celebrating all the time, not just on NAIDOC week,' she said. As NAIDOC Week continues to grow, it is a powerful reminder of how far we have come, as First Nations peoples and as an inclusive Australian country. It is an opportunity to uplift the next generation of leaders and to bring the entire community together to learn, yarn and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and achievement. Emma Garlett is a legal academic and Nylyaparli-Yamatji-Nyungar woman
