RURAL communities are returning serve after animal activists used regional billboards to campaign against livestock production earlier this year.

Property Rights Australia is producing a series of billboards to explain the reality of what is happening in rural and regional landscapes, president Jim Wilmott said.

“The time has come to rally rural and regional communities to correct the record, to stand up and unite and tell the truth to our fellow Australians,” he said.

“Activists continue to run the narrative that rural and regional Australians are environmental vandals.

“This is clearly false and communities have had enough.

“Farmers were one of the original instigators of the Landcare movement in Australia, we are the communities that produce the food and fibre that feeds and clothes Australians and many other people around the globe, and we are the communities that continue to call out the environmental destruction and industrialisation of our landscapes from the reckless roll out of renewables.”

Mr Willmot said recent billboard advertising by animal activist groups in Rockhampton claiming that eating meat kills koalas was not only incorrect but ignored independent expert scientific opinion.

“The reality is Beef producers work tirelessly to harmonise their farms with the natural environment – predators and weeds are proactively controlled and cattle grazing on private property and State forests reduces undergrowth leading to potentially less intense fires which create habitats that foster larger Koala populations.

“This view is consistent with those expressed by Dr Bill Ellis in early June 2023 in published research following 35 years of in field study. (See earlier article: Why some of the largest and healthiest koala populations are found in cattle grazing areas)

“The Queensland Government notes that Koalas face a range of environmental stresses including loss of grasslands from thickening, encroachment, and weeds, urban development, impacts from high intensity bushfires and climate variability, disease, dog and feral cat attacks and car strikes.

“If we continue to let activist groups lead the narrative the community will believe we are killing Koala populations and destroying the environment. This is simply untrue and misleading,” said Mr Willmott.

PRA is calling for community support to help fund more billboards and other initiatives.

Source: PRA