About 700 koalas were culled in Australia via lethal injection by a secret government campaign, a state minister revealed Wednesday.
The Australian reported that the marsupials were euthanized in three rounds during 2013 and 2014 to control their booming populations in Cape Otway, where they number 11 per hectare. By comparison, Victoria has a more sustainable rate of 1 per hectare.
"It is clear it's an overpopulation issue and it is clear that we have had koalas suffer in that Cape Otway area because of ill health and starvation," said Environment Minister Lisa Neville.
"Experience suggests that moving these koalas does not work and that can in fact cause even greater suffering," she said, explaining the decision to quietly cull the growing herd.
Frank Fotinas, who runs the Bimbi Park Caravan Park at Cape Otway, echoed Neville's call for euthanasia.
"A lot more were dying naturally than were euthanized,"
he told ABC Online. "The whole of the cape smelled of dead koalas. It smelled like death."
Neville explained that the koalas were sedated before being euthanized, and that some healthy females captured were released after being implanted with hormone-based fertility control devices.
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