Confronting images have emerged on social media of brumby carcasses left to rot on the floodplains of the Snowy Mountains' most pristine waterways after winter culling programs.
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"Ah, you wouldn't believe the stench of it; rotting, maggoty carcasses everywhere," photographer Ian Brown said.
"We went walking up there on the long weekend and we counted 171 dead horses on a seven-kilometre section of the Australian Alps Walking Trail."
He said that most of the horses had been shot from the ground over the winter.
Mr Brown said while signs warn visitors they may see dead horses, nothing can prepare them for the smell.
"What we are seeing up there now is terrible for park visitors," he said.
Recently shot photographs and vision seen by The Canberra Times, but which we have chosen not to publish, shows numerous carcasses rotting on what appears to be a floodplain near Kiandra.
The imagery refuels the robust discussion around a proposed scale-up in the culling program using helicopters.
Culling of the horses is actively promoted as a means of protecting the waterway quality and flora degradation within our alpine national parks, but Mr Brown says that argument has now lost all credibility.
"It seems that this [opposition to the cull] is a lost cause and there will be a big lift in the shooting but if this is to go ahead, then where is the solution to protect the waterways?" he asked.
The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service disputed claims that the horse carcasses were in waterways.
"There are no horse carcasses currently in Tantangara Dam as a result of the wild horse control program," it said.
In a statement released two months ago, NSW National Parks said that "under the current Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan, the NSW government is legally required to reduce the wild horse population to 3000 in 32 per cent of the park by June 30, 2027".
NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe added: "we must consider the introduction of aerial shooting, carried out by skilled, highly trained shooters to the highest animal-welfare standards".
A proposed draft amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Act 2018, which would scale up the culling program significantly, is yet to be signed off by Ms Sharpe. Public consultation on the proposal has closed.
The ACT government has a zero-tolerance policy and last month shut seven nature reserves on its side of the border to conduct its "aerial control program". During the control program, there were 138 feral deer and 263 feral pigs shot between September 16 and 23. No horses were recorded as shot.
