Aussie homeowner's epic 17km act to remove 'silent killer' from new bush property
Doug Gimesy was excited to move into his new home last year when a disturbing encounter dramatically changed the trajectory of the next 10 months of his daily life. On the very day he moved in, he spotted a kangaroo caught upside down on the barbed wire fence that circled his vast rural property.
"We moved down here in May and the first day at our new home we saw an eastern grey kangaroo caught in the top two barbed wire lines of our fence," he told Yahoo News Australia. "That moment did two things.
"Of course we cut the fence so it could escape, but I also decided, 'Not on my watch'," he recalled.
The next day he marched to the perimeter of his Wongarra property in Victoria, armed with "a pair of small bolt cutters", and began to hand cut the wire, line by line, to lower the fence so wildlife could cross more easily.
"I'd spend two to three hours a day cutting the wire and hand roll it for recycling... I cut each line from each post and after about 100 metres I would hand roll it and then start again... I literally walked all the fence lines of my property twice after realising I had to remove both of the top wires, not only the one," he said.
The mammoth task has ended with 17 kilometres worth of barbed wire being removed, with Doug admitting the job was more a "labour of compassion" than a labour of love.
"If there's something on your property that is going to inflict pain, get rid of it," he said matter-of-factly.
Doug, a conservation and animal welfare photojournalist, told Yahoo News it was a tiring task but one he deemed necessary due to the "brutal" nature of barbed wire. It's well-documented how hazardous it can be for a range of wildlife that can get caught in it.
"I'm really aware of how brutal barbed wire is," he said. "80 species have been recorded to be caught in it and it's the lucky ones that are found... others spend hours, if not days, caught in pain and eventually die a horrible death," he said. "They're designed to inflict pain."
Barbed wire has been dubbed a "silent killer" of wildlife and rescuers across the country continue to flag the horrific injuries it can cause. Kangaroos have been found with necrotic limbs, birds have almost had their wings torn off and a bat's penis was even impaled by a barb.
While Doug's task was a mighty one, there are many small steps being taken by Aussies to make their backyards more habitable for wildlife. Residents are creating makeshift animal shelters, from the bustling Sydney suburbs where Marita Ekengard made a possum shelter from $10 worth of Bunnings materials to Stephen Forrest and his grandson Tom making a bird box from natural finds in one-acre property in WA's Kimberley region.
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