Appeal Court overturns judgement: Booth vs Frippery update

The Court of Appeal has upheld an appeal by conservationist Dr Carol Booth against a judgement that would have allowed farmers to kill wildlife, on the grounds of crop protection, without a permit.

Wildlife Queensland says......
Now that the judgement has been overturned, we are optimistic that the retrial will produce a positive outcome. However, it is yet more community resources that will have to be contributed to enforce the law. It should be a straightforward legal matter that a fruit grower who has admitted killing thousands of flying foxes (without a permit) should be held liable for those deaths. We hope justice will prevail.

The Booth v Frippery case, involving a fruit farmer accused of contravening the Nature Conservation Act 1992 by killing flying foxes on electric grids, has been sent for retrial to the Planning and Environment Court.

The bench of the Court of Appeal heard the case on 27 February 2006 and delivered its judgement on 17 March 2006.

'While it's great the community now has the capacity to take on such cases under third party rights (used for the first time in this case), I hope we can soon move beyond the need to have to spend community resources in stopping such blatant breaches of the law,' said Dr Booth, the plaintiff in the case.

'We shouldn't have to run these cases. We need the government to acknowledge that a simple ban can't be enforced because these grids are used on private property at night. They are large-scale killers and need to be dismantled permanently. It's time to bring down the grids so that we can all move on,' she added.

Background information on the Booth vs Frippery case.

More information on flying foxes

For more information on Wildlife Queensland's activities, contact us by email or call +61 7 3221 0194

Wildlife Queensland March 2006