RSPCA Victoria believes wildlife across the state deserve strong protection and has made 18 recommendations to the government’s inquiry into wildlife roadstrike.
The submission highlights the need for updates to Victoria’s animal welfare and wildlife legislation, providing funding for the wildlife carer and response sector, ensuring a clear pathway for reporting and responding to roadstrike incidents, and to prioritise protecting wildlife from the impact of development.
RSPCA Victoria’s Head of Prevention, Rebecca Cook, said the organisation welcomed the opportunity to provide a submission to the inquiry.
“Wildlife being hit by vehicles is a serious and growing[1] problem,” Ms Cook said.
“It causes significant adverse animal welfare impacts for all kinds of wild animals, including vulnerable species, and is also a serious risk to human safety causing an increasing number of injuries to people[2].
“An estimated 4 million marsupials and 6 million birds across Australia are impacted by roadstrike every year,[3] and with the rescue, response and reporting framework required to assist animals hit by cars decentralised and significantly under resourced, work to address this issue is urgently needed.”
RSPCA Victoria is urging the Victorian Government to:
- Release the Independent Panel’s report into the review of the Wildlife Act 1975 and the Government’s response to this with a view to strengthening protections for our native wildlife
- Table the Animal Care and Protection Bill in Parliament to safeguard the welfare of all animals in the state
- Provide funding for the wildlife care and response sector, including veterinary services, to ensure responses to wildlife roadstrike are timely and meet expected standards of care
- Ensure easy centralised incident reporting for drivers that connects to those responding to roadstrike incidents to improve animal welfare outcomes
- Prioritise the avoidance and minimisation of impact on wild animals during planning stages for development projects
- Invest in infrastructure such as fencing and over- and under-passes, and invest in research into emerging technologies to mitigate roadstrike incidents such as:
- using artificial intelligence to train roadside cameras to detect animals nearby or on the road, which can then activate lights or a message on a roadside ‘smart sign’ to warn oncoming drivers
- in-car technology such as applications to warn drivers when they are approaching a wildlife hotspot based on GPS location
- the use of natural warning sounds across various technology, such as using kangaroo warning ‘thumps’ to deter animals from coming onto roads more effectively
“With only 1 in 5 people[4] ‘definitely’ knowing what to do if their car hit a wild animal, it’s vital the government implements a statewide education and awareness campaign to achieve better outcomes for animals and people,” Ms Cook continued.
RSPCA advocates for the implementation of strategies to avoid adverse welfare impacts on local populations of wild animals and/or their habitat caused by human activities.
For more information, visit RSPCA Knowledgebase here.
Read the RSPCA’s submission to the inquiry here.
1 Wildlife Victoria, 2024. Wildlife Road Toll Reduction Toolkit. Wildlife Victoria: Victoria.
2 Victoria Police Traffic Incident System (TIS) data as provided to RSPCA Victoria
3 WSP, 2024. Using technology to reduce wildlife vehicle collisions: literature review and directions paper. New South Wales: Transport for New South Wales.
