MELBOURNE, June 15 (Xinhua) -- A group of Australian conservationists on Thursday launched a campaign to eradicate the legal culling of iconic wombats.
The Wombat Warriors group has amassed thousands of signatures on a petition calling on the Tasmanian government to stop issuing culling permits for wombats.
Under current rules, farmers in Tasmania can apply for a permit that allows them to kill up to 50 wombats in any given year.
More than 50 of the permits were issued in 2016, paving the way for up to 2,500 of the marsupials to be killed.
Conservationists have called for the permits to be ceased until the state's entire wombat population can be successfully treated for the lethal sarcoptic mange disease which has decimate wombat populations across Australia.
Jeremy Rockliff, Tasmania's Primary Industries Minister, said that the number of permits granted had been reduced to four so far in 2017 in response to mange.
"We're very mindful of the fact we need to work on the issue of mange, that's why you've seen a reduction in the number of permits that have been issued," he told Australian media.
"We've tightened the rules and regulations considerably."
But John Harris, founder of Wombat Warriors, said that the situation was becoming comparable to that of the Tasmanian Tiger before it went extinct.
"Four permits at 50 wombats, you've got to ask yourself is someone going to be doing a body count."
"These are healthy living wombats in the midst of what would have to be deemed a plague on a native animal."
"I just keep reminding myself that the Tasmanian government only declared help for the (Tasmanian) Tiger 56 days before it went extinct, so we're just trying to head that off at the pass."
