Jimminy was just a tiny foal when he was found wandering alone amid a scene of brutal slaughter, orphaned after 600 Brumbies were gunned down in an aerial cull. The local people of Bidyadanga in the Kimberley had notified me of what had happened but I still wasn’t prepared for what I saw.
It was 2008. We were surrounded by what resembled a war zone. Dead horses, many pregnant, lay strewn all over Frazier Downs. Most had been shot multiple times and others, terrified and wounded, had charged blindly through barbed wire fences in an effort to escape. Young foals lay dead near their mothers. Several were also dead in and around a set of stockyards and windmills with water troughs, blocking other livestock and animals from access to water.
It was later found that not all of the horses killed were wild Brumbies—some were privately owned and others had been kept by Traditional Owners for stock work. All were killed, however, by a government order to remove horses not managed on pastoral properties, something that I felt sent the wrong message without any accountability.
Jimminy was the only one left alive so we rescued him and took him back to the Bidyadanga community to care for him. Thankfully, Brumby advocate Libby Lovegrove was there to help. She took him in and the little orphan spent his days playing with new human friends and dogs and sleeping inside Libby’s home on a mattress. Sadly, despite everyone’s best efforts, Jimminy was only a newborn and needed his mum to survive. He passed away after twelve days in our care but he was loved while he was here.