This Politician Wants A Sniper To Take Out Penguin-Murdering Dogs

Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson wants Tasmania to adopt a policy already rolled out in Sydney.

Australian Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson says an army sniper could be used to kill dogs preying on penguins in Tasmania's north-west.

Lukas Coch / AAPIMAGE

A local resident of the Tasmanian town of Stanley found 14 dead penguins at a penguin viewing area on Sunday night. The penguins are believed to have been killed by dogs in the area.

Flickr: rumpleteaser

"It is time to take stronger action than mitigation measures to make it's harder for the dogs to get into penguin burrows," senator Whish-Wilson told the ABC.

"We could train guard dogs to protect the penguin burrows as has been done in some other places or we could, like they did in 2009 and 2015 in Sydney, hire professional snipers to shoot rogue dogs."

"The little penguins simply cannot defend themselves against dogs."

Social media took the news that another Australian politician was plotting to kill dogs predictably well.

Colley @JamColley

ADVISOR: We're trying to win votes and everyone's obsessed with ape shooting. What do we do? GREENS SENATOR: Get me my rifle and a pooch.

01:13 AM - 01 Jun 2016

Neggy Gearo @bortofdarkness

I like to think there is a happy middle ground between penguins getting eaten and someone's pet dog getting sniped.

01:13 AM - 01 Jun 2016

Dave Krantz @weskrantz

How good is it going to be for the person who will get to put "dog sniper" on their resume https://t.co/qLvcOY2FB3

01:06 AM - 01 Jun 2016

Alex McKinnon @mckinnon_a

disgraceful that the so-called "progressive" Greens have stolen Barnaby Joyce's dog-killing policy smdh https://t.co/ik4upNpyDU

01:05 AM - 01 Jun 2016

Lachlan Williams @williamslachlan

Now two of the four major political parties want to shoot people's dogs.

01:22 AM - 01 Jun 2016

Marksmen have been used in the other parts of Australia to stop dogs and foxes from killing Australia's growing penguin population.

In 2015, a fox was shot and killed after it went on a penguin-killing rampage on Sydney's North Head.