JH would remember this

arren Anderson plans to shoot Tipperary station animals
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PM - Wednesday, 12 November , 2003 18:26:00
Reporter: Anne Barker
MARK COLVIN: There were bizarre scenes at Darwin airport today when the millionaire property developer, Warren Anderson, arrived from Perth, amid reports that he was planning to shoot hundreds of rare and exotic animals at his private zoo on the remote Tipperary station.

The Northern Territory Government was forced to feed the animals over a month ago, after Warren Anderson handed the station to new owners and the animal feed ran out. The Government has since sent Mr Anderson a hefty bill, and today the Supreme Court granted an urgent injunction prohibiting him from killing a single animal on the station.

As Anne Barker reports, the property developer today spoke angrily of shooting journalists instead.

REPORTER: Mr Anderson, what's the condition of the animals?

WARREN ANDERSON: You don't know what's happening.

ANNE BARKER: The man who owns arguably Australia's most unusual zoo walked into a media circus when he arrived at Darwin airport this afternoon.

REPORTER: Do you know what's happening, Mr Anderson? Can you tell us.

WARREN ANDERSON: Go away.

REPORTER: Are you considering shooting the animals?

WARREN ANDERSON: Go away, I have cared for them for fifteen years. Now go away.

REPORTER: Why aren't you caring for them now Mr Anderson?

WARREN ANDERSON: I spent $250,000 this year. How much do you earn a year?

REPORTER: Certainly not that much.

WARREN ANDERSON: Go away.

ANNE BARKER: Warren Anderson arrived in Darwin with a rifle bag, apparently to shoot his entire collection of rare and endangered animals at the private wildlife sanctuary he set up on the vast Tipperary Station.

2,200 animals, among them giraffes, zebras, a pygmy hippopotamus, a scimitar-horned oryx and one of the world's rarest species, a white rhinoceros, have effectively been on death row since Mr Anderson abandoned them when he sold the station earlier this year.

The Northern Territory Government was forced to pick up the $13,000 tab for animal feed when the wildlife sanctuary manager Kevin Freeman complained more than a month ago that the food supply had run out.

But today an angry Mr Anderson denied he'd neglected the animals and revealed he would pay the bill.

WARREN ANDERSON: It's a lousy $13,000, payable by the end of December.

REPORTER: What's that for?

WARREN ANDERSON: Hay.

REPORTER: For hay? And the figure of $70,000?

REPORTER: Where does that come from?

WARREN ANDERSON: Someone has manufactured it in their minds...

REPORTER: Where was the misunderstanding Mr Anderson, where was the misunderstanding?

WARREN ANDERSON: � like you people always do. Go away.

ANNE BARKER: But the Government's more immediate worry was Mr Anderson's threat to shoot the animals, rather than pay for their continued upkeep. When he sold the station the new owners gave him two years to dispose of his private zoo and Kevin Freeman today told the Supreme Court that Mr Anderson had rung him last night threatening to shoot the lot.

KEVIN FREEMAN (testimony): I'll be up there to sort it out tomorrow, I'll be bringing some big boys with some big guns and we're going to smoke everything.

ANNE BARKER: Almost as Mr Anderson stepped off the plane, the Supreme Court granted an injunction prohibiting him from shooting, killing or disposing of a single animal on the station.

But oblivious to the court order, Mr Anderson gave reporters no guarantees the animals wouldn't be shot.

REPORTER: Sir, the Government's obviously concerned you're going to try and shoot the animals.

WARREN ANDERSON: So what? They belong to me.

REPORTER: And will you shoot them? What are the guns for?

WARREN ANDERSON: To protect myself from pests.

REPORTER: Will you be taking the guns to the property?

WARREN ANDERSON: I can't use them on the pests, because it's against the law. You're a grub. You're a grub.

REPORTER: Speaking of grubs, what about all the animals on the farm, though?

WARREN ANDERSON: You go down there and have a look and see whether there's one animal that's starved.

REPORTER: And what will we find?

WARREN ANDERSON: You won't find any.

REPORTER: So what made your park manager...?

WARREN ANDERSON: Officer, can you tell this bloke to go away from me? Please ask him because otherwise I'll deal with him.

ANNE BARKER: And even after Mr Anderson finally drove away, leaving the media behind, a police car pulled him over to check the paperwork for his rifle was in order.

MARK COLVIN: Anne Barker reporting.