Aldi Withdraws Dangerous Product That Could Kill Endangered Australian Wildlife, After Media Pressure

Discount supermarket chain, Aldi, has pulled a garden product from its shelves nationally after wildlife rescuers raised concerns that the item could entangle and kill native animals, as first reported by Yahoo News Australia.

The $23 Gardenline Trellis and Net Kit was withdrawn just hours before it was due to go on sale as part of the retailer’s rotating Special Buys range. The product has since been removed from Aldi’s website.

The withdrawal came after wildlife advocates raised questions about whether the holes in the kit’s netting were large enough to trap flying foxes and birds. Aldi did not provide measurements for the mesh holes prior to the product being pulled.

Rescue group sounded the alarm

The bat rescue organisation, Fly By Night, flagged the issue on social media, with its coordinators writing: “We have a serious concern.”

The group’s Founder, Tamsyn Hogarth, contacted Aldi directly but did not receive a response. Her message to the company urged it to “step up” and disclose the size of the mesh holes.

Yahoo News Australia reported that it wrote to Aldi requesting information about the product but the supermarket chain was unable to respond before the outlet’s deadline. An hour after Yahoo published an initial version of the story, the retailer confirmed the sale had been cancelled across the country.

It remains unclear whether the product would have met Victoria’s regulatory standards for garden netting. Aldi has not confirmed the size of the holes.

Victoria’s netting restrictions

The Victorian state government has banned any garden netting with holes larger than 5mm x 5mm when stretched. The regulation was introduced to protect native wildlife, particularly flying foxes and birds, which can become entangled in loose netting and suffer injuries or death.

In NSW, no equivalent ban exists, though the state government advises against the use of netting with large holes on animal welfare grounds.

The incident is not isolated within the retail sector. Last year, Big W, the discount department store chain owned by Woolworths Group, apologised after sending banned netting to a customer in Victoria.

Searches at discount stores across Victoria have also found illegal products still being sold on shelves, despite the ban.

Online platforms also under scrutiny

The problem extends beyond bricks-and-mortar retailers. Several online platforms, including eBay, Temu and Amazon, have stated they have outlawed the sale of non-compliant netting. However, Yahoo News Australia reported that a search on those websites found the products were still available for purchase.

The gap between stated policy and enforcement on online marketplaces highlights an ongoing challenge in preventing wildlife-harmful products from reaching consumers.

A species under pressure

The grey-headed flying fox, one of the species most at risk from garden netting and barbed wire fencing, has seen its population decline by up to 95 per cent since European settlement. Habitat destruction has been the primary driver, and the species is now listed as threatened with extinction.

When flying foxes become entangled in netting or wire, they are frequently strangled or left with injuries that are difficult to survive. Rescuers often find animals that have been hanging for hours before anyone notices them.

Hogarth, who also runs wildlife rescue operations involving barbed wire entanglement, described how councils have been slow to act on similar hazards on public land.

“When I speak to councils, I just can’t get them to take action on anything,” she told Yahoo News Australia. “You go around in circles, they say we’ll have to put it in our budget, and you just get pushed around.”

“Often it’s not even for security, we’re just dealing with some random barbed wire in the middle of a park that’s not doing anything.”

Private landowners stepping in

In one case in Victoria’s southwest, a private property owner removed more than 600 metres of barbed wire from their fence line after a grey-headed flying fox became entangled and died. The wire was stripped over a two-day period, around two weeks after Hogarth made contact with the landholder.

“We reached out… and they were really quick in getting onto the problem,” Hogarth recounted.

“I explained to them that there are other options to barbed wire that don’t risk wildlife. And this was the second incidence of a threatened species being caught and they needed to do something.”

The speed of the private response stood in contrast to the bureaucratic processes Hogarth has encountered when dealing with local councils.

“When we speak to councils, they won’t even let us volunteer to remove it, because of [occupational health and safety] and insurance,” she observed.

A pattern of reactive responses

Aldi’s decision to pull the product before it reached shelves avoided a situation in which potentially harmful netting could have been distributed to backyards across the country. However, the fact that the item reached the point of a national rollout before being withdrawn raises questions about product review processes at the retailer.

Woolworths and Coles have previously been acknowledged for pulling similar products from their ranges following pressure from wildlife groups.

The recurring pattern across multiple retailers suggests that the screening of garden products for wildlife safety remains inconsistent, and that advocacy groups such as Fly By Night continue to fill a gap that regulation alone has not closed.

For a species whose numbers have already collapsed, every individual matters, and so does every product that could put them at risk.

Last Updated on September 5, 2026 by Nick Ross