Competition between kangaroos and domestic stock, by Maryland Wilson
The current justification for culling red kangaroos in the rangelands is to minimise the effect of competition between domestic stock and kangaroos for native pasture (Shepherd and Caughley 1987).
Below are some earth shattering conclusions documented by Steve McLeod in his thesis entitled 'The Foraging Behaviour of the Arid Zone Herbivores, the Red kangaroo and the Sheep and its Role in Their Competitive Interaction Population Dynamics and Life-History Strategies" (1996):
This study indicates that under most conditions Red kangaroos have a negligible effect on the productivity of sheep and that culling at these times is unjustified.
And further that sheep are potentially the dominant competitor and that kangaroos are disadvantaged by the sheep.
The Australian public and in fact the world community, must now demand answers from Australia's political representatives and their related bureaucracies. Why is it that most Australians STILL believe that kangaroos cause massive, broadscale competition (ie. for vegetation) when this is simply NOT the case. The two (Sheep and kangaroos) have different dietary requirement and compete little even during drought. We must persist with our question "Why has the Australian public not been informed of these facts?"
It can only be one conclusion and that is that too much money is at stake for the Australian people ever to be told the truth. Ever failing marginal rural enterprises consist of individuals who vote.
It would be foolish to presume the kangaroo issue is an environmental issue, it is first and foremost a political issue. The false perceptions of land holders has created a war against nature. ("The Kangaroo BETRAYED") Killing Kangaroos as a Resource/ Market Forces Dictate the kill. If you are under the impression that kangaroos are protected, think again. They are killed as a resource, a commodity from which to make as much profit as possible.
Official Australian government policy for the year 2000 is:
"Australian native wildlife is a renewable resource. If managed in an ecologically sustainable manner, wildlife can provide a perpetual source of economic benefits for all Australians" In fact, Michael Archer Head of the Australian Museum, Sydney NSW states that "farmers can get filthy stinking rich killing kangaroos".
Kangaroos are killed solely for their skins which are made into shoes. The kangaroo industry is predicated on the sale of skins for shoe manufacturers. If there were no market for these shoes made of kangaroo leather (skins), there would be no kangaroo industry. The leather is mainly exported to Italy and to the United States.
Kangaroo meat is a by-product of this kangaroo skin trade and it was only in 1992 that kangaroo meat became legal for human consumption in NSW, opening the way for all States to follow. In that year 1992, the NSW Labor Party fought very hard against it. The Reverend Fred Nile will always be remembered for the dubious distinction of his one vote that made it legal.
Now kangaroos are a resource, a commodity to be bartered and sold, rather than a stress prone, behaving, living, feeling biological entity that lives in rich, complex family mobs. One just needs to look at the exponential growth of the commercial quota figures for kangaroos over the past decade to get a sense of the market forces behind the kangaroo industry. Federal Minister Robert Hill will approve the 2000 export kangaroo kill quota.
Kangaroo Farming is not the answer to Land Degradation
Kangaroo farming has been presented as a panacea to land degradation.."save our soils - eat kangaroo" they claim. But 'kangaroo farming' is not and never will be the answer to land degradation. It is commercially unviable for a start, the productivity of live kangaroos has been overstated and it is socially unacceptable.
Quite apart from the social/ethical aspects of the debate there are many practical obstacles facing the would-be farmer. The reproductive capacity of kangaroos has been grossly overstated.
A female kangaroo only begins to breed in her second or even third year, after which she can produce a maximum of one offspring per year. The mortality rate of joeys is very high and obviously subject to stress, drought and flood. A young kangaroo is dependent on its mother until it is at least 14 months and thus cannot be sold or relocated as live young. More importantly for the would-be farmer, the young will die if the mother is shot too early.
Now compare this rate of reproduction with the breeding capacity of sheep.
They can produce twins. Lambs are independent of the mother within a few months and can be sold or relocated alive. Sheep begin to breed after one year.
Kangaroos only produce two commercial products, meat and skin. Both are one off requiring the kangaroo to be killed. Kangaroos don't grow wool. The relative ability to produce meat is also very poor. Lambs are slaughtered at the age of 3-9 months to produce up to 20kg of useful meat.
Kangaroos are simply too small to "harvest" until 18 months of age and then only 10% of a kangaroo can be butchered into useful cuts. A large adult male Red kangaroo of 60kg will thus only produce about 6kg of prime cut meat.
Considering the enormous costs involved in mobile chillers and processing plants, Cameron ("Recovering Ground" ACF- 1991) predicts: "An investment of $100,000 would require 45,000-65,000 kangaroo carcasses to maintain an unsustainable level of killing even when kangaroo numbers fell during times of drought."
Further, anyone who has ever tried to care for sick, injured or orphaned Australian wildlife will quickly testify to the lack of knowledge about kangaroos and the diseases which afflict them. The cause and treatment of disorders such as Lumpy- jaw, Coccidiosis and Post-Capture Myopathy remains a mystery. Little research has been done on this or the vast range of internal and external parasites which affect native animals.
The inability of kangaroos to be yarded, herded or easily handled makes veterinarian care and treatment difficult. Pre-kill inspection of animals is also not possible. "'Kangaroo farming' thus represents an unacceptable risk to anyone contemplating replacing their traditional stock with kangaroos.
The kangaroo is uniquely Australian and represents our most obvious and well known symbol of Australia.. There will always be people ready to point out the ethical issues. The arguments for farming kangaroos are no more than diversions and props for the increased commercial exploitation of the kangaroo and will do nothing to resolve the issues of land degradation.
