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Kangaroo
Kill Quotas
1975 - 2000
The
2000 kangaroo kill quota is 5, 516, 225
but the quota figures do not represent the total kill of kangaroos
as the federal Government is able to set quotas for export only.
Kangaroos are killed as a renewable resource. This means that
kangaroos can now be legally killed simply because they are
there. There is an illegal kill, a kill to feed farmers dogs,
a road kill, a sadistic cruelty kill. In fact, Australia now
exposes generations of young children to a killing regime which
teaches them that kangaroos have no value unless they are commercially
killed for profit.
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The
commercial kill quotas for export
from 1975 - 1999 are:
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1975
- 885,00
1976
- 1,467,000
1977 - 1,553,000
1978 - 1,647,000
1979 - 2,769,000
1980 - 2,885,000
1981 - 3,032,500
1982 - 3,316,000
1983 - 3,143,000 |
1984
- 1,988,000
1985
- 1,986,000
1986 - 2,673,600
1987 - 2,804,400
1988 - 2,969,800
1989 - 3,589,900
1990 - 3,966,650
1991 - 4,238.800
1992 - 5,207,700 |
1993
- 4,804,100
1994
- 4,170,000
1995 - 3,636,556
1996 - 3,723,000
1997 - 4,353,800
1998 - 4,090,140
1999 - 5,668,416
2000 - 5,516,225 |
While
the state of Victoria , ostensibly does not allow commercial
killing, many thousands of kangaroos are killed each year
under a permit system, only for 'pest' control purposes. However,
in 1998, a $2 million Game Meat Processing Plant, 'The Natural
Australian Meat Company' opened in Laverton, Victoria to export
'quality' kangaroo meat (sourced we are told) "from the
western plains of NSW". It seems strange that a kangaroo
game meat processing plant was built in the State where there
is no commercial killing (Victoria), instead of being close
to the source of supply in NSW. And just what does improved,
better 'quality' kangaroo meat mean in their advertising?
In their promotion, Deb Ganderton writes: ."However,
the industry still has a way to go
to supply, say, a 12 month old Big Red from northern NSW.
Click
on graph to view
enlarged version.
Even
the beef industry would find it difficult to supply such a specific
request." As markets for kangaroo products have increased,
so has the numbers of kangaroos killed. The general trend has
been a steady increase in the state quotas since 1975. "Critical
questions which must be answered intelligently are how much
exploitation can a population stand without losing ground and,
how much ground can a population lose before the loss becomes
critical to a species survival?"
Or
to put it another way the annual harvest must not exceed the
equivalent of the natural harvest, I.e. the number of young
which can be expected to reach maturity. The industry which
ignores this principle is doomed to self-destruction.. "In
their rapid disappearance from natural haunts, owing
to man's disturbing activities, the swing of the pendulum
is towards the wholesale decrease which presages extinction".
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"
Last
night
as you slept, 20,000
kangaroos and their joeys were killed
by the commercial
kangaroo
industry."
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