"The nature and method of slaughter cannot be ignored. It is barbaric and inhumane. Each night thousands of animals are butchered, many are maimed, the young in pouch are cruelly dispatched and the young at foot are left to fend for themselves. Any reasonable person would not wish to be a party to this slaughter by purchasing kangaroo products." 

Former Senator George Georges (Queensland) heard evidence about kangaroo killing for three and a half years as Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Animal Welfare from December 9th, 1983 to June 5th, 1987. (Preface of "The Kangaroo BETRAYED!).

"The cruelty and suffering that we have already seen in the native animal industries means that this is no longer an experiment. Hundreds of thousands of kangaroos each year are not killed humanely, emu chicks in Western Australia are "de-toed" without anaesthesia to reduce risks to handlers, and possums in Tasmania are trapped, transported and killed over a period that now has blown out to anything up to 48 hours. The trade in wildlife is a trade based on profit, without any place for compassion." (Foreword of 'The Kangaroo BETRAYED!' Professor Peter Singer)

Kangaroos are shot in the Australian outback by spotlighting at night. One million joeys die alone. Three aspects cause great cruelty:

1. Because head shots are attempted, these may not strike the brain but injure the head including the mouth. These kangaroos escape into the scrub outside the spotlight's beam and will die over several days from their horrific injuries and starvation. 
2. In-pouch joeys are killed by stomping on them or bashing them with a stick or against a vehicle. Several blows may be necessary. 
3. Ex-pouch joeys are still reliant on their mother's milk for protein, warmth in the cold winter's nights, protection from predators, and they are dependent on their mothers for psychic support. They spend time in and out of the pouch and when their mothers are killed, they are left to fend for themselves.

Video evidence is available in the ABC documentary "Kangaroos - Faces in the Mob" and the explicit cruelty in the International Fund for Animal Welfare film of Greg Eichner, NSW shooter - farmer. "The kangaroo killing and game meat lobby can no longer conceal the extreme brutality of their trade. For years we have been calling for an end to this industry which causes the lingering death of 1,000,000 joeys. These joeys similar to the joey Jaffa in 'Faces in the Mob' are orphaned when their mothers are shot in the so-called harvest." (Dr John Auty)

All decent Australians should become active in calling upon Federal and State politicians to outlaw this trade - a trade as horrible as the slow slaughter of whales and the clubbing to death of seals or any of the other terrible abuses of wildlife around the world.

Aside from the cruelty which is inherent in the commercial kangaroo killing industry, one land holder in Western NSW has described "pitting" which is the digging of pits to bury kangaroos that have been killed illegally. These same land holders want to legally increase their income by skin only shooting which is more cruel than the carcass trade. They can shoot the kangaroos inhumanely as long as the skin itself is not damaged for the export markets and it is not detected (impossible to police).

Skin only shooting is not only more cruel but it is also open to many illegal abuses. The NSW NPWS fought a Court Case in 1996 to stop this trade and won. Now the landholders have 'friends' in political circles who they are lobbying to reopen the skin only trade in NSW. Kangaroos are killed primarily for their leather and skins. Many millions of kangaroos are killed for the shoe leather trade to Italy and the USA. 

NSW farmers have threatened to use political pressure to get what they want (that is, less kangaroos). The welfare of kangaroos is only paid lip service and are the scapegoats for falling prices and incomes. A Tibooburra, NSW farmer (1999) found over 139 kangaroos dead in his front garden from poisoning (the killing is not policed). NSW land holders want kangaroos to come under the control of the Department of Agriculture and taken away from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and they are using their political clout to ensure kangaroo numbers are reduced to "tolerable" levels, which may be zero numbers of kangaroos.