On
April 10, 1995 after many years of lobbying by Australian Wildlife
Authorities, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service removed
kangaroos from their Threatened Species List. This means that
Australia is not accountable to anyone for the way it treats
kangaroos. Make no mistake, the commercial kangaroo killing
industry is the world's largest wildlife slaughter and Australia
is responsible for one of the highest rates of extinction on
the planet.
Politicians
who want the votes of rural land holders, scientists who want
scarce funding and notoriety, and wildlife authorities who want
to hold onto their jobs, have long since forfeited whatever
shred of moral and ethical integrity that they may have once
had in their support of this brutally cruel industry. The Australian
people were never asked if they wanted kangaroos to be killed
as a renewable resource for commercial gain.
Australian
scientists defy natural selection by condoning or turning a
blind eye to the killing of the biggest and best (usually Red)
kangaroos for the skin and leather trade to supply United States,
European, and Asian markets (shoes, baseball gloves, golf bags,
gloves, handbags etc). They ignore the killing of young one
to two year old (Red) kangaroos for the human meat trade, which
is destroying the genetic strength and health of kangaroo populations.
The shooters want the big alpha males that carry the best genes,
because it is these kangaroos that make the most profit.
"In
any wild animal, if you disrupt in a short period of time the
normal reproduction processes that have evolved over tens of
thousands of years, you are in danger of putting the species
at risk. The real danger in this practice has been a change
in the social and biological make-up of these wild populations."
('The Kangaroo BETRAYED!')
While
expert in their field, the majority on Environment Minister
Robert Hill's 'Scientific Committee for Wildlife Use' do not
possess the expertise required for the very specific behavioural,
psychological, biological, dietary needs and requirements for
kangaroos. They attempt to justify the indefensible kangaroo
killing industry but are incapable of making decisions about
their welfare. To even have a Committee about WILDLIFE USE
is morally bankrupt. Australia's kangaroos have been in Australia
since time immemorial. There should be no use of our wildlife
unless it is non-consumptive.
The
semi-arid Rangelands are the habitat for kangaroos, which has
been severely degraded by landholders overgrazing sheep, cattle
and feral animals. With falling prices for farm products, landholders
need a scapegoat so they blame kangaroos. But kangaroos have
been an integral part of Australia's fragile ecosystem for thousands
and thousands of years, long before white man settled Australia
just over 200 years ago. Kangaroos have not, cannot and do not
destroy the land and are worth more alive than dead to the rural
economy.
Research
concludes that sheep, cattle, goats and feral animals, are the
real destroyers of the land and the culprits of land degradation
but the rural Australian carries on as usual and scientists,
politicians and wildlife authorities are 'corrupted' by the
system.
The
Director of the Australian Museum, Palaeontologist Michael Archer
actually tells farmers they " can get filthy stinking rich
killing kangaroos" which is a gross lie and contrary to
Queensland's Principal Agricultural Economist J. R. Peter Hardman
"to replace cattle and sheep with kangaroos is economically
unviable." The lies continue.
Kangaroos
are regarded as a pest or a resource both of which means that
they will be killed well before their time. And how do they
die? At least 15% die a horrible lingering death, many with
indescribable injuries. Some are body shot in the spine, stomach,
lungs, some have jaws blown away, eyes, cheeks, limbs, to face
starvation and unbearable pain. Mothers are shot, joeys are
torn from the safety of their pouches. Out of pouch joeys flee
in terror to be downed by a fox or to die from hypothermia,
psychic depravation, and hunger without the warmth of their
dead mother's pouch. (Verbal and written evidence)
Official
Policy is contained in 'Commercial Harvesting of Kangaroos in
Australia'
"Harvesting
will invariably involve some injuries and protracted deaths.
To harvest a sustained yield from a population at steady density,
it first must be manipulated in some way to promote the rate
of increase."
"Rates
of harvest may be raised to levels at which they can cause the
extinction of the populations. Arguments will be confounded
when there are non-consumptive values attached to the resource
such as for Tourism."
"How
lonely the outback would be without 'Big Red' and his cousins,
the wallaroos and greys, centre stage. We have seen many a commercial
wildlife enterprise, especially fisheries, crash when due regard
is not paid to the conservation objectives.We all know how it
goes - first you set a size limit and take all the big ones,
then over time they get smaller and smaller until they dip below
the size limit. The pressures of a high investment in infrastructure
then demands a reassessment of the size limit, and off we go
again until the stock disappears."
"Well
perhaps I exaggerate? We are now sometimes wise enough to close
the enterprise before the end game. Even so, why should the
commercial kangaroo industry in its lethal harvest of a natural
resource be the only player?"
"I
might wish to create a sustainable (ecological and economic)
wildlife tourism enterprise based on Big Red Under Big Skies.
For this I don't want his little brother! Don't cheat me out
of my natural heritage!" ('When Big is Beautiful: Some
Consequences of Bias in Kangaroo Killing' Dr David Croft 'The
Kangaroo BETRAYED!')
Those
of us who know the facts cannot rest until this nightmare is
over. We call for an end to the commercial kangaroo killing
industry because it is cruel, unsustainable and cannot be policed
or controlled. Please help us America!
Maryland
Wilson
President
Australian Wildlife Protection Council
June 2000
