Good meat hygiene, wherever practiced, includes the following:

1. Independent ante-mortem inspection;
2. Quiet and rapid death;
   
3. Severance of blood vessels allowing for complete bleeding of carcass;
   
4. non-severance of oesophagus;
   
5. Freedom from aerial dust
   
6. An impervious killing floor which can be thoroughly cleaned;
   
7. Adequate potable water for cleaning of animals, implements; the killing floor, the slaughter person
   
8. Independent post-mortem inspection
   
9. Rapid removal of carcass to lower temperature storage

In the slaughter of kangaroos in the field most of these requirements cannot be, or are not met:

1. Ante-mortem inspection is carried out by the shooter.
   
2. Many animals are not killed outright. If they are unable to escape they are variously bludgeoned or killed by other delayed means.
   
3. Kangaroos are bled by sticking the heart. This is unacceptable for domestic animals.
   
4. The New South Wales standards allow for severance of the oesophagus.
   
5. Kangaroo killing occurs in the dry season often where kangaroos congregate
   and dust is present per se and due to disturbance of killing vehicle.
   
6. Kangaroos are killed on the g round where the death agony results in coating
   the skin with soil and raising a dust cloud.
   
7. The amount of water required to be carried by New South Wales meat shooters is
   20 litres (approximately 5 gallons or 50% of the petrol tank of a small car). Cleanliness cannot be practiced under such conditions.
   
8. Post-mortem inspection is carried out by the shooter.
   
9. Post-mortem handling may be delayed to suit the field activities of the shooter.

Clearly the standards required of kangaroo killers taking meat fall far short of those required by normal abattoirs. If an abattoir practiced such standards it would be delicensed. Indeed many small hygienic slaughter houses having impervious killing floors, walls, freedom from dust, ample potable water, rest rooms sanitary arrangements for slaughter persons and so on, have been closed by the same authorities which license the taking of kangaroo meat. The putative reason being the inability of such small abattoirs to meet the cost of independent meat inspection.

I suggest that you obtain a copy of the New South Wales Code of Practice for Kangaroo Meat for Human Consumption issued by the Department of Health and the Meat Industry Authority New South Wales Government Bookshop 02 9743 7200 and compare the un-supervised standards for kangaroo meat with the requirements for normal abattoirs.

11,500 Australians are succumbing to food poisoning each day from a pain in the tummy to serious food poisoning resulting in 500 deaths a year. This demonstrates that even the standards for normal abattoir practice cannot isolate meat from contamination. ('The Australian' February 17, 2000).

Dr John Auty, former Assistant Director, Department of Primary Industry, conducted internal inquiry into meat inspection at time of meat substitution scandal.

Good Meat Hygiene has been Prepared by Maryland Wilson
President of The Australian Wildlife Protection Council
Editor: "The Kangaroo BETRAYED!"
National / International Kangaroo Campaign Coordinator