As a part of this year’s Australia Day promotion, the burger chain Grill’d is currently advertising a novelty burger called “The Coat of Arms Burger” containing kangaroo and emu meat.

The consumption of kangaroo meat is inhumane and misrepresented as a healthy, environmental alternative to livestock meat. The sale of these burgers promotes an industry that orphans countless joeys every year when adult female kangaroos are shot leaving their at-foot juveniles with little chance of survival. The ‘National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos (Commercial Purposes)’ regards these Juvenile orphans as “waste” and legalises the shooter to kill them with a “forceful blow to the base of the skull sufficient to destroy the functional capacity of the brain”.

Sadly Grill’d “guarantee that you’ll be ‘full’ of Australian pride this Australia Day” while promoting what is the largest land based commercial wildlife slaughter in the world. The rest of the burger contains local cheeses and ingredients that would otherwise be a fantastic advertisement for Australian produce. Australians have taken action against whaling and yet we have this company promoting a novelty meal supporting a cruel industry within our borders which often escapes public scrutiny.

Despite claims of being ethically farmed, kangaroos cannot be farmed; they are harvested directly from the wild. The nature of harvesting these native animals means kangaroo populations are destabilised and brought dangerously low. Carcasses are stored for days on end in remote locations before being transported to processing plants, contamination of the meat is a high risk that has prompted foreign governments to ban the import of kangaroo produce. These wild kangaroos are not harvested in Victoria at the moment but the Baillieu government have certainly raised this possibility.

Grill’d should encourage their customers to appreciate our precious wildlife, alive and in the wild on Australia day.

Photo courtesy of Sharon Chapman