(Image = ORPHANED BABY KANGAROOS)

Sir Paul McCartney said:

"Without reservation I support the Australian groups fighting to save the kangaroo. The killing is a disgrace - cruel and entirely profit-motivated. The kangaroo is one of Australia's original inhabitants, deserving both respect and compassion"

Please Sign To Stop the Senseless Killing of Kangaroo's In Australia!

Each night in remote areas of the Australian outback thousands of kangaroos graze peacefully, stand up on hearing an approaching vehicle, stare into a blinding spotlight, and are shot for their meat and skins.

The commercial kangaroo kill ‘quota’ for 2009 (the number permitted to be killed) is just under 4 million kangaroos. In addition many kangaroos and wallabies are killed under State non-commercial ‘permit’ systems. Due to the remote locations where the commercial kangaroo  shoot takes place there is no effective monitoring of animal welfare.

No statistics are available for the animals that are wounded and escape only to endure a long painful death. Even conservative estimates suggest that at least 4% of adult kangaroos commercially ‘processed’ each year, or around 100,000 carcasses, show evidence that they were not humanely shot in the head as is required by the kangaroo industry Code of Practice (ref RSPCA Report 2002).

After being contacted by a whistleblower within the kangaroo industry, Animal protection groups from around Australia rallied together to expose the cruelty, contamination & dwindling numbers of certain kangaroo species who are slaughtered for a niche export market where profits are earnt by a select few.

The groups, including Animal Liberation, Wildlife Protection Association of Australia, Animals Australia, Australian Wildlife Protection Council Inc & others have been investigating the industry for the last 2 years and have found damning evidence which will more than likely halt this brutal trade.

Note the whistleblower will remain nameless for safety reasons.

Over 24 chillers around NSW and Southern QLD were inspected and swabs of Kangaroo carcasses taken.

In summary, the findings suggest:

1. Between 70-80% of all kangaroos shot are currently female.

This means that there is a population imbalance between males and females. Obviously there are more females than males now as most of the big males have already been shot which leaves the females to be shot.

2. Many of the carcasses were only just above the minimum ‘human consumption’ weight (NSW) of 13kg, some actually weighed less. Females at this weight would be unlikely to even have had their first joey. The kangaroos allowed to be killed in NSW and QLD are Reds, Eastern Greys and Western Greys. Obviously there were male carcasses in the chillers, however none of them were even close to what would be considered a ‘big red’ which would have a carcass weight of around 45kg.

3. The swab results revealed contamination of carcasses with: E.coli, Streptococcus & Staphylococcus.

The results showed muscle tissue having an active growth of these microbes from low to heavy growth.

4. The Australian Government approved method of killing a joey at foot is to either bash it over the head with a heavy object, or chop its head off with an axe. This is written into the 'Code of practice for the humane Killing of kangaroos'. This is essentially too brutal to think about, and the image lends itself to that of seal pups being brutally bashed to death on the ice of Canada.

If even half of those females have a joey at foot, then up to 1million joeys will be killed this way in 2007 under the currently approved kill quota of 3.8million kangaroos.

5. The other issue which is even more serious is the fact that female kangaroos often have a joey at foot. Which means a joey who no longer lives in the pouch, but needs its mum for milk and protection from predation as well as to learn life skills.

When a shooter intrudes on a family unit and shoots the mum, this joey at foot hops away frightened and will die a slow death of predation or starvation as it will not get the necessary nutrients that it still requires for growth. This is a fact of the kangaroo industry, and it is also a thorn in the Governments side as there is currently nothing in the 'Code of Practice for the humane killing of kangaroos' that deals with this issue.

Several Australian wildlife groups have lodged an appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal with regards to several issues listed above. This is a Tribunal which decide on the legitimacy and legality of Government decisions - i.e. the decision to 'cull' kangaroos and what numbers to 'cull'.

If the issues above are not addressed at the Tribunal, the wildlife groups will continue to appeal to the High Court of Australia until this issue is looked into seriously and a real decision is made by a real Court of Law.

At the end of the investigation in March this year, knowing we needed to move with this information quickly, Animal Liberation and the WPAA sent a delegation overseas to Russia (biggest export country) and Europe to inform not only the public about these concerns, but the relevant health ministers in the various countries as well as EU representatives.

A Commercial Slaughter

Don’t be fooled by protests that kangaroos are shot because they compete with grazing animals – this mass slaughter is purely and simply a commercial kill of Australian wildlife. Some skins and meat products are used domestically (60 to 70 % of kangaroo meat goes into the Australian pet food market), and the rest is exported to 55 countries as leather or meat for human consumption. Kangaroo leather is widely used in the manufacture of sporting shoes and gloves as well as in dress shoes and accessory manufacture.