4 Large Species of Kangaroos in Australia desperately need your help.
Millions of Kangaroos each year are being slaughtered across Australia by the Commercial “Harvest” for export trade, not to mention animals that are killed by Farmers who shoot them when they come onto their properties, road kill, predation, disease from coming in contact with domestic animals, farm animals and humans, and illegal poaching. Councils across the country are being granted permits to kill more of these stronger gene animals who have made it through a really tough drought only to be shot for trying to find food and water in the country towns. People in Australia are so intolerant of their native animals that even the town parks (which are CROWN LAND) and the very place where the animals should be living had man not built structures there, is not being tolerated where animals are found to be grazing. These animals truly need your help. Of the 60 species of Macropods Australia HAD, 29 species are now threatened and 11 are extinct.
The Commercial Harvest causes monumental destruction within these species with the cruelty alone which happens EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. Pouch Joeys are pulled out of the pouch by their legs and their tiny heads smashed up against a truck wheel or other hard object to kill them or they are clubbed to death, crushing their skulls and the smaller in pouch young are decapitated with a knife normally whilst still on their mothers teat. Approximately 855,000 ‘at foot’ joeys who are still dependant on their mum for milk, flee when their mother is shot, and these babies are left to die of starvation,stress & predation. It is estimated that an additional 300,000 'in pouch' joeys die as well. This equates to almost 11,000,000 joeys killed by this Industry over a 10yr period. The RSPCA considers decapitation & clubbing of baby joeys to be an inhumane method of euthanasia – but no-one is stopping this practice.
The breeding & social structure of these species are also completely destroyed. Kangaroos have strong family bonds and are a SLOW breeding marsupial despite the myth they can double their population in 1 year. A female Kangaroo will breed for only 8 years of her life and twins are very rare despite incorrect information being reported otherwise. Of these 8 joeys only 2 will reach adulthood, the other 6 are lost to drought, floods, predation, victims of road accidents, or the Commercial Harvest.
The Commercial Harvest are taking animals as small as 13Kg carcass weight in Qld and 12Kg carcass weight in NSW. These animals would have only just been weaned from their mother and still need to grow out for another 12months or more before they too can breed themselves. The long term survival of Kangaroos is GRIM and action needs to be taken now to save them.
Kangaroos are NOT farmed but instead shooters kill whole wild populations, emptying rural landscapes.
The Industry targets the largest animals, decimating the number of the biggest & strongest Kangaroos who ought to be breeding stock for strong healthy populations and this is causing the very real risk of affecting the Gene Pool. Killing such high numbers of females can lead to population declines according to a population model published in Kangaroo Keepers edited by H J Lavery. And in some States where 97% of males are being taken, this also unbalances the species considerably as well. There is nothing about the Commercial Harvest which is sound practice.
The ‘Go Green’ push to eat Kangaroo in Australia by the Australian Government and other interested parties is a scientific sham. Eating Kangaroo meat is not sustainable. Scientists at UTS found that to feed each Australian just 1 small portion of meat, 22 million Kangaroos would need to be killed each year. That would mean the total population would need to be 175 million to support this off-take (Dr Dan Ramp 2010).This is more than 5 times the 30yr average population of 27 million to provide 1 serving per week to Australians. The total population of Kangaroos has been declining with populations dropping to quasi-extinction levels of less than 5 animals per square kilometre over large areas. The Commercial Harvest of Kangaroos is the largest land-based wildlife slaughter & massacre on earth and continues despite falling numbers.
Eating Kangaroo meat causes Diseases to both humans and animals. Because the meat needs to be cooked rare, or it is too tough to eat, this cooking method does not kill off many parasites, protozoa & bacteria. Diseases readily causing poisoning are Salmonella, E Coli, & Toxoplasmosis. These diseases can result in foetal death or birth defects in pregnant women & leave other diners critically ill in hospital or even death.
Pets who are consuming Kangaroo are being poisoned by dangerous levels of preservatives in commercial pet food and can leave dogs & cats with brain damage, Veterinarians have warned. Some pet food suppliers treat products with high levels of Sulphur dioxide to preserve the meat and to disguise signs of putrification. Dr Anne Fawcett of University of Sydney Faculty of Vet Science treated a thiamine deficient cat fed exclusively on supermarket bought Kangaroo meat. The food was tested and sulfur dioxide concentrations were found to be double that allowed for human consumption. Sulphur dioxide is known to cause thiamine deficiency in humans & animals.
Canada & Russia have banned importing Kangaroo meat and California has recently denied the resumption of importing Kangaroo products. The European Union is currently considering banning the importation of all Kangaroo products.
Australia has the worst record of extinction of any country already having exterminated 40% of its wildlife in just 220yrs.
To add to this disturbing situation is the amount of Damage Mitigation Permits which are issued by the Department of Environment & Heritage Protection & National Parks & Wildlife Services across Australia each year. These Departments are supposed to be protecting these PROTECTED SPECIES, but instead they are signing their death certificates with the stroke of a pen. Councils, Land Owners & Military Bases to name a few are given permits to kill THOUSANDS more of these animals, all because Australians have become completely intolerant and greedy wanting to take up all of the land these animals live on, and not share and/or find other non-lethal means to work with these animals.
Kangaroos are an extremely important part of the Environment. They are soft on the ground not causing erosion like livestock do, and eating 1/5 of what a sheep will eat and 1/60 of what a cow eats. The Dry Sheep Equivalent (DSE) is 0.2 (Grigg 2002, Olsen & Low 2006). Many studies have been done on the DSE and Professor Grigg commented that kangaroos could be a little as 0.15. Livestock consume as much as 98.4% of pasture across Australia. Kangaroos rely on a wide range of plants as their diet and grass makes up only a small part of this diet. The Total Grazing Pressure (TGP) indicates that kangaroos attributite to only 1.6% of pasture which is share with other herbivores eg rabbits, deer, goats etc. Wildlife Carers across Australia are fighting a losing battle trying to save Orphaned & Injured joeys to return to the wild, only to read on the news or internet, that yet another Permit has been granted to kill a few more thousand Kangaroos. Please help us STOP THIS SENSELESS BEHAVIOUR and hold the Australian Government responsible for allowing millions of these animals to continue to die each year. No country should have an Industry that profits from the death of their Native Wildlife. Demand this practice stops.
PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION and call for the Australian Government to place a moratorium on the Shooting of Kangaroos for the Commercial Harvest. Kangaroo numbers are declining across Australia and action needs to be taken NOW. Thank-you for your help and support.
