Stop kangaroo Killings!

Late at night while peacefully grazing, thousands of kangaroos are faced with the threat of being hunted for their meat or skins.

These quiet herbivorous creatures which are an important part of the Australian ecosystem and have become part of Australia’s huge landscape for thousands of years are brutally killed for nothing other than profit. The killing of kangaroos has been described as the largest global massacre of wildlife in the world. The largest killing is taking place right here in Australia right now!

Millions of kangaroos are killed each year in Australia for their meat or skin as I mentioned before. The slaughter occurs in the most brutal way, most of the time, the kangaroos are still alive after they’ve been shot, and are dragged through the dirt in such awful pain and hung up by their feet. Kangaroos are not the only ones who get affected by this slaughter, so do the joeys. If the joeys are left in their mothers pouch, the killers rip it out by its delicate legs, and throw it on the ground, violently stomping on their heads and bodies just like a kid would do to a bug leaving their bodies crushed with pain. If the Joey isn’t stomped on, the killer just tosses the baby Joey onto the ground, so that any predator, whether it’s ants or dogs, can eat it alive. The orphaned older Joeys that don’t end up dying, are either killed completely, or sold into the cruel wildlife pet trade to spend the rest of their lives in cages as “entertainment”.

The scene is repeated all night long. Older joeys may hop away when their mothers are shot as the Joey dies a slow and lonely death from cold or starvation. This is the reality of kangaroo killing. But the killing continues.

The shooters are supposed to legally wound the kangaroo by a single shot to the head to avoid suffering, many kangaroos are shot in the jaw, neck, or chest, which causes enormous suffering. The pouch dependant joeys are ripped from their dead mothers pouch and either hit over the head with a metal pipe - a practice that is considered acceptable by the Australian government.

The Kangaroo has been a part of Australian history long before European settlement; it is seen on the Australian coat of arms, the fifty cent and one dollar coins and is the mascot of Australia’s largest Airline Qantas – However, the Australian government still allows the slaughter of several million kangaroos a year. The dead bodies of these beautiful animals are exported all over the world. Australia exports approximately 3 million kangaroo skins each year – mainly to Europe and the USA. Kangaroo skins are used to make handbags, wallets, sports gloves and mitts, golf bags, shoes (including athletic football boots and cycling shoes) coin purses, beer can holders, and other ridiculous products.

Lots of rumours go around about the kangaroos but most of them are just lies and reasons to shoot these innocent kangaroos and just so the government gets his way with money. But what is written below is no lie and is proven.

Myth - Kangaroos destroy wheat crops
A four year study by CSIRO(Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation) found that 95 per cent of wheat crops are never visited by kangaroos. Yet farmers and the Australian government still refer to kangaroos as pests. "Pests is an emotive word. It conjures up visions of animals destroying crops. I can think of no situations where this is likely to be true for kangaroos." (Dr. Graham Arnold, CSIRO) In fact, commercial killing takes place in the outback where crops are never grown.

Myth - Kangaroos compete with sheep for grazing
A six-year study by Dr Steven McLeod (NSW Agriculture) - the biggest ever undertaken - examined whether red kangaroos affected sheep farming. It found that there was no competition for food between sheep and red kangaroos and that the presence of kangaroos had no negative impact on the number of lambs born to the flock, nor their size.

Myth - Killing kangaroos helps preserve them
The kangaroo massacre destroys the process of natural selection. The repeated targeting of the 'alpha' males, the largest and fittest animals (who provide the industry with the big skins they want), means younger, smaller animals are left to breed, weakening the gene pool. "This has the potential to cause the extinction of a number of species". (Dr Ian Gunn, Animal Gene Storage Resource Centre of Australia.) Australia has the worst wildlife record in the world - six species of kangaroos extinct, four more extinct on the Australian mainland, 17 species endangered or vulnerable.

Myth - The killing is strictly controlled
No one monitors, let alone controls, the killing in the field. Kangaroos are shot at night in the vast outback, far away from public scrutiny. The Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos, which hunters are supposed to adhere to, is a guideline document, not a law, and is not even linked to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. In order to obtain a licence to kill kangaroos commercially, all hunters have to do is read the Code, 'understand' it, and pass a one-day marksmanship course. "Shooters often have a thorough contempt for the law. They commit cruelty on a regular basis." (Dr John Auty, veterinary scientist and former Chief Agronomist).

Myth - Kangaroos are killed to save the environment
Kangaroos are an integral part of Australia's environment. They have evolved to live in harmony with the fragile landscape and often hostile weather conditions. Destruction of the environment comes from 160 million hard-hoofed sheep and cattle.

Myth - Kangaroos are in plague proportions
Kangaroos have never been a plague. They have been wiped out in many regions. In others, their numbers build up in order to withstand the regular droughts which wipe out half the population. Kill quotas for 2001 were 5.5 million, for 2002 7 million and for 2003 6.5million (the figure has decreased only because the government has had to acknowledge the sheer number of kangaroos who are dying in the drought that Australia is currently in the midst of). The official quota ignores joeys, road deaths, illegal and non-commercial kills. This annual death toll could amount to 10 million - a patently unsustainable figure.

Fact - The kangaroo industry exists in its own right - to make money by slaughtering the animals for their meat and skins. The meat and leather is promoted and marketed around the world to earn valuable foreign currency. Having built an industry with political clout, self interest will ensure it carries on killing, whatever its impact on kangaroos.

- Ways you can help:
Show your support to encourage people to let these poor kangaroos into their natural habitat in Australia and not rotting on the ground or even in boxing rings! And the best way to help is not to purchase any kangaroo meat or leather. And finally, demand an end to the biggest massacre of wild animals in the world.

No animals, whether human or beast should be forced to live a life they don’t want to live, or killed for selfish reasons. We should be sharing our resources and learning to live in harmony, not destroying the original inhabitants because we selfishly want the land for our own purposes and it just isn’t funny, imagine how scared they must be, all the noise and pain, we need to stand up and say this is not right, this is cruelty to Kangaroos, and remember this, animals have feelings too.