Jump in kangaroo cull angers animal groups
Date: 08-Jan-02
Country: AUSTRALIA
Environment Minister David Kemp on Tuesday raised the annual commercial quota for
killing kangaroos by around 1.5 million to 6.9 million animals, because of
substantial population increases.
Kangaroos and their smaller cousins, wallabies, are considered a pest by farmers,
blamed for ruining crops and competing with livestock for grazing land and water.
But many Australians are increasingly critical of what they see as a cruel and
inappropriate slaughter of an animal used as a national symbol.
"We don't support any form of culling at all as there are plenty of non-lethal
methods of controlling kangaroos," Pat O'Brien, president of the Wildlife
Protection Association of Australia, told Reuters.
"Electric fences, solar powered, can keep kangaroos off farming land and the
government should be looking at other ways of control."
Australia's kangaroo industry, based on skins and meat, is estimated to be worth
about A$200 million (70 million pounds) a year.
A spokeswoman for Kemp said the quota was less than requested by the country's
six states which applied for permission to kill nine million kangaroos and
wallabies.
The states argued the increase was needed because strong vegetation growth had
seen kangaroo populations leap.
Upper range estimates of how many kangaroos live across Australia are close to 60
million - three kangaroos to each of the country's 19 million people.
"We don't believe the numbers are anything like that and we'll be seeking legal
advice to try to stop this bigger cull," O'Brien said.
The animal's lightweight skins are used for sporting goods such as soccer balls
and about five million kg (4,920 tons) of kangaroo meat is sold abroad every year
for human consumption.
Australia has been exporting kangaroo meat to game-loving European connoisseurs
for 35 years, mainly in Germany, France, Belgium and Holland, where it is eaten
as steaks, used in sausages and in delicatessen products as well as burgers.
Before kangaroo meat's rediscovery for human consumption, most culled kangaroos
wound up as pet food.
