The Belconnen Kangaroo Cull, and how the Rudd Government lied to everyone!

As everyone will know now, the Belconnen kangaroo kill went ahead last week, May 2008, and finished on the 2nd June. Although we had previously been saying we would jump the fence (its only 12 feet high?) if they started killing them, we asked the people at the site not to do this.

Apart from being very dangerous to be anywhere near these ratbags with the dart rifles, we also had concerns about the possible aggresive actions of the security guards.

And if we had been arrested, we would not have been able to return to the Protest, and could have weakened future legal action. We also wanted to hold the high moral ground, which is something the Australian government clearly is incapable of doing.

In the end it was the Rudd government indifference that led to this massacre. While we all know now that Garrett is just a puppet, and can't even fix the plastic bag problem, we also know that it was a considered decision by Rudd not to stop the kill. After all the work we all did for over a year, to provide an alternative nonlethal solution, we were betrayed by the Rudd government.

Like many others, I guess I've been traumatised by the kill too. I thought I'd seen everything that humans could do to wildlife, and to kangaroos, but this just beggars description. I'm still having trouble writing this up, it was a bloodbath.

I saw kangaroos flopping around on broken legs, broken from crashing into the fences in panic. Some protestors saw three kangaroos with broken legs thrashing around, and just left in the pen while the workers did other things. Helpless joeys were jumping around in panic as their mothers were killed.

Protestors saw one joey crushed under the panicking kangaroos. Yes, we have photos. They killed dozens of infant joeys, who were forced to see their mothers killed, before they themselves were killed.

After their mothers were killed, the joeys were seen left in a pen for three days. On the morning of the 26th they had disappeared. Workers were seen herding kangaroos, and towards the end of the kill were herding them with vehicles, and even using security guards to chase them into the pens. Herding kangaroos is illegal in every State.

Although we have never been consulted on this so-called research project, (and where some kangaroos are left alive for research,) is scandalous. Last year some of these mothers were sedated, their joeys were ripped from the mothers teat and handed over to a few wildlife carers. Most died because their mouths had been damaged by being forcably removed from the teat.

The Shame File. If you supported or were involved in this massacre, click here to see your photo! The Belconnen Shame File!

Our understanding is that this shonky fertility research has already been done anyway, and has little value. We have horrific photos of kangaroos crouched up on the ground, with tight collars around their necks, and their mouths tightly taped shut! We heard later they were blindfolds that had slipped down.....it doesnt matter, its still awfully traumatic to a kangaroo that is awakening from a painful dart!

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UPDATE Early December 2008 we heard that 70 of the 100 kangaroos that were darted and tagged for fertility research had died of stress. Efforts to confirm this through accessing FOI records have been thwarted by Defence and the ACT Government who are asking several thousand dollars for access to documents relating to the Belconnen kangaroo kill!

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This shonky "research" is an animal welfare issue in its own right. All these pictures will be tabled on websites around the World.

At WPAA we no longer suport any research into fertility controls for kangaroos. If there is population issue (and mostly there is not) properly planned and executed translocation is a far better option than this cruelty.

Defence have behaved abominally right throughout the kill, refusing to answer phones or even acknowledge emails. On the Friday evening when we first realised they were going to renege on the translocation promise, we asked the Federal Police at the site to find out what was going on inside.

Eventually they provided us with phone numbers, all of which went to a message bank. We later discovered that the three leading Defence staff involved turned off their phones and fled to Perth. Defence lied to the media too, claiming protestors entered the site, and they lied when they said we were harrassing security.

On Wednesday morning six indigenous activists and two of the protesters peacefully entered the site at the main gate, and lit their ceremonial fire, and laid claim to the land. Dozens of police cars arrived within minutes, and they were arrested and taken into custody. They face Court on the 6th June, arrested for being on their own land.

We must make sure that the downstream fallout over this will ensure noone ever tries this on again. Until just a few years ago, there was only Maryland Wilsons group, AWPC, Sue Arnolds group, AFA, and a few individuals like Richard Jones (and Sally Wilson, Lindy Stacker, Eve Fesl, and others) working for kangaroos.

But we now have a strong and coordinated movement, many thousands of sympathisers in fact, and also including many of the Indigenous people. Let's not let the Rudd Government get away with this.

We must all come out of this disaster stronger and more than ever determined to stop the killing of our kangaroos. In the near future all the names and details of the people who were directly responsible for this massacre will go on websites all over the world. They will now have to live with the consequences of their actions.........

The protest is stayed in place, but shifted to the perimeter to get more photos. Here the Security have behaved very badly, making false accusations to the Police, and threatening protestors....even a 60 year old lady.

These Security guards are of middle Eastern appearance, and we understand some have only just arrived in Australia. A photo af one of them assaulting a protestor (outside of the BNTS property) is above. I was also assaulted on the first day of the "Stop the Kill" protest.

Those who were to traumatised by the whole thing watched from the back fenceline during the last two or three days, trying to record on film the killing. One observer was there by himself, and he left the scene around 7 pm on the 28th to get a bite to eat. The one other protestor had left not long after dark, and all seemed still. Apparently the security guards alerted the contractors (and possibly others) that the witnesses had gone.

When he returned about 8.15 he saw a ring of car lights surrounding an area in which he had previously seen a number of kangaroos and joeys. In other words, while no-one was there, they took advantage of our absence and killed them.....in the dark! (This observer has camped by the site).

While we perhaps should have had a roster system, we just did not have the numbers to be there anyway, and no one even guessed they would suddenly start working again in full darkness.

The Belconnen Naval Training Site will always be a Protest Site, even when the houses are built there.....if they ever are. It will always have very bad Karma until the Indigenous people take over and cleanse the land.

As one of our people have said.....

As well as the lies and deliberate misinformation produced by the Government, and the animal welfare issues, there are now at least the following three toweringly gigantic points that require attention.

(1) Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon's 11 April promise to do a pilot translocation (as proven 10 mins 30 secs into the interview on the ABC, clearly a blatant lie.

(2) we'd offered/agreed to cover the costs and conveyed such agreement to Fitzgibbon, Kelly and others before the first roo was killed; and

(3) the $3.5 million cost estimate Defence used to justify the killing was exaggerated by a factor of five to 10 or so, and has been proven to be a blatant lie.

Over the weekend, some thugs and one of the local butchers (calling himself an eco-butcher because he sells wildlife meats) set up a barbecue near the white crosses that the protesters put in the ground on Willianm Slim Drive. He was giving away kangaroo meat hamburgers to celibrate the death of the kangaroos, he said. Yes, one of these photos is below! Talk about some very sick people!

PRESS RELEASE 21st May 2008 SCENES FROM THE KILLING PENS AT CANBERRA KANGAROO CULL

Tiga Williams, kangaroo protester, environmental children’s entertainer, and wildlife carer reported the following scenes at the Canberra kangaroo slaughter today.

"The images I witnessed today were nothing short of abhorrent. There are no words to describe the cruelty, inhumanity and pure evilness that are being inflicted upon these innocent kangaroos. These contractors are working for speed not the humane treatment of individual animals.”

Tiga stated that

"At least 4 large men tried to herd the 50 or so kangaroos into the killing pen, but the kangaroos knew that death awaited them and kept running away. When the tactics of men on foot did not work they brought in a 4 wheel drive herding them towards the killing pen.

The kangaroos were running in fear and panic, tiny babies were being thrown out of the pouch, kangaroos hitting each other and the fences. One doe hit the perimeter fence with such force we believe she broke her neck and died. The four wheel drive came over, and the men bagged the dead kangaroo and put her in the back of the vehicle"

Tiga went on to describe these horrific events,

"Kangaroos and joeys are seen frantically trying to dig under the fences, trying to go over the fence. There were tiny joeys too young to be out of their mother's pouch, frantically trying to keep up with their mothers. There are at least a dozen or more joeys who will not find their mothers again tonight, and who may die alone tonight in the freezing temperatures."

“This cruelty must stop and we will be pursuing every channel to make sure these people are accountable for this barbaric treatment of our national icon"* End

Unfortunately the media, who gave the protest good coverage the first couple of days, has been blacked out, and little has appeared since, although initial reports made headlines all over the world.

Today as the cruel massacre of kangaroos at Belconnen Naval Transmission Station in Canberra continues, another protester records her observations of love and loyalty among the last remaining kangaroos below.

Day 7 of the Canberra cull sees kangaroos being chased by vehicles and men on foot, shouting, bashing steel upon steel, revving engines to scare and herd them into the killing pens. Thirty were herded into the killing pen, jumping madly in panic, a kangaroo stampede, hitting fences and colliding with each other, desperately trying to get out.

I see a joey escape through a gap, then another, then another, a large kangaroo, then an even larger kangaroo, a beautiful strong male.

They grouped together, frantically licking forearms, terrified, drooling from fear and anxiousness. Another joey joined them, I prayed for more to find the magic little hole to freedom. The large male collected his group and led them away from the frenzied fear and panic, to a peaceful place under the trees. At dusk, the leader of the mob made his way down towards the killing pens, where dozens of his friends and family remained imprisoned.

He talked to them through the fence, trying to soothe their fears, encouraging them to find the way out. Staying calm, he tried to help them find that secret door, so he could take them away to that peaceful place and look after them, the way he knows he should. But he his efforts were in vain. It was a painful yet truly remarkable scene to witness.

Another report from two eyewitnesses;

L.. and I have just returned from the site (second time today). They started ‘beating’ the remaining roos and about 6 went into the killing yard – the rest ran the other way. Seeing the area being emptied is depressing. There are probably some left – maybe thirty or so, around the base. We met a man who said he’d driven from Melbourne. He asked us where the people were, the thousands of protestors. I said that at the present time, we were it.

At that time an ACT Parks and Wildlife van went past. All the people inside the van held their arms up across their faces when they saw my camera.

I am now convinced that ‘animal people’ are a special group (I mean, our group). Many have suffered in childhood or in their lives, and have – at some time – found themselves close to wild animals (or even domestic ones) and have found not only a kind of security in wild animals, but a fellow feeling. They have realised that human beings have lost something – a wisdom – that wild animals have, and that in fact human beings have an illness, a self destructive tendency, even a form of madness, that wild animals do not have.

The man who came to the site from Melbourne also said to me, ‘don’t people see they are destroying the world’ by doing things like this? I could only answer ‘no.’ Maybe our group of sensitive people can talk through their experiences of these days, document what they have seen. I think we have even found fellow soul mates in the last few weeks. The kangaroos, in their dignity, have and still are, teaching us many things.

Keep in touch, especially those of you who are at the site and watching what went on – don’t go back into your shell – you know I am talking about you, mate. *End

Officially the kill finished on the 2nd of June, and the ACT RSPCA have been quoted in the media several times as saying the kil was humane. Well, you've seen the photos and read the evidence of many reliable witnesses. What do you think?

After the kill, some amazing statements have been made by the barbarians who supported the kill.

ACT RSPCA still maintain the kill was humane. They still insist that their Inspectors were on site all the time. They must have forgoten that we were watching the site! We know how little time they spent there...and usually left before the kill had started.

We understand that a post mortem will be done on a few bodies....no doubt to show they are sick and had to be killed. They must also have forgotten that we had dozens of very experienced kangaroo experts outside the site, and they have been watching the kangaroos for several years. The kangaroos were in very good condition!

Below, after the slaughter, some of the kangaroos had autopsies carried out on them. Autopsy results are not available to us.

Then on the 3rd December 2008, we discovered that ADF had been given a Permit to kill another 30 to 40 kangaroos at Belconnen. We didnt know there where that many kangaroos left. Then the following report was in the NT Newpapers.

Defence to resume Tindal wallaby cull, December 3rd, 2008

The Federal Government has ordered Defence to resume the culling of wallabies at a Territory air base after two of the animals were hit by fighter jets last month. Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Mike Kelly said yesterday he told Defence to resume culling at Tindal air base near Katherine before Christmas. The Northern Territory News revealed this week that two F/A 18 Hornet jets had hit wallabies on the runway in separate incidents in November. The large number of wallabies at the base have also prevented fixed-wing civilian aeromedical services from using the runway for more than a year. Dr Kelly said the problem required immediate action. "It is absolutely unacceptable for the Katherine region to be without fixed-wing aeromedical services when it is possible to mitigate the risk posed by wallabies," he said.

Defence will hold talks with Pearl Aviation, which runs the aeromedical service, about what needs to be done to allow its planes to return to Tindal. A cull earlier this year removed 236 wallabies from the base, but the numbers are multiplying rapidly. According to the NT Health Department, the wallaby population has increased from 400 to more than 1700 since September last year. Dr Kelly said he directed Defence to "implement a more robust and active risk management activity". "Rather than waiting for wallabies to reach critical numbers, Defence is now committed to fully managing the population level," he said. Katherine MLA Willem Westra Van Holthe welcomed the latest cull but said it had come too late. "(The) announcement ... is long overdue and comes after lives have been put at risk because of the cancellation of aeromedical services," he said. Work on a fence to keep the wallabies away from the runway is expected to start this month. *NT News End.

ps It was Kelly who gave the go-agead for the first Belconnen kill. Tindal Airforce Base has been commissioned for at least 10 years, they've had plenty of time to fence of the airstrip. What a barbaric bunch the ADF is. Still, thats what the ADF does ...they kill things, people...animals...wildlife...... What else could we expect...and this is the Labor Government.... supposedly committed to change..........

For further details go to

Canberra Kangaroos!

and

Kangaroo Lives!

Links to uTube videos of Belconnen and kangaroo killing are below. We warn that some people may find these videos disturbiing.

About Belconnen!

About Belconnen!

Kangaroo Kill!

Kangaroo Kill!

Kangaroo Kill!

About Kangaroo Kill!

About the Kangaroo Kill!

Below, On the 19th May 2009, a Memorial Service was held outside the Belconnen gates to commemorate the 514 kangaroos that were slaughtered to clear the site for housing development.