Kangaroo newsletter archives 10Kangamail 22/12/05 Wallaby and Pademelon Kill At the request of several groups, early this week I filed an Appeal in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal over the Tasmanian Wallaby and Pademelon Management Plans which were approved by the Federal Government on December 1st . For those groups who wish to be officially joined to the Appeal, they need to write now to the Deputy-Register, AAT, GPO Box 9955, Brisbane Qld 4001 and request they be allowed to join the Appeal. The Appeal reference number is Q205/800/CSO6 Applicant: Wildlife Protection Association of Australia Inc., Respondent: Minster for Environment and Heritage. Being joined to the Appeal means your organisation can offer a written or verbal submission to the AAT Appeal Members during the Appeal if you wish too. I also applied for a Stay of the Plans until the Appeal is heard. I was advised yesterday that the legal branch of Environment Australia has opposed a Stay. On Wednesday afternoon this week I have a teleconference with the AAT members to determine whether a Stay will be allowed. More info later. * WPAA ******************************************** *Tassie Pademelon and Wallaby Kill* Hi everyone, at the request of several groups, early last week I filed an Appeal in the AAT over the Tasmanian Wallaby and Pademelon Management Plans which were approved by the Federal Government on December 1st. I also applied for a Stay of the Plans until the Appeal is heard. However, I was advised that Environment Australia has opposed a Stay. On Wednesday 21st at 3.30 a teleconference was to be held with the AAT members to determine whether a Stay will be allowed. Yesterday morning I was advised by the AAT that Government solicitors would appear at the hearing, so I decided I should join them. I trained into Brisbane, and the DEH barrister and solicitor handed me an affadavit just prior to the hearing. (288 pages!) When the hearing started I immediately asked for an adjournment to peruse the documents, which was granted. So the next hearing about the stay of the Programs will be probably the second week in January. Meanwhile they can’t kill for commercial export. However the arguments they have made against a Stay are purely financial, claiming that 2 or 3 butchers are getting set up to handle the meat, under the expectation they would get a Permit, and they would lose money. John Kelly, the instigator of it all, has said he would lose a year’s contract of skins. It's just blackmail, and the Government fall into it every time! More later, Cheers, Pat ******************************************** SYDNEY: Australia's kangaroo shooters want to change the image of their product so they can start marketing it as high-quality protein and stop off-loading it as bargain-basement dog meat, a publicist for the industry's lobby group says. Their plan is to rebadge the meat as "marla" or another anodyne term that dissociates what's cut up and put in the oven from what happily hops across the parched continent in countless tourism commercials. They are running a worldwide competition to find a name no one has ever heard of to replace one that is easily understood by everyone. "It's something the industry had thought about for some time," Kangaroo Industry Association chief executive John Kelly said. "We don't eat cow or pig, why do we eat kangaroo?" Kelly has barred some obvious entries like "skippy" and "kanga" because they don't do the trick of divorcing the product from its provenance. Among the frontrunners for the kitchen term for the flesh of a cuddly brown-eyed animal that appears along with an emu on the national coat of arms is "marla" the word for kangaroo in one of the aboriginal languages. Industry insiders draw a parallel with the Chinese gooseberry, which they say didn't really take off until some bright spark renamed it the kiwi fruit. But is the name game just a distraction and rather than scrabbling for a euphemism oughtn't Australians just start chowing down on kangaroo as they do with chicken, turkey, lamb, salmon and rabbit? No face-saving forms seem to be needed there. The government sets an annual quota for kangaroo hunters. About 4 million of the creatures will be shot this year. Almost all the meat from an industry worth an annual 200 million Australian dollars (US$142 million) ends up in the pet food aisles in supermarkets. Of the remainder, most goes to Eastern Europe to be turned into sausages. Kangaroos are superabundant. Environmentalists say there are still more kangaroos in Australia now than there were when European colonists arrived in 1778. The Wildlife Protection Society reckons there are around 80 million kangaroos four for every Australian. (China Daily 12/10/2005 page10) Ed Comment; I don’t know who the Wildlife Protection Society is, (there is an Industry group called the Wildlife Management Society) but this story started with a story by Reuters, which had very wrong comments in it. Reuters claimed that there were 57 million kangaroos in Australia and they breed faster than they can be shot! This story has appeared on many overseas news websites, and done a lot of damage, creating an impression overseas that the kill is justified and supported by most Australians when thats not the case at all. ******************************************** FOOD lovers know King Island cheese, and might have tried its beef or seafood. But what will they make of its wallaby? The rich green grass that feeds King Island's dairy cows, and sheep on Flinders Island is also sustaining high numbers of Bennett's wallabies and their smaller relative, the Tasmanian pademelon. Now, after years of negotiation, the Federal Government has approved the killing of 73,750 of the marsupials annually on the two islands for commercial processing and export. "Wallaby is not going to be everyone's cup of tea," said Peter Jakowenko, a meat processor on King Island. "But it's very similar to lamb. We already make wallaby steaks, hams, pies, cabana, and the response from the tourists is very good. "Now we're just feeling for the markets off the island." The Wildlife Protection Association of Australia and other groups have asked the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to halt the plans, claiming that the hunt is cruel and unnecessary. "Australia is already considered overseas to be a barbaric and backward country because of the kangaroo kill," association president Pat O'Brien said. "This new venture will damage Tasmanian tourism opportunities and impose great shame on all Australians." Mr O'Brien said the hunt allowed for pouch young to be killed inhumanely, and there was a doubt over whether it was sustainable. "The approved plans have got nothing to do with animal control, which can be achieved by simple and adequate fencing, but are more about providing a few dollars to subsistence farmers who have destroyed their own productivity and now want to cash in on our wildlife." Mr Jakowenko has been working for four years to develop the business, which would also supply a second abattoir. *Age ******************************************* Terrine australus to sweeten the flavour of Skippy THE competition to create a "sugar-coated" name to inspire people to eat kangaroo meat has a winner -"australus". Run by the Sydney-based magazine Food Companion International, the competition attracted 2700 suggestions from 41 nations. Only entries from people working in the food industry were eligible. Finalists included "kangarly", "maroo", "krou", "maleen", "kuja", "roujoe", "rooviande", "jurru", "ozru" and "marsu". Also submitted were "kangasaurus", "marsupan", "jumpmeat" and "MOM" (meat of marsupials). As Greg Richardson, of Pacific Palisades in California, explained of his entry: "There is nothing more comforting than a mother. In order to make kangaroo meat sound more comforting to potential consumers, I figured we could associate one with the other: MOM." Steven West, a US citizen, came up with "australus". Although, he is the co-ordinator of applied studies (rooms division) at the Blue Mountains Hotel School in Leura and on the verge of officially becoming an Australian. Mr West said that just as the "venison" divorced deer meat from the idea of eating Bambi, so too would "australus" divorce kangaroo meat from the idea of eating Skippy. What the kangaroo industry dubs "Skippy syndrome" - a reluctance to eat the national symbol - has for decades held back kangaroo meat consumption by humans. This year the industry has a quota to kill 3.9 million kangaroos, mostly for pet food. Judges of the competition included the television chef Ian Parmenter and the food writer Cherry Ripe. The editor of Food Companion International, Mel Nathan, said "australus" sounded dignified and linked the meat with the home of the kangaroo. "The new name may be a huge breakthrough for the kangaroo meat industry," she predicted. When the winning name was announced at a luncheon at Kingsley's Steakhouse in King Street yesterday, some of the guests said the name sounded too much like the Australis brand of fragrances. The executive officer of the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia, John Kelly, said that while his organisation had helped sponsor the competition, it had "no really serious intention of changing the name" at this stage. *Sydney Morning Herald Ed Comment; Australia has laws about food labelling. Such a dishonest label would not be permitted under Aussie law. ******************************************** Capel Shire is making moves to cull kangaroos which have become uncontrollable in some areas. Kangaroo populations have increased dramatically, with residential developments pushing them into national parks and bush reserves, said the Shire's chief executive Paul Sheedy. As a result the kangaroos will need to be "substantially reduced by at least half in some areas", Mr Sheedy said. "But the numbers needing to be culled depend on the area - how many kangaroos the environment is able to support." "The kangaroos are damaging the environment by stripping tree saplings and understorey plant species." The Capel Council believes a culling program is lacking for government land and will support the Capel Land Conservation District Committee in its correspondence with the Minister for Environment to request a culling program to start immediately. Mr Sheedy said there is no precedent in other rural sahires as the kangaroos are enjoying ideal conditions to survive and breed in the Capel area. "It's more of a problem in the South West," he said. "We have good weather, rainfall and large areas of forest." Currently kangaroos can be culled on private land, but people must have a permit to shoot the animals. *Bunbury Mail Ed.Comment; I’ve written to the Capel Council about this. Estimates by CALM claim that kangaroo numbers in the Southwest have doubled in the last 18 years, with some farmers claiming a tenfold increase in the last few years. There are also claims that kangaroos are spreading Ross River fever. Calm have acknowledged that kangaroo numbers are too high, but killing them on crown land was neither justified or feasible. CALM claim that130,000 kangaroos would be commercially killed this year, compared with 45,000 “just a few years ago.” Meanwhile I’m still trying to get State population estimates and Quotas from DEH, but its like pulling their teeth out. *WPAA ******************************************** Gassing Quokkas CALM are still gassing quokkas on Rottnest Island, instead of allowing them (injured and orphaned quokkas) to be taken back to the Mainland for rescue and rehabilitation. Prior to the gassing, they were hitting them on the head (presumably because the kangaroo kill code of practice recommends it!) with a stick. However public outrage forced them to put a gas chamber on the Island. They have decided that they will not send any injured or orphaned quokkas back the volunteers at Chidlow Marsupial Hospital, in case one escapes and spread disease to the Mainland populations. There has never before been an escape from Chidlow, and CALM itself released Rottnest Island quokkas onto the Mainland in 1988. It’s believed to be a personality conflict, and as usual the wildlife pay the price for CALMS incompetance! * ******************************************** Kangaroo Pet Food For some time now we have recognised we need to target the pet food Industry again. While kangaroo meat sold in Woolworths and Coles in packages is labeled (in small letters) kangaroo, there appears to be no such requirement for tinned dog and cat food. Is kangaroo sold as pet food noted on the label or do they avoid mentioning this fact by using the following deceptive techniques? Consumers have a right to know whether kangaroo is in the pet food they are buying. They have just as much right to choice as those who buy free-range eggs. Buying kangaroo for your pet? You can't tell from the labeling. *WPAA Under the Trade Practices Act, pet foods, like any other product, can’t make misleading or untrue claims. You can’t call a dog roll ‘beef’ if it doesn’t have beef in it. But what if it has some beef - just not very much? There are no government regulatory guidelines, but the Pet Food Industry Association of Australia’s (PFIAA) code of practice is based on best practice and incorporates standards for labelling, marketing, nutrition design and claims. For example, the code stipulates that a ‘complete and balanced’ or ‘nutritionally complete’ pet food must meet the minimum recommended nutritive requirements for that species. Pet snacks or treats should be labelled ‘complementary pet food’, as they aren’t nutritionally complete. A pet food may not be labelled ‘beef’ unless it contains at least 25% beef and beef is the major ingredient. If beef isn’t the main ingredient but still makes up 25% or more of the meat, and the product is the ‘beefiest’ in the range, it can be labelled ‘beef dinner’ or ‘beef casserole’. If more than 5% but less than 25% of the food is beef, the words ‘with beef’ can be used - as in ‘dog stew with beef’. But be warned: if it just says ‘beef flavour’, the product is likely to contain hardly any beef at all. Ingredients must be listed in descending order by weight - so the first ingredient is the most plentiful. There’s no national standard for processed tinned or dry pet food. If it’s imported it has to comply with Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) import regulations and must be certified to come from disease-free animals that were inspected before and after slaughter. For processed pet food made in Australia some state regulations apply, otherwise the industry is largely self-regulated. Major manufacturers are members of PFIAA and have to comply with its code of conduct and AAFCO standards. Fresh and frozen pet meat is regulated by the state and territories’ agriculture portfolios or meat authorities. The Primary Industry Ministerial Council’s Meat Standards Committee is working on establishing a standard for such pet meat. *Choice Details for where to lodge Complaints to the ACCC - Consumers have a right to know if they are spending money on pet food that contains kangaroo however there is nothing on the label to indicate that this is the case. They are misleading those consumers using deceptive conduct and tactics. Write to your local ACCC Office and ask them to investigate this issue and introduce laws and regulation to force manufacturers to state which animal products are contained (ie. specific and not just something as obscure as 'animal protein' or other terms which do not identify the animal). Given the bulk of kangaroo meat is used in pet food - which pet foods and are all manufacturers being honest about what meat is in the product they are selling? Consumers have a right to choose what they spend their money on and should have a choice in not support an industry they may not be supportive of. Misleading and deceptive conduct on the part of manufacturers due to inadequate controls over labeling of pet foods is not good enough. The ACCC on Pet food guidelines (1997) http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/87058/fromItem They have not gone far enough and this issues specifically has not been addressed. List of ACCC Offices to write to! Adelaide office Street address: 14th floor, ANZ House 13 Grenfell Street Adelaide SA 5001 Postal address: GPO Box 922 Adelaide SA 5001 Phone and fax numbers: Ph: (08) 8213 3444 Fax: (08) 8410 4155 Brisbane office Street address: Level 3, AAMI Building 500 Queen Street Brisbane QLD 4000 Postal address: PO Box 10048 Adelaide Street Post Office Brisbane QLD 4000 Phone and fax numbers: Ph: (07) 3835 4666 Fax: (07) 3832 0372
Canberra office Street address: 470 Northbourne Ave Dickson ACT 2602 Postal address: PO Box 1199 Dickson ACT 2602 Phone and fax numbers: Phone - general: (02) 6243 1111 Phone - reception: (02) 6243 1123 Fax: (02) 6243 1199
Darwin office Street address: Level 8 National Mutual Centre 9-11 Cavenagh St DARWIN NT 0800 Postal address: GPO Box 3056 DARWIN NT 0801 Phone and fax numbers: Ph - general: (08) 8946 9666 Ph - reception: 08 8946 9610 Fax: (08) 8946 9600
Hobart office Street address: 3rd Floor 86 Collins Street (Cnr Elizabeth & Collins Streets) Hobart TAS 7000 Postal address: GPO Box 1210 Hobart TAS 7001 Phone and fax numbers: Ph: (03) 6215 9333 Fax: (03) 6234 7796
Melbourne office Street address: Level 35, The Tower 360 Elizabeth Street Melbourne Central Melbourne VIC 3000 Postal address: GPO Box 520J Melbourne VIC 3001 Phone and fax numbers: Ph: (03) 9290 1800 Fax: (03) 9663 3699 ********************************************
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