Kangaroo Newsletter, Kangamail Archives 15Kangamail 2/5/06
Our Appeal into the King and Flinders Island pademelon kill will be heard over 5 days from 03/7/06 to 07/07/06. But there is no letup from Tasmania. Not only do they now want to kill wallabies on the Tasmanian mainland for skins for fur coats to be made in Italy, they are now trying to export skins killed under a Tasmanian commercial permit that was not approved for export. So now we have TWO new applications to deal with, as well as the one in the AAT! Comments can be made to The Director, Wildlife Trade Assessments, Department of the Environment and Heritage, GPO Box 787, Canberra ACT 2601 or email: wsm@deh.gov.au
Commercial export of Bennett's Wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus) skins. Application for approval of a Wildlife Trade Operation 11 April 2006 About the application The Department of the Environment and Heritage (DEH) has received an application for approval of a Wildlife Trade Operation under Part 13A, section 303FN of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). The proposed operation is for the commercial export of Bennett's Wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus) skins. This species is not listed as threatened under the EPBC Act or listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The application is for the export of Bennett's Wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus) skins, harvested from Tasmania under an approved permit to take wildlife for commercial purposes. Approval of the proposed WTO will allow the export of skins from Bennett's Wallabies currently harvested for the domestic meat market. The proposal includes measures to ensure that the export of skins will not result in an increase in the number of Bennett's Wallabies killed. It is proposed that should the operation be approved it would be in force for up to three (3) years from the date of declaration. In accordance with the provisions of section 303FR of the EPBC Act, you are invited to comment on this proposal. Please submit your comments by Friday 12 May 2006. Please include your full name and address in your submission. Comments should be addressed to: The Director, Wildlife Trade Assessments, Department of the Environment and Heritage GPO Box 787, Canberra ACT 2601, or email: wsm@deh.gov.au To assist in considering comments, DEH encourages you to provide comments under the following headings: · Sustainability of the operation · Monitoring · Welfare · Other Download the application This document is available as a PDF file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view it. · Download Commercial export of Bennett's Wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus) skins (macropus-rufogriseus.pdf - 510 KB) If you are unable to access this document, please contact the Department of the Environment and Heritage to organise a suitable alternative format. * NEXT ONE! Commercial export of Bennett's Wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus) skins - invitation for comment closes Friday 12 May 2006 See: http://www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/trade-use/invitecomment/macropus-rufogriseus.html About the application The Department of the Environment and Heritage (DEH) has received an application for approval of a Wildlife Trade Operation under Part 13A, section 303FN of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). The proposed operation is for the commercial export of Bennett's Wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus) skins. This species is not listed as threatened under the EPBC Act or listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). It is proposed that should the operation be approved it would be in force for up to three (3) years from the date of declaration. In accordance with the provisions of section 303FR of the EPBC Act, you are invited to comment on this proposal. Please submit your comments by Friday 12 May 2006. Please include your full name and address in your submission. Comments should be addressed to: The Director, Wildlife Trade Assessments, Department of the Environment and Heritage GPO Box 787, Canberra ACT 2601, or email: wsm@deh.gov.au To assist in considering comments, DEH encourages you to provide comments under the following headings: · Management and methodology · Ecological sustainability of the operation This document is available as a PDF file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view it. · Download Commercial export of Bennett's Wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus) skins (macropus-rufogriseus.pdf - 510 KB) If you are unable to access this document, please contact the Department of the Environment and Heritage to organise a suitable alternative format.
**************************************************************** A kangaroo skull purported to be from NSW road kill has been sold for $81 US ($108 Au) to a US customer on eBay. It’s illegal to export any kangaroo body parts unless they were killed under a Federal approved kangaroo management plan. This skull is apparently road kill...still illegal to export. This vendor has other kangaroo bone parts for sale as well, including a jawbone. We have been asked to write to the Federal Minister about this. * **************************************************************** The Royal Automobile Club of Tasmania (RACT) says there has been a 350 per cent increase in road kill-related insurance claims over the past six years. The claims relate to when vehicles have hit animals or been damaged while trying to avoid animals. The RACT says most of the accidents happen on the outskirts of cities and the hours between 6:00pm and midnight are the riskiest. Wallabies and kangaroos are the unluckiest animals - they account for 80 per cent of such accidents. There are hardly any Tassie devils left to scavenge and cleanup the carcasses. In future Tasmania may be known as the land of the blowflies! * ****************************************************************
For almost three decades, Charlie Girdler's pay packet has been determined by the number of kangaroos he caught in the sights of his .223 rifle between dusk and dawn. It's smaller these days, and that's got nothing to do with his ability to shoot. "There just aren't that many roos there any more," the Broken Hill shooter said. "The drought has killed them off". Girdler, 62, used to take down between 60 and 70 kangaroos a night in what he calls the suburbs - the several hundred kilometres of properties around Broken Hill, the area in which he is licensed to shoot. Now he travels twice as far for half as many roos, which are half the size. It's so bad he has restricted his trips to two a week and has signed on for social security to top up his meagre income. "I'll have to give it away soon" he said. Girlder's story is just one aspect of how drought has affected life in regional Australia. NSW Primary Industries Minister Ian MacDonald recently announced 46 per cent of NSW was now in drought, up 8 per cent on last month. Only 20 per cent of the state has had adequate rainfall. But Mr.MacDonald said NSW farmers were planning to plant a big crop on 4.7 million hectares - if it rained. "In order to see a strong winter crop season, we really need some good saoking rains of between 75 and 100mm across the state" he said. Grains Council president Murray Jones said that while most farmers would like to see good rains by Anzac Day, they would not be too worried if they had to wait until early next month. "Our normal winter patterns starts late April, early May and this is not out of the ordinary" he said. "I think the signs are still pretty normal." He said Western Australia had enjoyed "remarkable summer rains, and that is a fairly large area of the wheat crop". "Western Australia and South Australia are 50 per cent of the crop. They would have good summer moisture in their soil. They don't need very much to get away to a pretty good start." Mr.MacDonald said livestock conditions in NSW were pretty reasonable, but most water storages needed a boost, with the total water storage in NSW at 38 per cent. Apart from north Queesnland dams, which were filled to overflowing by Cyclone Larry, almost all east coast dams are at less than 50 per cent capacity, with many much lower. Most towns and cities are on water restrictions, and desperately seeking new sources of water. According to the office of the NSW Minister for Utilities, 10 NSW towns have water supplies that are in danger of falling in the next three months, while another six are being closely monitored. *The Australian Tuesday 18.4.06 * Ed Comment; Its not just drought of course that accounts for low kangaroo numbers. Overshooting, shooting of small kangaroos, poisoning, and continued loss of habitat are also responsible. Often when farmers destock, they put urea in the watertroughs. When kangaroos drink the water, they die in few days. It's illegal of course, but who knows what happens on these huge properties. We know, because farmers talk about it, and it gets back to us, but not enough detail to for anyone to lay charges.* ****************************************************************
There is concern a record number of kangaroo shooters in Queensland is threatening the industry's future. Up to 2,000 shooters are registered in Queensland, with 400 new licences granted since October alone. Jeffrey Newton from the Macropod and Wild Game Harvesters Association says record roo meat prices mean too many people are vying for a share of already limited quotas. "As with any industry, big dollars attract people that are chasing that quick dollar but unfortunately this industry can't sustain that," he said. "It's uncertain at the best of times but with increased numbers it means the animals are being harvested more rapidly so therefore it's increasing that instability." *ABC Rural **************************************************************** St Mary’s Development. For those unfamiliar with this issue, the St Mary’s site used to belong to the Australian Defence Force. It was flogged off in an asset stripping sale by the Federal government to Lend Lease, a US owned housing development company. The sale was strongly opposed by local residents, who wanted the area to be Parkland. There were many kangaroos on the site. When I visited the site in 2003 there were many large red and grey kangaroos, all in good condition, and all extremely healthy. There was plenty of feed for them too. The government wanted to shoot them to make way for houses, but community outrage forced them to set up a contraception program. This program has been an unmitigated disaster, and many kangaroos have died. I’ve also heard that they are killing the joeys from the mothers that have been knocked out by a tranquiliser gun. Cant expect much else from NSW NPWS, who are apparently supporting the program. Below is correspondence received from an ex Delfin Lend Lease employee refuting the claim by DLL that the Macrofauna Management Plan is being humanely implemented. It appears to justify the arguments the groups have been putting to Bob Debus, the NSW Environment Minister, since August 2005. Dear Sir/Madam, I was recently employed as a veterinary nurse/kangaroo management officer at the ADI site in St Marys. I thought that I would be working in an environment exhibiting the humane treatment and capture of kangaroos, with a humane goal in the future. However, after a few days i realised that this was not the case. Let me tell you a few things i observed in the week that i was working with the management team, and these figures are fairly conservative: - 75% of captured females had pouch young which were taken off the teat forcefully, if they didnt release the teat they were euthanised and then removed. All hairless joeys were euthanised regardless of size. Given the season, the amount of pouch young encountered was high. - I saw in a recent newspaper article that post capture myopathy estimates were approximately 5%. From what i saw it was at least 10-15% (which doesnt include the euthanasing of joeys), I witnessed broken necks from inadequate capture cages, kangaroos trying to jump over large fences and getting caught, broken bones from poor darting ability which resulted in euthanasia of the kangaroos, kangaroos dropping when darts hit them from stress, drowning of released kangaroos, lack of food in overpopulated release area meant 2-5 kangaroo carcasses were found each day, blackberry bushes in release area catching many kangaroos which bled to death from the thorns (when suggested the bushes be removed i was told they wouldnt be). It seemed that every simple question asked about improving the welfare of the captured and released animals was too complicated as i rarely received an answer. I lasted a week there and i dont regret leaving. I have worked with kangaroos in my honours project at university and love them as much as i love my own pets. I believe that the overseer (delfin lend lease) has requested that the kangaroos be treated as poorly as possible so as to maximise the reduction in kangaroo populations. What is going on there is terrible, and many animals are suffering unnecessarily for the sake of profit. Personally i think that kangaroos are very prone to stress myopathy and there cant be any guarantee that each kangaroo capture will go the same. Kangaroos are very prone to heat stress (as you would know), and i did have a conversation with a few workers regarding work through the summer. They said that many more kangaroos were dying due to the heat, regardless of time of day. From the lend lease guide to kangaroo capture, it is stressed that capture activities should be conducted during the early hours of the morning when temperatures are around 20 degrees C or below. Clearly during summer the morning temperatures would have been significantly higher than this. I was working in conditions where the temperatures rose to around 30-35C degrees C about 1-2 months ago at around lunchtime (12 noon). I also expressed this concern when i quit. Anyone upset about this issue should phone the office of Bob Debus the Environment Minister to find out why he is not sticking to his commitment - that this process would be humane. Phone (02) 9228 3071 Fax (02) 9228 3166 bob.debus@debus.minister.nsw.gov.au To visit the ADI community website to read more http://www.adisite.org ** The RSPCA says it is investigating allegations of animal cruelty at the former ADI site in Sydney, after receiving a complaint about the kangaroo population control program there. The program is being run by the developer Delfin Lend Lease to make way for a major housing project at the St Mary's site. About 100 kangaroos out of 2,000 being treated under the program have died. New South Wales Opposition environment spokesman Michael Richardson says he first raised concerns about the program three years ago. "Some of these animals are tearing themselves to bits after being darted," he said. "I've seen a photograph of one kangaroo that's apparently drowned in a puddle of water after being tranquillised; hairless joeys are being wrenched from their mother's pouches and killed. "The minister authorised this program even though he was warned there would be problems with it - he's responsible for it." A spokesman for Minister for the Environment Bob Debus says any evidence of animal cruelty at the site will be thoroughly investigated. *ABC **************************************************************** Although Australian wildlife (possums and koalas) has been used for fur in the past, most people thought that the practice had been left behind in the last Century. Sadly, that’s not the case. A whole new dimension has been added to the conservation and protection of our wildlife by the approval of a "Management Plan" to kill Tasmanian pademelons and wallabies for the overseas fur trade. Now, the fur issue has really intruded into wildlife protection issues, and both animal welfare and wildlife protection groups have a common goal, and should work together on this issue. For all of us who love and admire our unique wildlife, the time has arrived for us to start campaigning strongly on using our wildlife for fur coats. Would you ever wear fur? The fur industry has come under fire from Sir Paul McCartney and wife Heather in a recent BBC documentary. The animal rights campaigners reckon some shoppers could be buying real fur without knowing - because there's no requirement to label it in the UK. Heather McCartney is known for slating fur-wearing stars - she was booted out of J-Lo's fashion show last autumn for staging a one-woman demo. But despite high-profile protests, fur's popularity is soaring – according to the trade. The British Fur Trade Association says sales rose by a third last year. Beyonce and Sienna Miller have both been known to sport fur coats. The fur coats may soon be made from Australian pademelons! So would you consider wearing it? Have your say at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/news/newsbeat/060419_fur.shtml#comment -------------- (DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. **************************************************************** Hundreds of kangaroos will be shot at a Perth park under a plan to protect the environmentally sensitive area. The Department of Conservation and Land Management will cull up to 400 western grey kangaroos at the 550ha Thompsons Lake Nature Reserve, 25km south of Perth. The reserve is considered an internationally significant waterbird habitat. CALM's Nature Conservation director Greg Wyre said the kangaroo population in the reserve had exploded over the past 13 years to the point where the roos were putting pressure on native vegetation and other native animals. An estimated 450 western grey kangaroos now live behind a vermin-proof fence in the suburban reserve. CALM estimates that just 30 kangaroos can live in the area sustainably. "The reduction in kangaroo numbers will be carried out under a nationally-endorsed code of practice and a professional shooter, who will reduce the population over several nights over the coming weeks, will be engaged," Mr Wyre said. He said the culling had been approved by the Conservation Commission of WA and the local community-based Beeliar Regional Park Community Advisory Committee, which is headed by prominent environmentalist Philip Jennings. Mr Wyre said relocating the animals had been ruled out due to the level of stress the move would place on the kangaroos and the lack of a suitable area to move them to. The controversial program has the support of the RSPCA, which says it will not oppose the cull as long as the animals are given a fast, painless death. Spokeswoman Emma-Jane Morcombe said while the cull might seem "quite horrible" to many people it could often be more traumatic to catch the animals and move them to an unfamiliar environment. "It is a large number, but CALM has advised us the area can only sustain between 30 and 40 kangaroos," Ms Morcombe said. "We accept culling is necessary from time to time, especially in a situation like this where the number of kangaroos is simply not sustainable. "We have been assured a professional shooter will be used and the culling done humanely." She said the RSPCA would not supervise the cull but would investigate if it received any complaints. Ed Comment; It would be more about providing kangaroos to an Industry that has run out of product. High prices overseas have meant that kangaroos are being shot out wherever they can find them. This exercise is more about supplying a shooter with something to shoot. A more practical and cheaper alternative would be to leave them alone, and/or increase the size of the reserve. It's hard to comprehend what harm kangaroos would do to waterbirds.* **************************************************************** While the floodwaters are subsiding in the Northern Territory, it is taking longer to remove the visiting wildlife. Last night, a metre-long freshwater crocodile was captured in the main street of Katherine And at Mataranka Homestead, a hundred kilometres south, Deborah Moore says her place has become an ark. "There's lots of kangaroos and peacocks and snakes and quite a few crocodiles around as well," she said. "There was one swimming in the bar for a while there and there's been a big crocodile just outside the front of the cabins, like on the water." **************************************************************** Research on a Tasmanian property has found wildlife is taking 40pc of available grazing. The study began two years ago when sheep farmers Tom and Cynthia Dunbabin wanted to find out how much native herbivores and deer were taking in addition to sheep grazing on the 2100 hectare property, of which 90pc is covered in native vegetation. University of Tasmania research fellow Kerry Bridle said a site was selected that was rotationally grazed by Merino wethers. Once the sheep were removed, twenty 2 x 2 m cages were erected to keep out wild herbivores. An additional 20 'grazed' quadrats were paired with the cages to look at the difference in biomass between the grazed and ungrazed sites. Biomass samples were taken from each quadrat eight months after the experiment started, just before the sheep were due to go back into the run. The samples were dried and weighed to determine the amount (kg/ha) that had been removed by wild herbviores. Scat counts were also taken in an attempt to determine which herbivores had visited the site. SOURCE: Stock & Land, Vic 13 April 2006 **************************************************************** 'Penicillin' found in wallaby milk An ingredient of wallaby milk that protects joeys from infection, could one day become the magic substance doctors desperately need to kill antibiotic-resistant hospital superbugs. Australian scientists have found a compound in the milk which, in laboratory testing, is 100 times more effective than penicillin at killing a wide variety of fungi and bacteria, including golden staph. Research team leader Ben Cocks said the compound, dubbed AGG01, could have a profound impact on human health. "This compound has the potential to be commercially synthesised and may prove vital in the war against increasingly resistant human and animal diseases," he said. Dr Cocks said the compound was special because, instead of just stopping bacteria growing like many other antimicrobials, it actually killed them – and quickly. "You incubate a small amount with pathogenic bacteria in culture, and after half an hour you have wipe out 99 per cent of the bacteria," Dr Cocks said. "If you do a similar assay with other antimicrobials, you don't get anything like that." He said it was too early to know if the compound would be as revolutionary to medicine as penicillin, as it has not yet been tested on animals or humans, "but the data is as good as you would hope at this stage". The researchers, from the Victorian Government's Department of Primary Industries, have synthesised the compound and are looking for partners in biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies to help test it. Dr Cocks said the component was easy and inexpensive to synthesise in large qualities, but it would take more than six years of further testing before it could become available for patients. It was discovered almost by accident, he said, during a project to increase the value and health benefits of cows milk. The researchers began looking at the Tammar Wallaby because its milk contained a lot of protein. Using online biological information, they searched the wallaby's genome to identify more than 30 factors in the breast milk that contribute to fighting bugs. Compound AGG01 was found to be effective against a relative of the hospital superbug MRSA, or golden staph, as well as ecoli, Streptococci, Salmonella, Bacillus subtilus, Pseudomonas spp, Proteus vulgaris, and Staphylococcus aureus. "Wallabies are born so immature and they don't have immune systems until they are 100 days old, they just have to rely on the milk to survive," Dr Cocks said. "That's why we looked at the mammary gland at that time and identified the potential anti-microbials. "This is more of a serendipitous finding – it turns out there is no equivalent in the cows that we can take out of cows' milk." The compound's chemical structure means it may be more effective if injected instead of swallowed, Dr Cocks said. "I think it does have potential, especially with an intravenous set-up, where you have a patient critically ill with an infection with multi-drug resistant bacteria, and there is really nothing they can do for them," Dr Cocks said. *Australian Ed Comment; There has been some concern expressed about this article. There is no intention to put wallabies in a yard and milk them like cows. The compound was isolated from wallaby milk, and will be synthesised, as they do with many other medical products. Whether the compounds work as well after they are synthesized is another matter. Another issue, as some carers have pointed out, is that the research is being done on wallabies may not be ethical, and may not be humane. The research Industry will loudly cry that all research projects go before an “ethics committee” which often consists of carefully selected persons who may support the research Industry at large. Not always the case of course, I know some people on ethics committees that are very strong animal welfare activists. The fact remains that very few people know what actually happens to wildlife in these research programs. A couple of years ago two wedgetail eagles were shot in Victoria under Permit, because they were preying on small wallabies used for research that were contained in a totally inaproppriate and unprotected enclosure. **************************************************************** Wallaby fur would be sold to European fashion markets under plans before the Howard Government to export thousands of skins from Tasmania. Green groups vowed yesterday to fight the plan, saying Australians should be appalled the animal was being used in the "disgusting" fur trade. Under the plan before the Environment Department, the skins of 30,000 wallabies killed each year in Tasmania would be exported for use in the fur trade. Supporters of the proposal say almost all the skins are currently wasted because there is no viable domestic market. Wallabies are currently killed and processed in Tasmania for human consumption and pet food under the control of the state's Meat Hygiene Act. Pat O'Brien, president of the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia, attacked the export plan. "The fur trade has always been a disgusting industry," he said. It's unnecessary. It just panders to a few very wealthy socialites." Mr O'Brien said the federal Government had approved plans to export fur and meat from wallabies killed on King and Flinders islands. The association is trying to overturn the plan in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. According to the Tasmanian Government, Lenah Game Meats is the only Australian company licensed to "harvest" possums and wallabies. Wallaby meat is marketed to restaurants in Germany and France and the company's local menu includes marinated wallaby kebabs, salami and sausages. *Australian **************************************************************** Don't forget that the National Kangaroo Protection Website will be shifted to a totally new server in couple of weeks, to coincide with many new articles and information about kangaroos. All Kangamail archives will be on the new site. Until then, Archives can be found at www.kangaroo-protection-coalition.org/archives.html and at www.kangaroo-protection-coalition.org/archives2.html and at www.kangaroo-protection-coalition.org/Archives3.html and at www.kangaroo-protection-coalition.org/Archives4.html and at www.kangaroo-protection-coalition.org/Archives5.html and at www.kangaroo-protection-coalition.org/Archives6.html To subscribe to our weekly wildlife ezine, "Wildlife Bytes" send and email to info@wildlifeprotectaust.org.au With 'Subscribe Wildlife Bytes' in the subject line. Pat O'Brien, Coordinator, National Kangaroo Protection Coalition email; pat@wildlifeptotectaust.org.au http://www.wildlifeprotectaust.org.au http://www.kangaroo-protection-coalition.org http://www.kangarooslaughter.com *2005, The Year of the Kangaroo!* MANDATORY LEGAL DISCLAIMERS BELOW. ==================================== This is not an unsolicited Email. 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