Kangamail Archives 19Our Appeal into the King and Flinders Islands wallaby and pademelon kill hearings finished on Friday, and I’m very pleased how it all went, thanks mostly to our impressive expert witnesses. I’m not going to try to guess the Findings, but we certainly put up a good fight. As soon as the Findings are handed down we will get the results out to everyone. * ******** Commonwealth approval to harvest wallabies on King and Flinders islands is being touted as an important step to finding sustainable and humane alternatives to 1080 poison. Primary Industries Minister David Llewellyn said having a specific plan to commercially use some of the wildlife was an approach used by other states. "We recognise the impact that wallabies can have on agricultural areas when they gather in large numbers and have to be culled. It would be an awful waste to leave the culled wallabies on the ground," Mr Llewellyn said. "With that in mind we have been working closely with the Commonwealth Government to prepare approved Trade Management Plans that would enable wallabies harvested under specific conditions to be utilised for overseas markets." King Island residents have lobbied for more than two years to make an industry out of culling wallabies, which are in plague proportions. Mr Llewellyn said the plans imposed conditions on how the animals could be harvested as well as ensuring they were sustainable and humane by applying annual quotas. "We believe carefully managed plans such as these can help provide sustainable and humane alternatives to 1080." Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association chief executive Greg Bradfield welcomed the new plan. "It's a huge problem on King Island," Mr Bradfield said. "Harvesting is a long-term solution and ensures a sustainable population, sound environment and potential for a new business. It's a win-win." *Mercury ****** Plans to cull wallabies on the two biggest islands in Bass Strait are being challenged in the Supreme Court. The Wildlife Protection Association of Australia wants to stop approved federal management plans, which allow farmers to shoot and export wallabies on King and Flinders islands. President Pat O'Brien alleges the plan allows inhumane killing of joeys, breaches the national rifle code and misjudges the size of the wallaby population. He hopes the case will reveal critical information. "In the last appeal we had in New South Wales we found out that Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland had overshot their quotas by about 15,000 animals," he said. "But they wouldn't tell us unless we had them in court and had them on oath. "The information we get will go onto websites all over the world. We will use it in our arguments to stop this disgusting thing from happening." Commercial shooters harvesting wallabies in Tasmania should be using higher powered guns than .22 rifles to ensure the animals are killed instantly, a tribunal has been told. Dr Paul Hopwood told the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Brisbane he believed the federal government made a serious error in judgment when it approved the practice last year. He believes using .22 rifles is inhumane because it can lead to animals being wounded and dying in agony rather than being instantly killed. The veterinarian was the first witness for the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia, which is appealing the government's decision to introduce controversial management plans on King and Flinders islands. The plans allow commercial shooters to kill wallabies and pademelons on the islands so their meat and fur can be exported. Dr Hopwood, a member of the NSW Game Council, told the tribunal hunters should be forced to use more accurate rifles such as the higher powered .222. "It is imperative that you should be able to shoot an animal with a weapon that is able to kill it straight away," he said. "If the animal is shot in the face it will be unable to eat and will die slowly over a number of days." Barrister Darryl Rangiah, acting for the government, produced research which indicated 95 per cent of wallabies were killed instantly when shot by professional shooters using .22 rifles. He also questioned whether using higher powered riffles would endanger the residents of the islands, pointing out that a bullet from a .222 rifle could travel several kilometres further than one from a .22 rifle if a shot missed. But Dr Hopwood said shooters knew to take the background into account before taking a shot and fired from an elevation to ensure the bullet landed in the ground. The hearing is expected to continue until Friday. *AAP ******** Canberra's fecund female roos could soon be fed a contraceptive "pill" in an effort to reduce their numbers on the city's fringes. New research commissioned by the ACT Government will investigate whether oral contraceptives can be used to control the territory's burgeoning eastern grey kangaroo population. Grasslands in the ACT's nature parks are home to between 450 and 500 kangaroos per square kilometre, the highest recorded density anywhere in Australia. The animals have long menaced Canberra drivers, even on inner suburban roads. According to a recent NRMA report, kangaroos caused more than 600 accidents in the ACT in 2004, with an average estimated damage bill of $2500. Territory and Municipal Services Minister John Hargreaves said the drugs, which would be added to the roos' natural food sources, would be preferable to culling. "This experiment, if it works, will finally provide us with a much more humane way of controlling mob sizes, allowing us to maintain the ecological balance," he said. The Government has previously relied on professional shooters to reduce the territory's roo numbers, most recently at Googong Dam amid drought conditions two years ago. Its decision then to kill more than 800 kangaroos and joeys sparked uproar among animal welfare campaigners, who attempted to stop the cull by staying near the animals. One of the protesters, a Weston woman, was arrested and later convicted of trespass. The Government has also tried other, non-lethal methods to control population levels - such as vasectomising bulls and implanting slow-release contraceptives in does - but neither proved to be efficient. Environment ACT senior ecologist Don Fletcher said the new contraceptive should be ready for testing in the field within two to five years. The chemicals would be added to grass - the eastern grey's staple food source - in the open, low-lying areas where they grazed. Mr Fletcher said the contraceptives would not affect other wildlife, and would be used away from areas in which other macropods, such as wallabies, fed. ACT Animal Liberation spokeswoman Simone Gray welcomed yesterday's announcement, saying oral contraceptives were a practical way to treat large numbers of kangaroos at once. She hoped governments elsewhere in Australia would also fund similar research into non-lethal population control methods. *Canberra Times Ed. Comment Its been suggested that the figure of 600 roo related accidents is bit shonky. Automobile Clubs have long recognised that bad drivers often use the excuse that they swerved to miss a kangaroo and hit a tree. That way they can blame drinking, or tiredness, or just plain carelessness on the kangaroos. *********** POLICE are warning of the dangers of firearms after a Lindisfarne great-grandfather accidentally shot himself in the face and died while hunting kangaroos.Noel Kingston died on Tuesday night while spotlighting with a friend on the younger man's property near Oatlands.Inspector Glen Woolley, said the 77-year-old retired stock agent was standing on the back of a ute shooting kangaroos, while the younger man was driving the ute and holding a spotlight. After they shot two wallabies, the driver got out of the ute and gave the spotlight to Mr Kingston to hold while he went to retrieve the dead animals. The younger man then reversed the ute but Kingston didn't have hold of the rifle properly and it accidentally discharged and shot him in the face."The driver of the ute jumped out to see what the man was shooting at and found that he had been shot," Insp Woolley said.The licensed weapon -- a .22 magnum -- belonged to Mr Kingston. Police said the safety catch was off at the time he was shot. Mr Kingston leaves behind his wife of 56 years, Nancy, along with his four children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Insp Woolley said the incident was a timely reminder that guns were dangerous and needed to be handled with care."The message is loud and clear: make sure that the safety catch is on at all times unless you are about to fire the weapon," he said. "These men were good friends, who had been shooting on a regular basis on the property together.” "Regardless of experience with firearms, people should always ensure the `safety' is on and make sure their hand is nowhere near the trigger." * Mercury
******** A draft policy to support the commercial harvesting of native wildlife has opened a bitter split in the nation's peak environment body, the Australian Conservation Foundation. Former ACF director and founding member Dr Geoff Mosley has angrily described the organisation's new draft policy - Utilisation of Terrestrial Native Fauna - as "absolutely appalling, totally unnecessary and a betrayal of the ACF's origins". The Humane Society International, RSPCA and International Fund for Animal Welfare have also voiced concerns about ACF's planned change of policy direction. ACF president Professor Ian Lowe issued a brief statement yesterday, saying the organisation had not yet arrived at a firm position on the draft policy and would not do so before organisation members had been given an opportunity to comment on it. An ACF media spokesman said, "It's not our policy to comment on internal organisation matters. This is an internal issue for members and council. It's not part of our public campaign work." The draft policy, which was passed by the foundation's governing council after heated debate, suggests "carefully managed consumptive use of wildlife" can be beneficial "at both population and landscape levels". It claims "harvest of native wildlife may provide an opportunity for the conservation of species and their natural habitats through economic incentives" but does not support commercial wildlife farming. Dr Mosley, a member of the organisation's governing council, has been accused by other council members of deliberately leaking the draft document to wildlife conservation groups to bolster opposition. The draft policy has since been posted on the organisation's website for public comment. Dr Mosley told The Canberra Times, "This is a matter of conscience. It is a change of policy direction that sees kangaroos and other wildlife not as a by-product of culling, but a primary product. It is a betrayal of everything the ACF once stood for and fought to establish." Formed in 1966 by CSIRO ecologist Francis Radcliffe with Chief Justice of the High Court Sir Garfield Barwick as its first president, the ACF strongly opposed commercial harvesting of kangaroos and other native species, arguing for tighter controls on the kangaroo-meat industry. Its former vice-president, the late Dr Peter Rawlinson, was a high-profile national spokesman, declaring there was "no legal or democratic mandate for a kangaroo industry" and commercial exploitation of wildlife "should never be contemplated". The director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Asia-Pacific, Mick McIntyre, said he had "serious reservations" about the ACF's draft policy. "We are naturally very nervous about any suggestion of supporting killing for conservation benefits. We don't think there is enough evidence to suggest what those benefits could be," he said RSPCA chief scientist Dr Bidda Jones said the policy needed to specifically address welfare concerns, including the methods used to kill joeys during commercial harvesting of kangaroos. This involved decapitation or a blow to the head. "We are not yet satisfied that joeys are killed humanely," she said. "We don't support the concept of sustainable use of wildlife because we are not sure it has a positive outcome." Humane Society director Michael Kennedy said the draft policy would "leave the door open for a potential range of new commercial enterprises" and, if adopted, would undermine the efforts of other environment groups to protect native wildlife. "Our organisation does not support commercial use of wildlife because history shows it is simply not sustainable. When you have a program based on supply and demand, the commercial aspects inevitably win." University of NSW ecologist DrDaniel Ramp said the dynamics of kangaroo populations were frequently misinterpreted to suggest culling was required to keep numbers under control. "The argument that harvesting is a kinder way to control populations during drought is utter rubbish. These animals have evolved with a landscape that adjusts to their grazing pressures. They go through boom and bust cycles, that's part of what they do to survive," he said. The Federal Government's recently issued Rural Industries Research and Development operational plan for 2006-07 lists more than 40 new animal-based industries, including captive breeding of native turtles and exports of kangaroo meat to China. A spokesman said emu farming was likely to increase due to the medicinal properties of emu oil, which was used by the cosmetic industry as an "anti-ageing" skin softener, and to treat arthritis and rheumatism. * Canberra Times Ed comment; Emu oil? For arthritis? There are plenty of plant-based herbal remedies for arthritis, and many of them also have strong anti-aging properties. May as well rub old engine oil on sore joints as use emu oil. ******* The Australian Conservation Foundation has put a new draft wildlife use policy on its website at http://www.acfonline.org.au/articles/news.asp?news_id=888 The ACF did have a good policy opposing wildlife use, but this Draft policy may as well have been written by the kangaroo Industry, and I suspect that’s what’s happened. Someone needs to go through it with a big red pencil. Or a pair of scissors. Please send your comments to the ACF at 60 Leicester St, Carlton 3053 Victoria, re: Draft Policy on Utilisation of Terrestrial Native Fauna Please be nice. If you are a member of the ACF ……well….. you know what to say. *
************ Wildlife experts are concerned some of Tasmania's seemingly common wildlife are being decimated by a cat-borne disease. They say toxoplasmosis is wiping out large numbers of pademelons, bandicoots and wombats in some areas. Toxoplasmosis can also be passed on to humans, and one disease expert is lobbying for it to become publicly notifiable because of its insidious spread. The situation is being aggravated by the drought, forcing wildlife to search for food in suburban areas where they come into contact with cats. Feral cat controller Charles Wolf said he was alarmed at the number of diseased wildlife he was finding in the centre of Hobart and surrounding suburbs. He said diseased wallabies and possums were being found on suburban lawns, disoriented and blind because of the disease. Mr Wolf said pademelons and bandicoot casualties were also on the rise. He said extinction of these iconic species was a possibility unless action was taken. "Unless something is done our grandchildren won't see a bandicoot or a pademelon or a lot of other animals," he said. Toxoplasmosis, which is spread through cat faeces, makes animals blind, affects their brain function and eventually kills them. The Tasmanian Conservation Trust has called on the State Government to conduct more research into wildlife numbers in light of threats such as toxoplasmosis. "There is so little research into Tasmanian fauna that we simply don't know what the population dynamics are," trust director Craig Woodfield said. Wildlife disease specialist and veterinarian David Obendorf said that as well as bandicoots and pademelons, wombats were falling victim. "Wombats are now very rare across Mt Wellington, and I suspect toxoplasmosis could be responsible for removing them," he said. Dr Obendorf said the threat to humans was real too and he had been lobbying the Government to take more action on a public health front. He said general practitioners should be forced to notify the public health director whenever they discover a patient with toxoplasmosis. Department of Primary Industries biosecurity and product integrity division general manager Alex Schaap said the numbers of infected animals brought into state laboratories were small, although that was not an indication of infection rates. Mr Schaap said there was no control program in place for toxoplasmosis. "The agency is currently looking at the issue of feral cats and ways to control them with the assistance of the farming community," he said. . *Mercury ****** The Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC), through its New Animal Industries program have keenly jumped on board with a joint project between FATE and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) looking at marketing and consumer choice behaviour in relation to kangaroo meat. Kangaroo meat is increasing in exposure and availability in Australia's supermarkets and restaurants, but there has been little uptake of kangaroo in the smallgoods and meat manufacturing sector. This is in contrast to export markets such as Russia, which have found kangaroo to be a valuable low-fat component for smallgoods. FATE Program Manager Peter Ampt and UTS School of Marketing's Dr Kate Owen are heading up this investigation into what factors might influence consumer and meat industry choices around kangaroo. RIRDC has also given verbal confirmation that it intends to fund our work with the Barrier Area Rangecare Group (BARG), north of Broken Hill in NSW's semi-arid rangelands. The funding on this occasion will come through RIRDC's Wildlife and Rangelands program as of July 2006 and will look at the kangaroo industry from the production end, encouraging landholders to take up a greater role. It is hoped that a more flexible regulatory approach to kangaroo harvesting will give landholders a greater ability to incorporate kangaroos into their property management strategies and derive a return from kangaroos harvested on their properties. This could lead to improved conservation outcomes for the rangeland habitat that supports those kangaroos, as well as sustainable economic outcomes for pastoralists looking to diversify their incomes. *Network *************** The annual kill of wallabies by recreational hunters and landholders in Tasmania is believed to be in excess of 500000 animals.* ********** A Victorian Liberal party plan to allow kangaroos to be slaughtered for human consumption has upset animal activists. A ban on processing kangaroos for eating means that Victorian restaurants are forced to import kangaroo meat from interstate. Senior Liberal MP Philip Davis said the party would change the laws if Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu became premier after the next state election. ``You can walk into a restaurant in Lygon Street, order a kangaroo steak, but it comes from South Australia,'' Mr Davis told the Herald Sun newspaper. ``I think it's nuts you have to bring kangaroo meat in from South Australia,'' he said. Australian Wildlife Protection Council president Maryland Wilson said the Liberals would need to dump the policy if they were serious about winning office. ``Ted Baillieu should tell Philip Davis to go jump,'' Ms Wilson said. ``The Liberal Party will not get elected pursing this stupid policy.'' Mr Davis said only kangaroos killed for population control would end up being sold to restaurants. *Herald Sun ********* Meanwhile in Queensland, Liberal senator Ian Macdonald reckons there's nothing better for satisfying a big hunger than tucking into a hearty serve of the national coat of arms. But the sensitive subject of kangaroo consumption has prompted division in the Macdonald household, as the honourable senator's better half has a less carnivorous attitude to Skippy. Emu, it seems, is also a point of contention in the Macdonald kitchen. Senator Macdonald rose the delicate issue of kangaroo consumption today during a Senate debate on funding for Australian Technical Colleges. He had been informing the Senate of the importance of the kangaroo meat processing industry in western Queensland when his mind turned to his stomach. The senator was referring to the need for skilled young Australians to enter traditional trades, like the meat industry. ``I love kangaroo meat, it's very healthy and lean,'' Senator Macdonald said. ``Cooked properly it will surpass, in my humble opinion, any other meat product. ''(But) my wife is one of those who always objects to, as she says, eating the national coat of arms. ``She won't eat kangaroo or emu.'' And what to quaff with a plate of kangaroo? Senator Macdonald recommends a Ballandean Estate shiraz. Australia exported kangaroo meat to 21 countries, with Russia top of the list, he said. *Herald Sun ************ Giant Australian marsupials the size of four wheel drive vehicles, were more likely to have been killed by drought than human hunters, according to research to be published this month. The extinction of the giant kangaroos, marsupial lions and wombat-like diprotodons which roamed Australia in prehistoric times has long been debated with many believing natural forces weakened the animals enabling humans to kill off the species. This theory has been turned on its head in the Lake Menindee area of NSW where state-of-the-art dating techniques show the mega-fauna were extinct for 10,000 years before humans came onto the scene. The Lake Menindee archeological site, uncovered in the 1930s, has long supported scientists who believed humans butchered the giant marsupials because of evidence of humans and animals as well as tools and fireplaces. *9MSN *************** A kangaroo attacked an elderly woman in at Rushworth in Northern Victoria last week. She walked outside her house after dark, and bumped into a kangaroo which probably got a bigger fright than she did. She attempted to grab the kangaroo paws, and of course the kangaroo started kicking her. She was taken to hospital with over 20 cuts to her legs. * ***************** Rolf Harris has gone one better than tying his kangaroo down, he's cast it in silver. Harris is the first of three artists to design new collector-edition $1 coins featuring the kangaroo for the Royal Australian Mint. The minted coins go on sale today as part of the 2007 Great Australian Artists series. ******************** On Friday I attended a meeting of the Queensland Kangaroo Management Committee, which is an advisory committee to the Environment Minister Desley Boyle. The meeting was remarkably unmemorable except for a couple of matters. First matter of interest was that Des Boyland from the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland (which supports the commercial kill) fell over on his way to the meeting and broke his finger, so he couldn’t attend. Much of the meeting revolved around discussion of electronic recording of kangaroo kills by the shooters. However the Industry representatives, Cliff Dee and Lyndsay Packer later moved a motion to lift the minimum skin size from .375 to 4.5 meters. Shooters and farmers opposed this, and during some rather heated discussion, Cliff Dee banged the table and stated “we are running out of kangaroos!” He is the largest kangaroo meat processor in Australia, with processing plants all over the country. Packer is the only kangaroo leather processor in Queensland. When they say they are running out of kangaroos, well, that’s getting pretty serious. Their rational was that shooters were shooting just about everything they saw, small or not, and if the animal was under the minimum size of 15 kg for Human Consumption, or 14 kg for Pet Food, they would skin the animal and sell the skins. The 9kg kangaroo body was then just dumped. They both were actually concerned about the sustainability of the Industry, and stated that if something wasn’t done immediately, there wouldn’t be an Industry in Queensland within a couple of years. Of course Pru Barkly, the Agforce representative, who feels the same way about kangaroos as I feel about bureaucrats, immediately wanted to raise the quota. Less kangaroos mean more grass for her sheep and cows. I think she believes sincerely that if there is one kangaroo left, it will be on her place, and eating her grass. Considerable time was lost with the QPWS trying to explain to her why they couldn’t do that. Of course I supported the Industry, making it clear I wasn’t concerned about the welfare of the Industry, only about the kangaroos, and I preferred there wasn’t an Industry anyway. However the proposal to raise skin sizes has gone to the Minister, who may or may not do anything. The Feds claim there are 25 million kangaroos in Australia, but they can’t tell you where they are! The quota for red kangaroos in the eastern zones closes in September, and all the other quotas in the three Queensland shooting zones are close to being filled. * Pat OBrien ************** As some of our readers probably know, VIVA! International Voice for Animals has a legal action in the Supreme Court of California against Adidas. California is the only US State which does not allow wildlife body parts to be sold, and Adidas is flogging their kangaroo skin Predator footy boots there. The Commonwealth of Australia recently filed a brief in the lawsuit, in support of Adidias. The brief is full of the usual government misinformation and propaganda, but it does list some groups that support the commercial kangaroo kill, as an ‘example’ of community group support. These are the Australian Veterinary Association, Australian Wildlife Management Society, Aust. Assn. of Veterinary Conservationists and Biology, and Ecological Society of Australia. Of course these are all Industry groups, at least two set up specifically to provide support and government funding for wildlife Industries. However the legal brief also names four community groups as supporting the kill. These include Wildlife Preservation Society of Australia, Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland, South Australia Conservation Council, and the Nature Conservation Society of SA. I’ve had discussions over the years with the executive of three of these organisations, and in every case their kangaroo policy was up to thirty years old. When I’ve asked why don’t they review their policy, I was told it was too divisive and they were frightened of losing members. Doing nothing doesn’t rock any boats! All of these groups rely heavily on government funding. * Pat OBrien ******** Next week our Appeal against the King and Flinders Island pademelon kill will be heard in the Brisbane AAT. The Appeal was lodged by WPAA on behalf of the Australian Wildlife Protection Council, Animals Australia, World League for the Protection of Animals, and other groups. We believe the Management Plans breach the EPBC Act, in relation to animal welfare and sustainability matters. Our legal opinion suggests animal welfare issues are our strongest argument, because the EPBC Act is very weak, and is constantly being tweaked by the bureaucrats. While we are not that confident we will stop the kill altogether, because the Legislation is so weak, we believe we can force changes that will make it much more difficult for the Industry, and considerably improve animal welfare issues. We have three excellent expert witnesses to support our arguments, who have offered to appear pro bono. Of course we pay their expenses. When its all over a full report will go up on the kangaroo protection coalition website at www.kangaroo-protection-coalition.com * ********* A small handful of our readers are aware that we have been conducting a covert investigation into the kangaroo Industry over the last six months. The operation is still under way, and we are receiving more information. We will release the results of our investigation at an appropriate time. * ****** The Australian Minister for Forestry and Conservation, Senator Eric Abetz, and the Tasmanian Minister for Primary Industries, David Llewellyn, today released an independent report proposing options for future 1080 research. The peer reviewed report, “Research into Alternatives to the Use of 1080 for Browsing Damage Management in Tasmania” was undertaken as part of the $4 million set aside under the Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement to fact-track research into practical alternatives to 1080. Prepared by LandCare Research in consultation with researchers and stakeholders, the reports assessed the full range of research and demonstration activities into alternative browse-damage-management approaches based on economic feasibility, environmental sustainability, and social acceptability. The 1080 Stakeholder Advisory Group will now meet again to discuss the final report and to identify those research priorities and extension activities that they think will be important in potentially reducing the use of 1080 in Tasmania. Of particular import will be the need to consider, based on research reviewed in the report, whether future research focuses on lethal methods, non-lethal, or a combination of both,. “In considering options moving forward, we will be ensuring that the strategic plan that is developed remains focussed on identifying commercially viable alternatives to the usage of 1080, so that not only can we continue to reduce the usage of 1080, but so that we can do so without crippling our vitally important agriculture and forestry industries”, Senator Abetz said. "Forestry and agriculture has provided a substantially increased food source and habitat for native browsing animals. “We need to remember that controlling browsing animals is an important and legitimate part of agriculture and forestry, and these sectors should not be expected to bear the cost of unviable alternatives.” Mr Llewellyn, said this project is another important part in the long term aim of reducing 1080 usage, ”There has been a dramatic decline in the use of 1080 in Tasmania over the last six years, from 15,2kg in 2000 to just 4.7kg in the last financial year, for which Tasmania’s farmers and foresters should be congratulated”, Mr Llewellyn said. Minister Llewellyn said the stakeholder-driven programme will now begin the development of a strategic plan to identify the initial phase of research and demonstration trials of alternatives to 1080. “It is critically important that those who are directly impacted by browsing animal damage have a major say in the practicality of potential research programs”, he said. *Mercury
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