Kangamail Archives 30!

23/5/07 In this issue of Kangamail there are several different media reports about the ACT kangaroo kill. There is also a Press Release and update on our European Campaign from Animal Lib in Moscow, and now Mudgee wants to kill their kangaroos too! A detailed report on this issue is now on the Kangaroo Protection Website at www.kangaroo-protection-coalition.com/defence-wages-war-on-kangaroos.html

We just discovered that the research program has already started, a few kangaroos with joeys are being shot with a dart gun, and the joeys removed and handed over to wildlife carers. What the mother kangaroo feels about this when, or if, she wakes up and finds her joey missing, we dont know but we can only guess. This sort of "research", in this day and age, wouldn't be permitted in any other State. In the ACT, anything goes.

We've also heard that 120 kangaroos have been shot in the Serendipity Reserve in Victoria, and another 120 are to be killed.

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RED kangaroos are selling for $US3000 in the United States in a booming trade that reduces Australia's national icon to the status of domestic pet. And their smaller kin, wallabies, are being touted as excellent inside pets, with tips to keep them in nappies and walk them on leashes. The rush to have Australian natives as pets is horrifying conservation groups which believe the trend can be found worldwide.

The issue has boiled over recently after The Daily Telegraph revealed the abominable conditions of the red kangaroo Tyson, which was living out its life in a roadside zoo in the town of London in Ontario, Canada. Let Canada know just how you feel about Tyson's suffering. Follow the links at the bottom of this story or join our Canadian kicking page here .

While the red kangaroos for sale in the US are generally bred there, anger is building that our closest neighbour New Zealand is exporting many of the wallabies for the international market. The internet is littered with websites promoting wallabies as pets. The mammals being sold overseas are mainly bred from New Zealand colonies exported years ago before the Federal Government banned their overseas sale.

National Kangaroo Protection Coalition co-ordinator Pat O'Brien said complaints made to New Zealand over live wallaby exports had fallen on deaf ears over the years. "It's absolutely disgraceful," he said. "Most of the wallabies go to Asia and are then distributed from there." Mr O'Brien said the trade in certain Asian countries raised concerns that wallabies were seen as novelty pets.

And he raised concern that with the majority living in apartments, the mammals that grace Australia's wide-open spaces are destined to live out their days in cramped cages. "People try to treat them like dogs and keep them in rooms but it's just wrong," Mr O'Brien said. "Quite often we get complaints from Australians who are travelling overseas and contact us to complain about what they see."

His concerns were backed by the Australian Wildlife Protection Council, which is worried people who get the mammals as pets have little idea how to properly care for them. "A lot of them don't know how to look after wildlife and they have no idea about their dietary needs," president Maryland Wilson said. "This has been highlighted by the case of Tyson, which is so sad. His muscles have deteriorated so badly that he is really just waiting to die."

Register your disgust about Tyson's treatment. Have your say on our blog or email the Canadian High Commissioner Michael Leir at this address: cnbra@international.gc.ca *Daily Telegraph

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Plans TO kill more than 3000 kangaroos at two Australian Defence Department sites within the ACT are a symptom of a city failing to come to grips with future planning to mitigate the impact of climate change, says one of Australia's leading authorities on regional development.

''It's not a particularly intelligent or informed decision. Canberra will be pilloried around the world for this,'' says Professor Steve Garlick, a wildlife carer who lives in Bungendore, but regularly commutes interstate and overseas in his multiple roles as professor of regional engagement at the University of the Sunshine Coast, professor of regional development at Swinburne University, and adviser to the OECD on regional development and higher education.

Garlick, is also president of the Queanbeyan-based wildlife rescue and rehabilitation group, Wildcare, and has written to ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope, asking that ''cooler heads prevail on this matter of a proposed cull and that people with a sound knowledge of kangaroos are allowed to be heard''.

At his property near Bungendore, Garlick and his wife, a zoologist, are currently looking after 14 animals, including a kangaroo joey called Stan, who is recovering from a fractured tail.

''You are welcome to come and visit him and our other kangaroos if you wish, to see just how un-pestlike they are. ''A Brazilian TV crew is planning to do that [later this month],'' he wrote in his letter to the Chief Minister, who returns to Canberra next week after a business tour of China.

Three years ago, Garlick was involved in negotiations with the ACT Government, on behalf of Wildcare, to collect orphaned joeys from the Googong Nature reserve kangaroo cull. In his recent letter, he has reminded Stanhope that ''your government promised to engage with Wildcare in any future plans it had that involved a significant impact on native animals in this Capital Region''. But the organisation, whose members include Federal Treasury secretary Dr Ken Henry (recently awarded an Order of Australia for his services to the economy and wildlife conservation), hasn't been consulted by the Government over the Defence Department's application for licences to cull up to 3200 eastern grey kangaroos.

The cull, which is likely to be approved early next week by the Australian Federal Police and the ACT Government's acting conservator, Russell Watkinson, will license professional shooters to kill 2800 kangaroos at the Majura training area and 400 at the Belconnen Naval Transmission Station. The animals will be killed over a period of two to three days, and buried in a deep pit, excavated on Commonwealth land. According to a statement by the ACT Government, kangaroo populations at the two sites are unsustainable and many ''will suffer a slow death by starvation'' if numbers aren't culled.

''A sustainable population is about one kangaroo per hectare. At the Belconnen Naval Transmission Station, the population is about 4.4 animals per hectare. ''At the Majura Training Area, the effective density in the grassland and woodland areas is more than two animals per hectare,'' the statement says.

Garlick says the cull makes a mockery of Canberra's claim to be the Bush Capital, and is indicative of a government mentality that isn't attuned to future impacts of global warming on the ACT's environment.

''Canberra, the Bush Capital, is rapidly becoming an anachronistic title as more areas are opened up for development, with new roads, high- rise buildings and the loss of trees and habitat for native animals. It's creating a landscape that lacks the resilience to deal with climate change.

''I think the city is at a crossroads, and could either pull back and take a more sensitive and sensible holistic approach to landscape management, that includes an appreciation of the role of urban wildlife. Or, it could become just another ugly, over-developed city, that places little value on the natural landscape,'' he says.

Dr David Croft, director of the University of NSW Fowlers Gap research station, is one of Australia's leading kangaroo scientists. He claims Federal Government statistics on population trends show kangaroo numbers have crashed over the past five years, with eastern grey kangaroo dropping from 30 million in 2001 to 10 million in 2006 and red kangaroos falling from 17.5 million to 7.5 million, chiefly due to the continuing drought.

The ACT Government argues the cull is necessary because the kangaroos have over-grazed the two sites, posing a threat to the habitat of threatened species such as the grassland earless dragon and the golden sun moth.

Croft points out the Defence Department sites are not grassland ecosystems undisturbed by human activity and neither site is currently managed as a nature reserve.

''I don't think the argument about culling kangaroos to conserve threatened species holds up. The Defence land is not a reserve, and, as I understand it, there are other reserves within the ACT which are managed appropriately to conserve those threatened species.'' Croft is also sceptical of claims that kangaroos have over-grazed and degraded the sites, arguing that kangaroos and other macropods are essential to maintaining a diversity of forbes and native grasses.

''Australia has had 16 million years of grazing by kangaroos. They've evolved with the landscape,'' he says.

''If you don't have native grazing animals in the landscape, if you take them out of the system, there's clearly going to be an increased fire risk. ''It's native herbivores that reduce fuel loads and renew the health of the soil we seem to have somehow lost sight of that. ''Canberra should thank these kangaroos for performing two valuable ecological services maintaining the diversity and health of native grasslands, just as you do when you mow your lawn, and reducing fire risk.'' Don Fletcher, an ecologist with the ACT Government, has estimated kangaroo numbers at the Belconnen site, and consultant ecologists for Sinclair Knight Mertz and Newcastle- based HLA-Enviroservices have provided advice to the Australian Defence Department on the Majura site populations.

Fletcher says he used a ''drive count method'' of population estimates to count kangaroo numbers, using a team of 9 people walking 100m apart in a line across the site. The team did four sweeps of the fenced site to estimate average numbers of kangaroos.

Fletcher explains the method involves each person counting the number of kangaroos ''between you and the person on your left.'' After four sweeps across the site, the first sweep is discarded ''because that's when people are still getting the hang of it'' and an average is calculated from the remaining three sweeps. Using this method, he arrived at the figure of 505 kangaroos at the Belconnen site.

There's an error margin, but it's much more accurate than ''a rabbit count'' conducted with a spotlight from the back of a vehicle, he says.

After the Belconnen site is culled, Fletcher is hoping to use the surviving 60 female and 40 male kangaroos at the fenced site as part of an experiment to develop an oral contraceptive. A method using an immuno-contraceptive vaccine has already been tested at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, with eight sedated female kangaroos each receiving four injections two in rump muscles and two in their abdomen. Vaccine delivered by oral cheek patches has been tested on Tammar wallabies. The success rate of the Tidbinbilla trails was that all females were rendered sterile, says Fletcher.

Professor Des Cooper, a leading geneticist and former director of the Marsupial Cooperative Research Centre, is one of Australia's leading authorities on developing humane contraceptive techniques for controlling wildlife populations.

He has previously criticised the ACT's kangaroo contraception research as ''highly questionable'', claiming it could affect the immune system, making kangaroos more vulnerable to infectious diseases that could spread to other wildlife and domestic livestock. He suggested proven fertility control methods such as hormone implants or steroids would be preferable.If the cull goes ahead, there will be ''a high probability'' of kangaroos colliding with the fences at the Belconnen site, says Croft. Members of Wildcare have also raised the issue of stressed and frantic kangaroos fleeing from the shooters in an enclosed area, developing a trauma reaction known as myopathy or white muscle disease.

Kangaroos usually cool down by licking their forepaws, but if chased persistently with no avenue of escape, their muscles produce lactic acid and their body over-heats. Effects range from paralysis, nerve damage, neck injuries and death from heart attacks.

Dr Croft suggests Canberra should consider the example set by the Victorian coastal town of Anglesea, which promotes its mobs of eastern grey kangaroos as a tourist attraction. The town has a website dedicated to explaining ''how to protect our special residents'' from dog attacks and collisions with cars. The town and its kangaroos featured prominently in the recent ''So where the bloody hell are you?'' advertisements for Tourism Australia.

Croft is developing a tourism website that will list the nation's top spots to see wild kangaroos, and has nominated Canberra as the best place to see wild mobs of eastern grey kangaroos.

''There's a town in Wyoming where elk wander around. People accept it and are proud of their connection with nature. It's a matter of learning to live with wildlife.''*Canberra Times

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THE DEPARTMENT of Defence will extend the Majura training area by almost 700ha because increasing demand for use of the facility is putting pressure on the local environment.The training area, which lies to the north and east of Canberra Airport, is used intensively by the Australian Defence Force, particularly Australian Defence Force Academy and Royal Military College cadets.

Defence will spend $3million improving training facilities at the area in the next 12-18 months. A Defence spokesman told the Canberra Sunday Times yesterday that the area was under increasing pressure because access to non- defence training areas had become more difficult.

''Training pressure on the MTA has also increased over the last five years in response to the Australian Defence Forces increased operational tempo. Training pressure will continue to increase following the recent announcement by the Prime Minister to expand the army,'' the spokesman said.

According to the Defence statement, the increase in usage at the site has led to range congestion, pressure on course scheduling and a restricted ability to rotate training areas for environmental sustainability.

The new area will be used for non-live firing activities such navigation, bush craft and infantry tactics. Defence rejected a suggestion it wanted kangaroos culled at Majura because the animals were interrupting live-fire training exercises. A Defence spokesperson cited the risk of further environmental damage to the area and the likelihood of kangaroos starving as the core reasons for the cull.

''The kangaroos do not impact on training activities nor do they pose a safety risk. ''The reasons for considering control of the kangaroo population is to ensure that they are at sustainable numbers to avoid starvation and further ecological damage.'' *Canberra Times

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TWO professional shooters claim they are struggling to stay in business because the drought has decimated kangaroo populations across NSW. The shooters, who have been forced to travel interstate to earn a living shooting pigs, contacted The Canberra Times last week to say that if they were allowed to commercially cull ACT kangaroos, they would donate some of their earnings to wildlife research.

The Federal and ACT governments plan to bury the carcasses of more than 3000 kangaroos to be culled at Australian Defence Force sites at Belconnen and Majura. ''We've done the sums and reckon it's the equivalent of burying $50,000 in the ground,'' one shooter said.

Both men (who gave their names but asked not to be identified) said kangaroos were now so scarce in NSW, they had been forced to go to far-north Queensland and the Northern Territory to shoot feral pigs for the game meat industry. They say they would normally earn up to $950 a tonne for kangaroo meat, and if allowed to commercially harvest kangaroos at the two defence sites, would donate a percentage of their profits from the cull to help wildlife research in the ACT. Recent figures on kangaroo populations issued by the federal Department of Environment and Water Resources shows populations of eastern grey kangaroos have dropped from 30 million in 2001 to 10 million in 2006 a drop of more than 65 per cent.

The ACT Government is expected to grant the cull licences early next week, after the Australian Federal Police approve safety measures.

Wildlife Protection Association of Australia president Pat O'Brien arrived in Canberra last week to discuss a national protest against the cull. ''We are also seeking legal advice on ways to stop the cull,'' he said. The association was established and funded by the late Steve Irwin and has been invited to address a European Union trade conference on a proposed boycott of kangaroo meat exports. *Canberra Times

********************* Roo cull plan is just poor policy on the run Rosslyn Beeby Canberra Times BETWEEN 1883 and 1920, about three million bettongs and potoroos were shot for bounties in NSW, under anti-vermin laws which put prices from one shilling to threepence on the head "of each grass-eating marsupial".

Five species of these small, exquisitely beautiful and ecologically valuable macropods (they spread seeds, turn over soils and keep vegetation healthy) were culled as pastoral pests. Three species were wiped out and are now extinct across NSW. The burrowing bettong, which had one of the widest distributions of any kangaroo species, is now extinct on mainland Australia.

Like eastern grey kangaroos, bettongs were once so ubiquitous any predictions of extinction would have provoked mirth and disbelief. The list of Australian wildlife culled as pests or, in the case of turtles, harvested in unsustainable quantities for the pet trade is lengthy and shameful. Emus, koalas, wombats, bandicoots, numbats, rock wallabies, rat kangaroos, bilbies (our alternative Easter symbol was trapped in great numbers for its silky fur) and, of course, the thylacine.

The news that the ACT Government plans to kill more than 3000 eastern grey kangaroos at two Australian Defence Force sites the Belconnen Naval Transmission Station and Majura Training Area shows we are continuing to ignore the legacy of past ecological mistakes that have earned the nation the dubious honour of leading the world in wildlife extinctions.

We still see wildlife as a resource to be mined, or a threat to colonising land. This colonial-era mindset still regards shooting kangaroos as the cheapest and quickest solution to land-use conflicts or drought management. It's outdated, lazy thinking.

According to the Department of Defence, the mobs of kangaroos have become a serious environmental problem and populations at the two sites "are at immediate risk of exceeding the available food supply and in danger of creating wider ecological damage".

The department claims consultant ecologists advised that the drought and "over-abundant" (by what measure?) kangaroo populations are "harming both the kangaroos themselves and endangered temperate grassland communities at the sites".

These unnamed consultants also claim the kangaroos are causing soil erosion, weed infestations and reduction of native grass cover "leading to a loss of habitat for threatened species such as the grassland earless dragon, striped legless lizard and golden sun moth".

Oddly, the presence of these same threatened species didn't stop the ACT Government destroying grasslands at Hume to build a new jail. Nor did the regional extinction of threatened woodland birds prevent the government selling off yellow-box woodlands at East O'Malley for luxury housing development.

Endorsing yet another large-scale kangaroo cull the third within less than a decade shows the ACT Government has put little intellectual capital or resources into sustainable land or wildlife management. If a problem keeps recurring, then something isn't working. It's time to look at new solutions.

Better urban planning the kind that takes wildlife movement corridors into account, rather than building roads to bisect habitat and educating the public to learn to live with kangaroos might be better alternatives.

The lessons learned from the Googong kangaroo cull were surely that transparency and public accountability are vital. If there are perceived problems with kangaroo numbers, then let's have genuine public debate not policy on the run. Let's have a conference on kangaroo management at the Shine Dome, and invite Australia's top experts, so we can hear informed views rather than mediocre excuses and urban myths about starvation, erosion or confected claims about the impact of grazing kangaroos on grassland moths and lizards. Let's also debunk urban myths about kangaroos in Canberra's suburbs. No doubt you've heard they'll "rip you open", kill your dog, attack your kids and infest your innards with worms from droppings on your lawn. Nonsense, all of it.

Elsewhere in Australia, ecologists have demolished arguments that mobs of kangaroos cause erosion and weeds by over-grazing or "flogging out" pasture. They argue over-stocking and over-grazing by livestock has so degraded most of Australia's cleared landscapes that it will be decades before the land recovers.

If the ACT's golden sun moth and earless dragon are struggling to survive in native grassland remnants, then blame previous regimes for over-grazing by livestock, sprawling urban development, rampant land clearing and poor pasture management.

Don't blame animals that evolved with this landscape 16 million years ago.

One of Australia's most respected kangaroo scientists, Dr David Croft, of the University of NSW Fowlers Gap Research Station, argues that any time kangaroos aggregate in large numbers there is hysterical talk of "plague proportions".

Contrast this with "the wonder with which we view large herds of wildebeest or zebra on the African plains". Croft who is one of our great living treasures writes that there is no greater sight than watching adult kangaroos graze, "with the young leaping and finding their full hopping strides as they cavort around their mothers".

If it were southern Africa, and the springbok calves were pronking, it would be a wildlife spectacle, but in Australia "it's just a plague of bloody roos".

Rosslyn Beeby is science and environment reporter.

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The kangaroos of Canberra have sent Prime Minister John Howard a message: things are not going to plan.

Both the 'roos and Howard, facing an election later this year that by all polling he is likely to lose, need rain, desperately. Instead, and despite optimistic expectations that after almost a decade, winter rainfall will return to normal this year, vast tracts of the continent remain gripped by one of the worst droughts in recorded history.

For Canberra's big Eastern Greys, the continuing crisis is more immediate and personal. Forced from the waterless hills around the national capital, they have been gathering in steadily increasing numbers in the city's parks and reserves, creating serious problems for themselves and conservation managers. With hunting banned except under special licence, few problems from such predators as dingoes and foxes, and the feed provided by a city that prides itself as the "bush capital", the Greys are outstripping the ability of the land to provide for them.

Surveys have recorded population densities on reserves of up to 233 kangaroos per square kilometre, compared with the highest previously published figures for similar habitats of 63 per square kilometre, and normal densities of between 10 and 30 per square kilometre. This week the Defence Department confirmed it was considering hiring shooters to cull 'roos on bases in the Australian Capital Territory, where about 6500 Greys face starvation because of the drought. More than 3000 may be shot if the ACT Government allows the cull to go ahead - setting off a storm of protest from animal welfare groups. *NZ Herald

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One of our activists who is in Europe informs us that Google Europe carries 300 references about the Canberra kangaroo kill. Great publicity for Australia...not!

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Explosives warning as cull protesters home in on range David McLennan and Cathy Alexander

Protesters risk being blown up or shot if they try to stop a proposed kangaroo cull by breaking into a Defence training area. Defence revealed yesterday that its Majura site, where it plans to cull 2800 kangaroos, was a live firing range which contained unexploded munitions.

But animal welfare activists said they were still considering occupying the site because they could not trust what Defence said. They also have threatened to use the international media to disgrace Defence for massacring kangaroos. A Defence spokeswoman warned off the activists, saying the Majura Training Area was "a live firing range that does contain areas of historical UXO [unexploded ordinance]."

"The Majura Training Area is also continuously used as a military training area, which involves the use of live-fire activities," she said. "This poses a greater risk to unescorted persons on the range." She said anyone caught trespassing on the site would be prosecuted. Coordinator of the National Kangaroo Protection Coalition Pat O'Brien said he was not convinced Defence was telling the truth about the risks from munitions and the firing range.

"We don't always believe what they're saying ... they have troops training there, so they can't have munitions lying around," he said. However, he did back down from his earlier statement that "we will go to the site at night and we'll be trying to stop the killing by putting ourselves in front of the guns". On hearing of Defence's warning, he said he would look into exactly what was going on at the Majura site before deciding on what action to take. A road blockade might be more suitable than occupying the site, he said. "We don't want to get killed ... but we're not going to give in," he said.

Mr O'Brien, who is coordinating animal welfare groups' campaign against the cull, said even if activists could not enter the Majura site, they had a more powerful weapon than physical presence: international condemnation. Lobbyists were poised to tell the world the Australian army massacred kangaroos, he said. Animal welfare groups had networks of activists in the US, Europe and Asia that would fire up if the cull was approved. "This will make international news," Mr O'Brien said.

"It's a hot topic, it will go everywhere, and that's really bad press for the Defence force. "This is going to be very damaging to Defence ... everybody overseas likes kangaroos. "This news is already going round the world through our networks; the email went out last night." References to the proposed cull have already appeared in the China Post, France's International Herald Tribune, and the Scotsman. Mr O'Brien said it would not be difficult to paint the cull as cruel.

"Everything that Defence does is about killing things, that's the issue here. "There's this gun thing." Mr O'Brien said Defence's reputation was already "shaky" because of the Iraq war, so murdering kangaroos would be disastrous. The animal welfare lobby has become adept at attracting international media attention to its causes, such as sheep mulesing and the use of fur in fashion.

Not all animal welfare groups opposed the cull, which is scheduled to take place at two Defence sites Majura and Belconnen. The first cull is likely to be 400 kangaroos at the Belconnen Naval Transmission Station. ACT government approval is expected in the coming week. Defence says the culls are necessary because there are too many kangaroos for the drought-ravaged environment to sustain. The eastern grey kangaroos face starvation and are degrading the environment, Defence says.

The chief executive of the ACT RSPCA, Michael Linke, spent four hours exploring the Belconnen site yesterday and concluded the cull was necessary. Mr Linke said Defence's estimate of 500 kangaroos on the site was accurate, and there was not enough food for them. "They are facing the mass starvation of kangaroos in six months' time," Mr Linke said. "Starving to death is far crueller than a humane cull." Mr Linke said with winter coming on and little rain, there was very little food. However, Mr Linke was "very critical" of Defence and the ACT Government for letting kangaroo numbers soar. The cull could have been avoided with better planning, he said.

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Action an attempt to 'drive eastern greys to extinction' Brad Watts

AN ACT wildlife group vowed yesterday to mount a campaign to prevent the expected cull of up to 3200 kangaroos across Canberra. The Wildlife Carers Group, based at Weston Creek, says authorities were trying to drive eastern grey kangaroos to extinction and described the planned eradication as "another commercial cull".

Wildlife Carers Group president Nora Preston said, "We will mount physical measures to stop it and maybe call in Animal Liberation. There is not a kangaroo problem, culling is extremely cruel perhaps sterilisation is the way to go." Ms Preston recalled the previous cull at Googong Dam in 2004, where up to 800 kangaroos were slaughtered.

"What happened at Googong was extremely cruel, they targeted the female kangaroos with joeys," she said yesterday. "They killed the females [first] to get rid of joeys at same time many of them were tame as they were hand-fed." The group says despite research by Defence, the kangaroos were not causing erosion to grazing land at Majura and Belconnen.

She said the animals were helping the environment. "We are fully aware that kangaroos are vital to the environment out there," she said. "Kangaroos are doing a lot of good and encouraging the vegetation to grow." Ms Preston said there were not that many kangaroos left in Canberra. There was only a "very small mob" left and authorities were going to drive them to extinction. "I think people will get upset about it [cull]," she said.

The group is an independent, not-for-profit community-based charity that provides animal and wildlife care, run by volunteers. "The ACT is the only state to have this unacceptable policy [of culling kangaroos], which proves that they are doing something wrong." *Canberra Times

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Shooting plan being 'considered'

THE ACT Department of Territories and Municipal Services issued a statement last night confirming it received the Department of Defence's application to shoot native wildlife several weeks ago. Director of Parks, Conservation and Lands Russell Watkinson said Defence had applied for a licence to shoot kangaroos and the department was working closely with it to ensure licence arrangements met policy requirements.

Territory and Municipal Services administers all licences for killing, collecting or keeping wildlife in the ACT. Any application to kill native wildlife was examined thoroughly, and where kangaroos were involved, assessed in accordance with recommendations of the Kangaroo Advisory Committee. Where necessary, the department sought advice from independent bodies and sources of expertise.

"Kangaroo culling licence applicants are required to meet criteria of humaneness, efficacy and necessity, principles endorsed by the RSPCA," the Department of Territories and Municipal Services statement said. The Defence licence application is with Parks Conservation and Lands. The licence has been with Parks for about two weeks. There were still aspects of the licence to be finalised.

Once the application was complete, the licence would be provided to the Environment and Protection Authority Licensing branch, which would submit it to the conservator for a decision, Mr Watkinson said. Defence and the department had been in consultation on the management of burgeoning kangaroo populations on its land. Some ecology experts warned of severe effects of kangaroos on endangered ecological communities.

Both lethal and non-lethal solutions had been considered.Mr Watkinson said the best available technical solutions were being considered and the welfare of the kangaroos was a high priority. *Canberra Times

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RSPCA support is 'reluctant' 3200 kangaroos likely to be culled Cull will prevent mass starvation

THE RSPCA has lent reluctant support to a proposed kangaroo cull on one of two ACT defence sites but attacked the Defence Department for failing to control numbers. In a move that has incensed wildlife activists, the department has applied for a licence to cull about 3200 eastern grey kangaroos, saying the animals were at risk of starvation due to the prolonged drought and posed an ecological hazard.

The cull will target about 2800 kangaroos from the Majura Training Area and about 400 from the Belconnen Naval Transmitter Station. ACT RSPCA chief executive Michael Linke said an inspection of the Belconnen site by its senior staff yesterday supported the department's contention that the cull was necessary. "There isn't food on the site to sustain the population," he said. "Our concern is if it's allowed to go on any longer we're going to get a situation where we get mass starvation of around 500 kangaroos."

However, Mr Linke said his organisation was aghast that the department had let the situation get to that point. "They decommissioned this land 10 years ago so they've had ample time to manage a sustainable population," he said. He said his staff would assess the situation at the Majura site some time next week. Mr Linke said the cull was preferable to death by starvation. However, ACT Animal Liberation president Mary Hayes said yesterday there was no evidence kangaroos were likely to starve.

"It is a very cruel, violent way to treat animals, on a par to just treating them as if they were weeds to be mown or pulled out," she told ABC radio. "This is going to produce an enormous reaction." National Kangaroo Protection Coalition spokesman Pat O'Brien said the department had planned the cull in secret and predicted there would be protest action.

ACT Government Director of Parks, Conservation and Lands Russell Watkinson said, if approved, the aim was to have the cull completed before July, so as to reduce the risk of finding joeys in mothers' pouches. The department applied for the licence three weeks ago following advice from consultant ecologists who said the kangaroos, which number about 6000 at Majura and 500 at Belconnen, were causing soil erosion and an increase in weed infestation.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Territory and Municipal Services, the body that issues the licence, said discussions about the cull had been taking place since the beginning of last year. A decision on whether to issue the licence is expected by week's end. Additional reporting: AAP

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OUTRAGED animal liberation groups say they will demonstrate to stop the culling of more than 3000 kangaroos from two Australian Defence Force sites. The ACT government and ADF say the cull is necessary because of overgrazing and the risk of kangaroos starving. The plan has revived memories of a 2004 cull when the killing of 1000 kangaroos around Canberra's Googong catchment sparked global attention.

ACT Animal Liberation president Mary Hayes said another cull would burden the ACT with a worldwide reputation for cruelty. She said there was no evidence kangaroos were likely to starve. "It is a very cruel, violent way to treat animals, on a par to just treating them as if they were weeds to be mown or pulled out," she said."This is going to produce an enormous reaction, not only amongst animal welfare groups but amongst the general population who will react very strongly to it.

"It is going to give the ACT a reputation for animal cruelty throughout the whole of Australia, and indeed the rest of the world." Under the planned cull, 2800 eastern grey kangaroos would be shot on the Majura Training Area, a defence firing range complex outside Canberra. Another 1000 would be shot at the former naval radio transmitter site in the Belconnen area of northern Canberra.

If approved, culling would be done by licensed shooters. Carcasses would be buried on site. ACT acting conservator Russell Watkinson said defence had applied for two licences to cull with a decision due this week. Mr Watkinson said the kangaroos weren't starving yet but the ACT government wanted to avoid it reaching that stage. "We are reasonably convinced there is an issue at these two sites," he said. "It certainly seems there is quite an intense population level on these two sites.

"Our concerns are for the welfare of the animals and the potential for a starvation event and also the fact that there are some rare and threatened species in these grasslands under some further threat due to over-grazing." *Daily Telegraph

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ANIMAL welfare advocates have vowed to stop the ACT Government and the Defence Force culling more than 3000 kangaroos from two defence sites. The Government and Defence say the cull is necessary because of overgrazing and the risk of kangaroos starving. The plan has revived memories of a 2004 cull when the killing of 1000 kangaroos around Canberra's Googong catchment sparked global attention.

ACT Animal Liberation president Mary Hayes said today that another cull would burden the ACT with a worldwide reputation for cruelty. She said there was no evidence kangaroos were likely to starve. "It is a very cruel, violent way to treat animals, on a par to just treating them as if they were weeds to be mown or pulled out," she said on ABC radio. "This is going to produce an enormous reaction, not only amongst animal welfare groups but amongst the general population who will react very strongly to it.

"It is going to give the ACT a reputation for animal cruelty throughout the whole of Australian, and indeed the rest of the world." Under the planned cull, 2800 eastern grey kangaroos would be shot on the Majura Training Area, a defence firing range complex outside Canberra. Another 1000 would be shot at the former naval radio transmitter site in the Belconnen area of northern Canberra. If approved, culling would be done by licensed approved shooters. Carcasses would be buried on site.

ACT acting conservator Russell Watkinson said defence had applied for two licences to cull, with a decision due this week. Mr Watkinson said the kangaroos weren't starving yet but the ACT Government wanted to avoid it reaching that stage. "We are reasonably convinced there is an issue at these two sites," he said on ABC radio. "It certainly seems there is quite an intense population level on these two sites.

"Our concerns are for the welfare of the animals and the potential for a starvation event and also the fact that there are some rare and threatened species in these grasslands under some further threat due to over-grazing." Queensland Kangaroo Protection Coalition activist Pat O'Brien, arrested in protests at the 2004 cull, said he planned to return.

"This is just an excuse to kill them," he said. "In fact, it's unlikely there's 2800 kangaroos in the whole of the ACT. There are a few dodgy figures here. "This starving to death caper is just a red herring. We are likely to get rain this year. There is likely to be feed." Daily Telegraph

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Press release - for immediate release

KANGAROO REMOVED FROM MENU

AFTER ACKNOWLEDGING CRUELTY WITHIN THE COMERCIAL KANGAROO MEAT INDUSTRY, RUSSIAN RESTAURANT 'AUSTRALIAN OPEN' HAS REMOVED THE OPTION FROM ITS MENU.

Angie Stephenson, spokesperson for Animal Liberation NSW confirms, "Today I visited the restaurant with information pertaining to our two-year investigation into the industry. The manager was very obliging and after reading the information, acknowledged they had recently learned about such cruelty and have since stopped selling kangaroo meat."

"The reason they were targeted was because their website still holds that kangaroo meat is sold, however after scrolling through every page on the in-house menu, there is not a single product from a kangaroo listed"

"I am satisfied, that with the admission from the manager who was adamant they do not sell Kangaroo anymore and her offering the menu for me to look through, that the Australian Open has shown compassion over profits and banned Kangaroo meat from its kitchen."

"It is a significant step forward for the kangaroos and after talking to, and visiting, two other restaurants in Russia whose websites say they sell kangaroo meat, one admitted they sell other meat from Australia, however have never sold kangaroo meat, and the second said they no longer sell it"

"What we're finding is there is no such demand for kangaroo meat in Russia, which is a myth the Kangaroo Industry is sprouting. There are no products in the supermarkets labeled as Kangaroo and the way it is entering the food chain is via a minced up paste which is going straight into salami and sausage meat. The Russian people do not know they are eating Kangaroo, let alone choosing to."

Animal Liberation NSW will hold a second press conference in Moscow today for the Russian media who are very concerned by the investigation outcomes and even more so by recent events occurring behind industry doors.

Animal Liberation NSW was recently informed that Vacik Distributors, the biggest exporter of Kangaroo meat for human consumption in NSW closed all their chiller doors due to scrutiny by AQIS the day after this investigation was publicly launched. The industry also sent a memo to shooters summarising they will now be paid less for each carcass, due to the fact that a glutton of South American meat is being shipped to Russian and EU markets. This amazing set back was not widely publicised, nor has there been any outcry from the Kangaroo Industry saying this is the reason for their industry being in supposed decline, hence we question the sentiment behind this memo.

Mark Pearson, Executive Director of Animal Liberation NSW states, "After meeting with a European Union representative in Brussels, it is clear that our message is being taken seriously and steps put in place for a potential ban on the import of kangaroo products to the EU"

"We will return next year to brief the committee on our investigation and will present to them several scientific reports currently being commissioned"

Further information contact: Angie Stephenson (In Moscow) +61 425 220 750 Mark Pearson 0417 252 107

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Dear Mr O'Brien

Thank you for your e-mail of 25 April 2007 concerning the Wacol kangaroos. The Minister has asked me to respond on her behalf. The current kangaroo population and conditions at Wacol have resulted in a complex set of issues affecting many stakeholders. The population has grown in the past due to pasture and water availability. Unfortunately, the recent drought has reduced the availability of food for these animals and some are in poor condition. The shortage of food and a significant increase in traffic on Wacol Station Road has resulted in more kangaroos being injured or killed by vehicles.

As a result, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has convened a working group of landholders, scientists, conservation and animal welfare representatives to develop strategies to address the issues. The overall objective of the strategies and all the stakeholders involved in the project is to ensure that a healthy population of kangaroos can safely co-exist with the people who live in and use the Wacol area.

The EPA has estimated the current Wacol kangaroo population at 1350 animals based on an aerial survey of the site, and further information is currently being gathered on land condition, animal movements and human interaction. This information, and stakeholder and community views, will be considered by the working group in developing strategies for future management. No decisions have been made regarding future management of the Wacol kangaroo population at this time.

The Minister thanks you for bringing this matter to her attention and hopes this information clarifies the situation. Should you have any further enquiries, please contact Veron Hansen of the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service on telephone 3202 0240.

Yours sincerely, Simon Munro, Assistant Policy Advisor

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A time to cull - Mudgee battles roos Lisa Gervais

Mid-Western Regional Council has declared war on Mudgee's kangaroos with Mayor Percy Thompson calling for a humane cull. At a council meeting last week, Councillor Max Walker asked that council work with the appropriate State Government authority to see if some action can be taken to reduce the number of kangaroos in the Mudgee town precinct, particularly in the Belleview Road area.

"There are currently large mobs of kangaroos roaming in the area of Belleview Road," he said. "Vehicles travelling along this and other roads continually have to either stop or swerve to avoid these animals. There are dead kangaroos everywhere. "I am concerned that unless something is done, there is going to be an accident where someone is either seriously injured or worse.

"I am not sure what council can do but perhaps we could speak to the National Parks and Wildlife (Service) in the first instance to see if there is action that they may be able to take to address the problem." Cr Walker suggested trapping and removing kangaroos while Mayor Percy Thompson suggested the answer might be a humane cull.

Cr Thompson said hundreds of kangaroos visit the west end sporting fields and overrun the netball courts and the Fairydale Lane area. He said while the kangaroos are obviously starving because of the drought "we're certainly going to have to do something about it." Cr Walker said council has had to budget $300,000 to erect a kangaroo fence around the airport because of the threat to airplanes and passengers.

"We need to do something. This thing is getting out of hand." Staff on Wednesday night said that the issue had been discussed with the NPWS. According to a staff report, while kangaroos are a protected species under the relevant legislation, NPWS does issue licences to people to cull these animals and these are dealt with on a case by case basis. Councillors backed the motion and further discussions will now take place with the NPWS

Belleview Road resident, Robert Waller, agrees with a humane cull. He recently witnessed a woman with children in the car strike a kangaroo and a truck driver strike five kangaroos outside of his home. He also worries about children being attacked. "I know they are a protected species but where there is conflict between humans and develpment and kangaroos, then what we expect is that this (a humane cull) be allowed to happen," he said. * Mudgee Guardian

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A local wildlife group fighting against the planned culling of 3,000 kangaroos on Defence land in Canberra says it is one step closer to stopping the mass killing. The group has been granted access to the Defence Naval Transmission Station in Belconnen and training site at Majura to do a head count of the number of eastern grey kangaroos.

Wildlife Carers' president Nora Preston says members want to stop the granting of a culling licence to the Department of Defence by proving that the kangaroo population is a lot smaller than what is claimed. "My plan is to inspect it and do a head count and have a look at the kangaroos," she said.

"So far the numbers have been low that we've counted, but that's from the outside looking in so I'd actually like to go in there and do a head count myself with a few other people and I'm still saying that the numbers are low and that culling and shooting [is] not necessary." *ABC

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THE man who could save Tyson from his tiny cell seems to have wiped his hands of the imprisoned roo. Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, a renowned native wildlife lover, has apparently refused to extend the same compassion to exotic species. While Mr McGuinty freed Bam Bam the deer from shocking conditions at a roadside zoo similar to Tyson's prison, he does not appear interested in the Australian's plight and refused a Daily Telegraph request for an interview.

"Unfortunately, an interview with the Premier isn't possible at this time," his media officer said. His office did not respond to written questions and are now out of the office to celebrate a three-day weekend. Animal welfare groups were relying on Mr McGuinty to make drastic changes to outdated animal legislation. "Dalton McGuinty has more influence over Tyson's future," Melissa Tkachyk, Canada's World Society for the Protection of Animals said yesterday. Daily Telegraph 22/05/07

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AUSTRALIAN QUARANTINE INSPECTION SERVICE (AQIS) REFUSES REQUESTS FOR AN URGENT MEETING

TOXOPLASMOSIS IS A PATHOGEN COMMONLY FOUND IN KANGAROO MEAT, PEOPLE WHO HAVE FALLEN ILL AFTER EATING KANGAROO MEAT ARE REQUESTED TO CONTACT US IMMEDIATELY To report concerns call: 1800 751 770 or Email Animal Liberation: sydneyhq@animal-lib.org.au

Mark Pearson, Executive Director Animal Liberation states:- "After a two year investigation including inspections of the remote chillers where carcasses are kept and the plants where they are processed, our numerous requests to meet with AQIS urgently have been ignored. "Most people who become infected with Toxoplasma are not aware of it. Some people who have toxoplasmosis may feel as if they have the "flu" with swollen lymph glands or muscle aches and pains that last for a months. Severe toxoplasmosis, causing damage to the brain, eyes, or other organs, can develop from an acute Toxoplasma infection or one that had occurred earlier in life and is now reactivated."

Marcus Ward, Victorian Greens said:- "I received an email during the Victorian State election from a woman in Sydney who had been poisoned by undercooked Kangaroo meat served at a Sydney restaurant. She seemed to think it was well known. The whole group she was with were very ill. She suffered for some years and is still suffering some effects. The illness was very serious. "Kangaroo meat was the cause of Australia's first recorded outbreak of the potentially fatal disease toxoplasmosis that infected twelve people including a pregnant woman which caused her baby to be born blind. There have been numerous warnings from health professionals for decades which has so far fallen on a bureaucracy and governments deaf ears. There is clearly a significant public health risk. Why is there no systematic monitoring?"

Pat O'Brien, Wildlife Protection Association of Australia refers to Dr David Obendorf's findings:- "'The incidence of Toxoplasma abortions and infertility is amongst the highest in Australia.' * 'People who eat undercooked wallaby or kangaroo meat could be at risk of infection by a newly-discovered animal parasite, Australian doctors have warned.'*"… the contamination of Kangaroo carcasses by this virus is a serious threat. Toxoplasmosis is not tested for by Australian Quarantine Inspection Services. It is only detected in infected humans, but by then it is too late. The worst part about this disease is that there is no cure."

We ask anyone who has eaten Kangaroo meat and fallen ill to contact us so we can make their case public. This will warn others, who are thinking about trying it, that it is not so 'clean and green'.

Further information contact: Mark Pearson 0417 252 107 Marcus Ward 0427 235 254 Pat O'Brien 0408 711 344

*Diseases in Kangaroo Meat, Dr. David Obendorf, BVSc(Hons), B(An)Sc, PhD (Melbourne) Media release 23/5/07

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