Kangamail, kangaroo newsletter archives 33

Playing God with Kangaroos

Kangaroos have survived on this Continent for thousands of years, through drought and through good times. Dr John Auty has built models that show that on the natural grasslands that were available to kangaroos in 1860, kangaroo populations could have been as high as 400 million. Currently mid 2007, there are believed to be between 10 and 20 million large kangaroos left, if one can believe government figures.

In Nature, kangaroos have survived boom and bust periods by two simple processes, they stop breeding when food becomes scarce, and then as a drought tightens, some of the older kangaroos and some of the younger kangaroos will die, leaving the strongest to survive and carry on the gene pool. That's what Nature does. However, in Nature starvation doesn't happen often or easily.

Kangaroos can survive on leaves, bark, and the odd bit of green pick, sedges around dry waterways etc, for a very long time. On the Kangaroo Protection Coalition website on the drought page www.kangaroo-protection-coalition.com/drought-kangaroos.html there is a photo of an old, hungry kangaroo. He's got some bones showing, but he is hardly starving. Some people will argue he is starving and should be killed. In fact two weeks after this photo was taken in Western NSW, good rainfall arrived. That kangaroo is no doubt now as fat as a fool, and looking around for a mate.

One scientist has described the process of kangaroos sucumbing to drought as being similar to a computer shutting down. Kangaroos go into myopathy or shock very easily when stressed. In hard drought, bit by bit the body processes slow down, until myopathy and death follow. No, it's not nice, but its nature, and its been happening for thousands of years. Nobody ever said Nature was nice.

But suddenly humans decide that they are going to play God. "The kangaroos are starving" is the usual cry, "we have to "cull" them!" "Cull" of course is a nice word for kill, the kill proponents think it doesnt sound quite so gruesome, but most Australians know better. In every case over the last 10 years when the starvation cry has gone out, the kangaroos involved are not starving, they are perfectly healthy, and there is always another reason behind the kill, such as land wanted for a housing development, or perhaps sometimes a research project, or a freeway, or a complaint by a farmer.

In some National Parks and Reserves in SA, WA, and Victoria, where they kill kangaroos, the excuse often is that the kangaroos are eating the protected shrubs, so they have to be killed. A few platitudes about "protecting biodiversity" usually follow.

Calls for kills also promote the belief held in some quarters that kangaroos are a pest and need to killed anyway. There are plenty of loonies with guns in Australia that take up the kill message, and just go out at night kangaroo shooting for fun. Publicly calling for a kangaroo kill always brings out the worst in some people, as the letters to the local papers often show. Most government agencies now keep the killing of kangaroos secret.

To obtain details of the kangaroo or other wildlife kills, one has to access Freedom of Information departments, which is expensive, and not always satisfactory. In Queensland and other States they even keep plans for aerial shooting of introduced wild animals secret, in case someone finds out about it and tells the community! The inhumane and ineffective aerial shooting programs are just a bandaid that diverts funding from research into more humane and effective fertility control programs.

Since white settlement, kangaroo populations have been smashed, they have been shot and continually harassed wherever they go. During the last 40 years particullarly, kangaroos have been killed on roads, shot by sporting shooters, and the mob social structure destroyed by the commercial kangaroo kill. Kangaroos have also been impacted by the worst drought in 100 years, and in many areas of Australia kangaroos are regionally extinct.

On the East Coast of Australia, small genetically impoverished mobs continue in some way to survive the sprawl of urban housing development. Wildlife corridors in most urban areas are nonexistent, and the local kangaroos are isolated from other kangaroo mobs by towns and cities, and prevented from moving West by railways and freeways.

In spite of all this, concerns expressed to Government fall on deaf ears. Kangaroos are treated as weeds, to be pulled out and destroyed. Anyone who has written to a politician about the kangaroo kill can well describe the insulting letter they receive back spruiking rubbish about "rigorous controls".

'Poor fella' my country indeed...and 'poor fella' our kangaroos for sure.

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Seventeen endangered miniature kangaroos are being returned to their native habitat in the forests of Indonesia's remote Papua province, an official from the country's forestry ministry said yesterday. The tiny creatures, a rare species of kangaroo called dusky pademelons, were rescued from homes in Java island where they were kept as pets, Adi Susmianto said by telephone.

The kangaroos, which have browny grey coats and a pale belly, will undergo a period of rehabilitation before release into the Nayaro forests, a protected area just hours away from Timika town. "They will arrive in Timika this afternoon and will undergo rehabilitation first," the official said, adding that it would take a few months before the actual release.

The rescue centre in Sukabumi in West Java has six other dusky pandemelons it is still looking after. They were seized by police from people's homes after they had been mostly purchased as pets at illegal animal markets, a rescue centre official said. Little is known about the creatures, which weigh up to 18kg and are about 75cm long.

Their habitat is mainly in the forests of Papua island, made up of Indonesia's portion and Papua New Guinea. Conservationists say the illegal trade in animals remains a threat to many species in Indonesia. They say the quantity as well as variety of species traded has gone up in the past years, its scale hugely underestimated. Reuters

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Kangaroo dies after capture in Indiana

A 1.83-metre kangaroo that surprised residents as it bounded through rural central Indiana during the weekend died on Monday after authorities used a tranquiliser dart to capture it. Hancock County Animal Control officers helped capture the Australian marsupial, an escaped pet named Skippy, early on Monday not far from its home.

The cause of Skippy's death was not known, said Kenny McConahay, an officer with the Greenfield/Hancock County Animal Control Department. It was not known what the kangaroo had done or eaten during its weekend of freedom, and the amount of tranquiliser used in the dart was only half of the recommended dose, McConahay said. "When our officer left the scene, it was still alive and coming out (of sedation). It was recovering," McConahay said. Skippy's owners, David and Sue Schutt, did not answer calls seeking comment.

Skippy got loose on Friday when two teenage girls opened his cage. "I left the gate open and the lights on for him ... thinking he would come back," said Sue Schutt, whose property is near Fountaintown, about 24 km east of Indianapolis. Neighbour Jim Greider saw the kangaroo on Friday night and thought it was a huge rabbit. His family and guests went out to watch the animal hop down the road in front of his house and a few motorists swerved to avoid it."I didn't even know my neighbour had a kangaroo," said Greider, 53.

Indiana does not require a permit to keep kangaroos, said Dean Shadley, a wildlife conservation officer with the state Department of Natural Resources. "I can't imagine there are very many kangaroos in Indiana," said Shadley. "I've worked here for 33 years, and this is the first I've heard of one." *Indiana News

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The World Today - Monday, 4 June , 2007 12:46:00 Reporter: Kim Landers

ELEANOR HALL: For almost four decades California has banned kangaroo products from being imported into the state. But Californian politicians are on the verge of overturning that ban after some intense lobbying by the Australian Government and a large sporting goods company. Animal rights activists though, are vowing to do everything in their power to block the change.

As Kim Landers reports.

KIM LANDERS: For 37 years California has banned importing kangaroo products, an offence punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 or six months in jail. But California sports stars, especially soccer players, like wearing soft, lightweight kangaroo skin boots, so sporting company Adidas has been fighting to overturn the ban. The California Senate has now voted to legalise the importing and the sale of kangaroo skins, a bill promoted by State Senator Ron Calderon.

RON CALDERON: Obviously from hearing from some of the professional teams and some of the semi-pro soccer organisations the disadvantage they have at not being able to use the kangaroo leather soccer shoes makes them less competitive in the marketplace.

KIM LANDERS: Only products from kangaroos that are not listed as threatened or endangered in Australia will be allowed. Nevertheless more than a dozen animal welfare groups have opposed the change in legislation. Andi Bernat is from the Humane Society of the United States.

ANDI BERNAT: From what we understand the kangaroos are killed at night and there's a very high rate of killing non-targetted species, killing some of the kangaroos that are endangered and again it's cruel and it's been done for something that really isn't necessary.

KIM LANDERS: But the lifting of the ban on kangaroo products is being backed by Major League Soccer in the US and the Los Angeles Galaxy, the pro-team which David Beckham has joined. The President of the LA team has written to the California Senate stating that the ban has put his team at a competitive disadvantage with the rest of Major League Soccer. Bill Dombrowski is the President of the California Retailers Association

BILL DOMBROWSKI: So it's not a level playing field and California retailers want to be able to sell these products just as other retailers round the country and on the internet. We've got more than two million Californian adults and children who participate in recreational soccer so this is obviously a significant market.

KIM LANDERS: There've been other attempts to overturn the California ban over the past four years. Senator Calderon says this time he was approached by the Australian Government to help push it through. And he says safeguards have been written into the new law.

RON CALDERON: No additional non-endangered kangaroos beyond the current take quota set by the Australian Government will be killed because of this bill.

KIM LANDERS: David Beckham is reportedly refusing to wear the kangaroo skin boots, instead he'll have a synthetic style. The legislation to overturn the ban now has to pass California's Assembly and then it'll go to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for approval. Supporters aren't forecasting any hurdles and predict kangaroo products will become legal in California by September. Animal activists though are not giving up the fight and are planning a series of demonstrations before the final vote is taken.

This is Kim Landers reporting for The World Today. For those wishing to write to the Governor, the email addy is http://www.govmail.ca.gov/ Postal address is Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger State Capital Sacramento, California 95814 USA Tough shoes to fill

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and soccer glamour boy David Beckham have become central figures in an Australian kangaroo cruelty campaign in the US. At stake is a potential export market worth tens of millions of dollars for the Australian kangaroo export industry and the right for Californian sports stars to wear shoes made from soft, lightweight kangaroo skin. It is illegal to import kangaroo skins and meat to California, but Schwarzenegger is likely rule in September whether to keep the ban.

California is the only US state to have the ban. The prospect of Schwarzenegger legalising the importation of kangaroo has angered US animal rights activists, who have responded by launching a state-wide campaign. "People are opposed to kangaroo slaughter and are opposed to wearing kangaroo skin on their feet," People for Ethical Treatment of Animals campaign co-ordinator Melissa Karpel said today.

PETA has recently campaigned against the Australian wool industry over blowfly prevention techniques. "We'll be letting people know how to contact the governor," she said. Beckham, the former English captain and the face of adidas' soccer shoe line, finds himself in a precarious position just weeks before joining his new American club, Los Angeles Galaxy.

Last year he announced he would wear a synthetic version of adidas' Predator soccer boots, instead of styles made from kangaroo skin. Beckham, whose Spice Girl wife Victoria is a devout vegetarian, made the decision after viewing graphic videos of the culling of kangaroos in Australia, including a joey being cut out of its mother's pouch and battered with a blunt instrument.

It has been adidas, which has spent more than $US435,000 ($A526,000) lobbying the California legislature, and the LA Galaxy, that have led the fight to have the ban overturned. The LA Galaxy argues its players are at a disadvantage as other clubs outside California playing in America's Major League Soccer competition can wear kangaroo leather shoes, which are light and soft.

"It is unfair to have these products freely available for commercial purchase in all of the other 49 states and not here," Alexi Lalas, president of the LA Galaxy, wrote in testimony filed with the California Senate. On Tuesday, after four years of failed attempts, adidas and the LA Galaxy were successful when the Senate passed a bill that would allow kangaroo product to be imported and sold in California if the species was not protected by laws in the US and abroad.

There are 55 species of kangaroo and six, including red, eastern and western, that can be commercially harvested in Australia. The next hurdle for adidas and the LA Galaxy is California's Assembly. If the assembly approves the bill it will then go to Schwarzenegger who could sign it and make it law or veto it. "If the bill does pass the assembly we will ask Governor Schwarzenegger to veto the bill," Karpel said. *AAP

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UGP Holdings Pty Ltd., Charleville has recieved a Federal government grant of $79,800. UGP Holdings will establish a kangaroo meat tagging/traceability system, enabling kangaroo products to be more accurately tracked from ‘paddock-to-plate’.

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Animal rights groups have renewed their campaign for the kangaroo meat industry to be shut down, saying the meat can carry a potentially dangerous disease. Animal Liberation and the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia want the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) to urgently act on the issue. Ninety per cent of kangaroo meat in the $200 million-a-year industry is exported.

The animal lobby groups want AQIS to carry out tests for the infectious disease toxoplasmosis at kangaroo storage centres and processing plants. Humans are most commonly infected with toxoplasmosis by eating raw or undercooked meat. While most people never know they have the pathogen, others develop swollen lymph glands or muscle aches and pains, and in severe cases it can cause damage to the brain, eyes and other organs.

Animal Liberation executive director Mark Pearson said kangaroos were not slaughtered in a typical abattoir with all the regulatory processes in place. "You've got animals that are hanging off the back of trucks for up to eight hours at night, then they're hanging in chillers, where we've got documentation of the temperature going well over the seven degrees maximum," Mr Pearson said.

"They're hanging there with contaminants on them for up to seven days before they're properly processed, so the potential for these pathogens to penetrate the meat is much higher." Mr Pearson said AQIS needed to conduct an investigation into the industry and "bring it to a grinding halt". "Our numerous requests to meet with AQIS urgently have been ignored," Mr Pearson said.

A spokesman for AQIS said the organisation was not aware of the requests for meetings. Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia executive officer John Kelly said toxoplasmosis is a risk in all undercooked meat. "Kangaroos can have significantly lower levels of toxoplasmosis than the sheep population," Mr Kelly said. "It presents a minimal risk to humans."

Ed comment; Tell the people who have contracted toxo from kangaroo meat about "minimal risk!" For more info about toxo go here www.kangaroo-protection-coalition.com/kangaroos-toxoplasmosis.html

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