SHAME FILE.......The persons believed to be directly responsible for the Belconnen kangaroo cull.

It's interesting to note that some of the players who suppported killing the kangaroos in the wildlife disaster at Belconnen, have links to Lendlease(Stockland) who have acquired many of the no-longer-used ADF sites for development. Hmmmmm.....

Rudd made a deliberate and considered decision to kill the Belconnen kangaroos, based on information provided by Dr Mike Kelly, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Support. Rudd's office had been advised of the truth of the matter, and had been asked to stop the Belconnen kangaroo kill, but instead Rudd agreed to let the kill go ahead.

We also understand that in spite of onsite media reporters telling us this was the biggest story of the year, after two days of killing, the media was instructed by their Chief of Staffs to leave the site, the story was dead! We since understand that those instructions came from Rudds office.

A new Labor Federal government..........with a new direction?......we don't think so..just more of the same old, same old.....!

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Peter Garrrett. Federal Environment Minister, who, even though well informed of the issues, refused to stop the kill, and stated in the media that "sometimes these things have to happen."

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett asked protesters to accept the cull is also for the benefit of other species at the site, some of them endangered."A properly-administered humane cull, difficult as it is, is the right course of action," he said, recognising that some people were passionate about the issue.

"As a regrettable last option, these kinds of actions have to be taken."You have to look at other species that are being affected by those kangaroos."These's no doubt that the authorities have to undertake this in a way which is appropriate and is humane, and I'm sure they will do that." *Canberra Times.

As we said before, Peter Garrettt was well informed of the issues, he knew the excuses used by Defence, the RSPCA, and the ACT government were just plain wrong, but he still supported the kill.

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Sometimes described by some as the "missing Linke." Linke worked hard to convince the Canberra public that the Belconnen kangaroos had to be killed. Even after the fact, Linke insisted that the kangarooos were starving and had to be killed, and were killed "humanely." In the Canberra Times Linke said the cull was ''running to plan'' so far, and that two RSPCA inspectors would be present ''frequently and very regularly'' throughout the process.

''They're [kangaroos] tranquillised first, and then a lethal injection [is given]. Once they're tranquillised, in terms of animal welfare the animal is unconscious," he said. Both Stanhope and RSPCA ACT director Michael Linke claimed moving the kangaroos would be inhumane, citing a report stating "large numbers of kangaroos could be expected to die as a result". Of course they couldn't provide any evidence of this statement, but we did provide evidence that large numbers of kangaroos had been moved before, very successfully.

We had the Belconnen site blockaded, and we saw everything. We saw very little evidence of RSPCA visits, and they usually left before the killing started. They probably didnt want to see it anymore than we did...but they were paid to be there at the kill....and they were not there! As a direct result of the ACT RSPCA's support for the Belconnen kill, donations to the RSPCA crashed. However, in an article inteh Canberra Times, Chief Minister Jon Stanhope promised to make up the shortfall with a $100,000 donation if he was re-elected to Government in the October 2008 elections. Other senior ACT RSPCA staff also supported the kangaroo kill.

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In the Canberra Times on 2/4/08 he also dismissed reports the land had been earmarked for public housing. "Absolutely not. The grasslands within the fenced areas at Lawson are high-quality native grasses." Both Defence and the ACT Government said the cull was necessary to protect native grassland and three threatened species on the site, the striped legless lizards, golden sun moths and Ginninderra peppercress.

They also argued the kill would be nessesary to prevent the kangaroos from starving during winter.....something that had never happened before at Belconnen. Now of course, everyone knows that the site is heavily contaminated, and much of the topsoil will have to be removed so the houses can be built there. So much for the habitat of the Legless Lizard and the Golden Sunmoth..........did the kangaroos die for nothing but another mediocre housing development?

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Kelly is believed to have advised Rudd to kill the kangaroos. He was apparently advised by former Whitlam Environment Minister Barry Cohen, who instigated the first kangaroo management Plan in 1983. Kelly and Cohen are understood by some to be part of the Labour Party "good old boys club." Kelly also made the decision to kill hundreds of wallabies at the Tindal Airforce Base in the Northern Territory in December 2008. They claim the wallabies are a danger to landing aircraft. ADF built a fence around the Base, trapping hundreds of wallabies, and although they have had ten years or so to fence off the airstrip, they prefer to kill the wallabies, in spite of much public condemnation. Staffer Terry Brandson was the local newspaper editor who stirred up all the controversy about the proposed Belconnen kangaroo release sites. He then went to work for Mike Kelly as an advisor, before the decision to kill the kangaroos was made.

In mid-March 2009, after Commisioner for the Environment Maxine Cooper demanded in the Canberra Times that a large number of kangaroos must be urgently culled at Majura, (an ADF rifle and small arms training area) Kelly stated on the ABC Today........ "I will be directing the department to crack on with actioning that report, and taking the appropriate measures, which really need to be taken in light of the balance that we have to achieve in protecting the natural environment in the area."

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In articles and letters to the Canberra Times, some people have claimed that Cooper was employed by the ACT government especially to facilitate the Belconnen kangaroo kill. Cooper set up an Advisory Group of "experts" most of whom were academics with prior experience with the ACT Government, and who had little practical knowledge of kangaroos. Our previous experience with Cooper was over the Googong Dam kangaroo kill, Googong Dam! where we found she was impossible to work with.

Did Cooper used her selected Advisory Committee member recomendations to provide further "evidence" that the Belconnen kangaroos were impacting on three other species which (she didnt say this.....) are widely found around the ACT? Many of their habitats have been previously covered by Supermarkets and housing development without any consideration of their population or endangered status. Why, suddenly, did these species become so important that 514 kangaroos had to be brutally killed?

The Advisory Committee report, which recomended that the kangaroos be killed, was a product of Dr Sue McIntyre, Dr Hal Cogger, Dr Graeme Coulson, Dr George Wilson, Dr. Andrew Braid, Mr Michael Linke and Associate Professor David Morgan, who put their names to the report under "matters agreed by members of the two expert panels".

Cooper and Major General Liz Cosson, Department of Defence, co-chaired the meeting of the "experts" engaged by her Office, namely Dr Andrew Braid (CSIRO Veterinarian), Associate Professor David Morgan (Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne), Mr Michael Linke (CEO, ACT RSPCA); and the experts engaged by the Department of Defence, namely Dr Hal Cogger (John Evans Memorial Fellow, Australian Museum), Dr Graeme Coulson (Senior Lecturer in Zoology, University of Melbourne) and Dr George Wilson (Consultant and Director, Australian Wildlife Services). Dr Sue McIntyre (CSIRO Senior Principal Research Scientist) is a member of both panels and was present.

Also present were Mr Nick Warner, Secretary of Defence; Mr Hamish McNulty, Conservator of Flora and Fauna (Department of Territory and Municipal Services, ACT Government); Dr David Robertson, Defence contractor for the BNTS work and ecologist, Cumberland Ecology; and Defence staff and a staff member from the Commissioner's Office. All of those 'experts" present had either previously supported the kangaroo kill in the media, or were part of group that supported the kill.

In addition to this meeting, a meeting was held with Dr Lyn Hinds, Senior Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO on 18 March 2008. According to the "report" these "experts" released The Report! no "expert" at these meetings requested or supported a specific research project involving the translocation of kangaroos at BNTS1, nor any allocation of funds for such a study.

Such research would be expensive and an inappropriate use of research funds when there is such a need for research on a wide variety of threatened species and communities, including those at BNTS, the "report" said. No wildlife groups were involved in, or invited to, any of these "meetings" although a seperate meeting between Cooper and one of the local groups Wildcare was held later. Wildcare's offer to relocate the kangaroos was rejected out of hand.

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The decision to kill the 514 kangaroos at Belconnen was believed to be the result of an internal conflict between the Navy who wanted the Belconnen site kept for its Heritage values, and the Army who wanted to flog it off for housing development, and the subsequent perks from the developers.

Cosson who was then a Brigadier, was the driving force behind lobbying for the kill. Was her promotion to Major-General a reward for progressing the Belconnen kangaroo massacre? When we forced Defence to announce the kill publicly , Cossons and her staff fled to Perth to escape media and our phone calls.

Cossons has two claims to fame, one she was the first woman promoted to General, and the other outstanding example of Brigadier Elizabeth Cosson's competance is when she accidentally left a draft report on how the body of Australian soldier Private Jake Kovco got misplaced in a morgue, in a Qantas Club computer. From there, it mysteriously found its way to broadcaster Derryn Hinch, and subsequent publicity.

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Senior Ecologist, Wildlife Research and Monitoring, Environment ACT. Research/Professional Interests: Pest management, threatened species conservation. PhD Thesis Topic: Population Dynamics of Eastern Grey Kangaroos . Fletcher appears to have written about four research papers on kangaroo population dynamics. He also appears to be involved with the Australasian Wildlife Management Society, an "academic-based" organisation which promotes and seeks funding for the consumption and "wise use" of wildlife.

Fletcher was in charge of the "research" program where a number of the Belconnen kangaroos were sedated and removed to a fenced area at Belconnen. The "research" process was heavily criticised by experienced kangaroo wildlife carers who were appalled at the treatment these kangaroos received. Other scientific comments we have heard is that the research is sloppy and has been largely done before anyway.

We did receive information that most of the 100 kangaroos have since died of trauma shock, but it was difficult to get details. However, we since have been informed that only 6 of the research kangaroos died. Problem is, nothing about the research is publicly available.....why? Because few wildlife groups would suppport it!

In a recent email from Don Fletcher we are assured that "after the cull there were 83 research kangaroos at BNTN identified with ear-tags or collars, and an additional number of other eastern grey kangaroos. The research kangaroos suffered no delayed mortality from the process.

Two females escaped from the site and were mustered back in, one female went missing in October and is presumed to have died or escaped, two males shed their collars, and one female earlier in February was euthanased due to infected wounds on both feet that appeared to have resulted from entanglement in something sharp. According to Don Fletcher, at last sighting, all others were looking healthy. The unvaccinated 'controls' are breeding normally, as would be expected."

Whatever, the fact remains that these research kangaroos were treated very badly, and it is very surprising that so many survived the trauma of capture.

The Kangaroo Protection Coalition and most wildlife groups will no longer support research into contraception of kangaroos, and in fact are now strongly opposed to it. If there is population problem with kangaroos(and in most cases there is not) relocation by approved kangaroo groups is the only acceptable option.

In an article in the Canberra Times, Fletcher did opposed the Googong Dam kangaroo kill....

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Dr David Shorthouse, worked for the ACT government, in the Canberra Times was a leading proponent of the Belconnen kangaroo massacre, and a spokesperson for the Limestone Plains Group, that also supported the kill.

Lecturer in Ecology, Canberra College of Advanced Education (1972 - 1980); Commonwealth Public Service: ACT Parks and Conservation Service, National Capital Development Commission, National Capital Planning Authority, World Heritage) (1980 - 1994); ACT Public Service: Manager, Wildlife Research and Monitoring, Environment ACT (1994 - 2007). Former manager of Research and Monitoring with ACT Parks, Conservation and Lands.

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Defence spokesman Brigadier Andrew Nikolic also supported the slaughter, and was spokesperson for Defence when they tried to publicly justify the kill. Nikolic also said in the Canberra Times and elsewhere that the protestors were responsible for letting kangaroos out of the Belconnen site, and were frightening the kangaroos just by being in vantage points around the site. You've seen the photos of the panicked kangaroos in the killing pens. They were frightened! Did Nikolic lie to the community just to take some heat off Defence? Or was he just misinformed?

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Cumberland Ecology.

The kill was done by contractors Cumberland Ecology at the Belconnen Naval Transmission Station at Belconnen. This motley outfit are the same ones who did the kangaroo kill at St Mary's in Western Sydney, and were widely condemned for their brutality there, including strong criticism by two employed vets who walked off the site because of the brutality. It's not surprising that Defence would use the same brutal company again. Other tenderers gave cheaper options to relocate the kangaroos, and local groups offered free help, and at least one of the two other tenderers were not prepared to kill the kangaroos.

On their website they claim that Cumberland Ecology has developed expertise in the management of macropods, including kangaroos, wallabies and related species. They claim "Our company has been engaged to manage a number of significant macropod populations and can provide assistance with: Population census and evaluation, Development of Population Management Plans, Monitoring of the impacts of macropods, Preparation of predator control plans, Population reduction including culling, fertility control implants and surgical sterilization, Liaison with government agencies and key stakeholders for development and exhibition of management plans." One Canberra resident emailed them and asked the following questions to Cumberland Ecology Director David Robertson about about the kangaroo kill at Belconnen, 1. Who authorised the use of security guards to herd kangaroos into the killing pen? 2. Were the security guards used in the herding of the kangaroos trained in animal handling techniques? 3. If so, by whom?

Director David Robertson replied by email, "I don't know who you are and in any case I am not authorised to speak about the project to members of the public. Defence have their nominated spokespeople about that project. Please contact Defence for information. www.cumberlandecology.com.au

No photo currently available.

About David Robertson!

Previous consultancy undertaken at the former military ADI site in Sydney by David Robertson and Cumberland Ecology has been dismissed by Geoff Brown, Convenor of ADI Residents Action Group as "fabricated and simply desperate".

About their previous work!

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A non-incorporated group that many people argue was set up specifically to justify a kangaroo kill on the Belconnen and other sites around the ACT where kangaroos were an impediment to development. Formerly a high profile media group, they are now conspicuous by their absense after the Belconnen kangaroo massacre. Although the members of this group fought hard to kill the Belconnen kangaroos, we understandably have trouble identifying them.

We do know that Professor Arthur Georges of the University of Canberra (right) was a member of the Limestone Plains Group, as was Dr Sue McIntyre, another outspoken critic of relocation of the kangaroos. Another member was senior principal research scientist of vertebrate pest research at the CSIRO, Lyn Hinds. University of Canberra senior lecturer in ecology and conservation biology Dr Will Osborne is believed to be another member, as is consultant biologist Ms Isobel Crawford, who is also believed to be member of the Friends of Grasslands Goup.

In early March 2009, Limestone Plains Group co-convener and consultant botanist Isobel Crawford said in an article in the Canberra Times that "Defence conducted a study which showed up to 5000 kangaroos starved to death in one season. She said it had carried out estimates to try to determine how many kangaroos had died. She said the scientists that carried out the study found no signs of disease; ''it was starvation pure and simple''." Defence have since publicly denied knowledge of any such Report.

Understandably they (the LPG members) are all reluctant to come forward and admit membership of a group that lobbyed so hard for the Belconnen kangaroo kill to proceed, when relocation was such an easy and affordable option. Ian Fraser and Don Fletcher (the researcher) are also believed to be members of this group.

In the Canberra Times 6/7/2007, Lecturer in ecology and conservation biology with the University of Canberra Will Osborne said the overabundance of kangaroos at Defence's Majura training area was wreaking ecological havoc. ''I feel that there is an emergency now,'' Dr Osborne said. ''[The grasslands] are going to be trashed and destroyed.'' Dr Osborne said the kangaroos had eaten down the grasslands to the point where threatened reptile species were dying out.

The reptiles including the threatened earless dragon and striped legless lizard had nothing to eat and nowhere to hide from predators. Dr Osborne said Defence may have abandoned its cull but it could not abandon its ecological responsibility. He called for a huge kangaroo-proof fence to be erected around the valuable grassland habitat, which made up about 10 per cent of the Majura site.

The fence would need to be more than 2m high to keep most of the animals out, and would probably cost tens of thousands of dollars to build. He said the fence was a stop- gap measure and Defence would have to find a way to cut kangaroo numbers. Other scientists and the Conservation Council backed Dr Osborne's stance that kangaroo numbers at Majura had to be cut. *CT

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Wilson has worked for over twenty-five years in public policy and strategic analysis. He has published more than 130 papers, articles, plans of management and written three books. His own research experience is mainly wildlife based but covers resource management and conservation more broadly, animal quarantine, disease management, and animal production, particularly in emerging industries such as emu farming.

He was seven years Branch Head and general manager of research projects in the Department of Primary Industries and Energy, Bureau of Resource Sciences, as Senior Principal Research Scientist. In mid 1990's he worked with ACIL Consulting Pty Ltd on range of economic and resource analysis projects. Editorial note: ACIL is another shonky consulting firm who worked very hard for Pivot (another shonky outfit) when they tried to get the sandminers into Shoalwater Bay Army Training Area.

For five years the 1970's & 1980's he was Principal Wildlife Officer with the Department of Environment in Canberra and then Director of the National Conservation Strategy. Wilson recently ws responsible for another shonky "research" document that argued we should eat kangaroos to save the planet. This biased and irresponsible document has since circled throughout the World's media, showing all us Australians as a bunch of idiots.

A summary of this silly report can be found here....

http://www.awt.com.au/content.htm Copy and paste this link...

Wilson has had a longtime association with Australian Wildlife Sevices, an organisation set up to promote wildlife use....and gather government funding for wildlife use projects.

Wilson and co-conspirator Melanie Edwards claim (from the The FAO report, Livestock’s Long Shadow,) that eating kangaroo instead of beef and sheep would save 18% of greenhouse emissions. The FAO report states that livestock contributes 18 per cent of the global warming effect, even more than transport.

But buried in the report is the information that deforestation - mainly in the Amazonian rainforest - is included in that figure! Without it, livestock’s contribution to Climate Change falls to much less. Like a few other so-called "expert reports", credible research information has been selectively and deliberately misused in Wilson/Edwards document, just to show support for the commercial kangaroo Industry.

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Greens MLA Deb Foskey.

Former Greens MLA Deb Foskey always publicly supported the Belconnen kangaroo kill, and said "she was deeply concerned that the politics of the kangaroo cull had overtaken good science and the difficult issues could not be shirked". Foskey, who was not elected, but took over after a prior Green resigned, resigned herself after the massacre, and its believed she was quite rightly dumped by the Greens.

Meanwhile the four Greens recently elected the ACT government have come out and supported the further killing of kangaroos around Canberra and the ACT. Questions are now being asked their backgrounds, and what environmental experience they may have had.

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Opposition (Liberal) environment spokeswoman Vicki Dunne.

Opposition environment spokeswoman Vicki Dunne also always supported the kill, and said in the Canberra Times that the Defence relocation trial was a last-minute move and the endangered wildlife species at the Belconnen grasslands site were being ignored. "They're transfixed by the notion of the survival of the cutest," she said. "There is no one out there advocating for the survival of the perunga grasshopper and the mouthless moth." (Ed. whatever a mouthless moth is......)

Dunne has been part of the ACT Government for a long time, and has never opposed development that allowed hundreds of hectares of grassland habitat in Canberra to be buried under supermarkets, houses, and parking lots. All of a sudden she is concerned about grasshoppers and moths?

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Friends of Grasslands.

Friends of Grasslands is another unincorporated community group which claims to have 200 members. In a letter to the Canberra Times dated 18 July 2007, Geoff Robertson, and signed off as Vicepresident of Friends of Grasslands, "considers that the Defence Department should take immediate action to reduce kangaroo numbers, and that feeding and translocation are inappropriate." *

So Friends of Grasslands have to take some responsibility for the massacre.

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Larry Robbins, Defence bureacrat

We had several meetings with Robbins, and he seemed sympathetic to the plight of the kangaroos. However we have since heard he really supported the Belconnen kangaroo kill.

ACT Parks and Wildlife.

Clearly acting on political instruction, ACT Parks and Wildlife supported the Belconnen kangaroo kill. The photo showed one staff member watching the kangaroos getting killed. By the look on her face, she was not impressed either.

It cost $1000 to kill each of the 514 kangaroos. One NSW/Canberra wildlife group successfully relocated 45 kangaroos in 2008 at a total cost of $100 each....without losing one kangaroo!

Defence Secretary Nick Warner told an estimates committee in Canberra that the controversial Belconnen kangaroo cull cost $470,000. They could have been relocated for much less.

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Another who has to take responsibility is the ACT "Conservator", Hamish McNulty, who issued the Permits to kill the Belconnen kangaroos. More details later.

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Assoc Prof Tony English, former head of the AVA, sometimes known as Doctor Death, who supported the Belconnen kangaroo kill in the media, and who provided the veterinary advice to kill the kangaroos. English has been longtime supporter of the commercial kangaroo kill, and was also onsite at Belconnen when the kill was carried out, and was also the vet involved in the brumby kill with Debus, in NSW. Currently believed to have Parkinsons Disease...what goes around, comes around......

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PROS Security

An official report was received as a response to a official complaint laid against the dodgy security firm and it was as bad as we thought it would be.

The Australian Security Industry Association who advised that companies must be affiliated to obtain a security master license and that indeed PROS Security had not been a member for some years. Mr Brett Phillips from the office of regulatory services advises that Public Relations Oriented Security P.R.O.S. Recruitment is a registered business name in the A.C.T. and that they are a member of ASIAL, but only since March 2008!

So they were pretty quick to begin a big contract after registering. But the owners would have experience relocating as they seem to leave a trail of de-registered companies in their wake. For those that don't know; this is the Company that went out of business in Sydney because of a Court case in which they were found liable for their guards kicking the bejesus out of a person in Sydney resulting in brain damage.

Further Brett Phillips states: During the kangaroo cull the ORS received enquiries concerning the licence status of PROS Recruitment guards. ORS inspectors cross referenced the names of the guards identified as working at the BNTS site with our records and can confirm that each guard was licensed in accordance with section 10 of the Act. However we note your concern in relation to the security guards failing to display their unique ID numbers whilst undertaking their security roles. Phllipes stated he would write to PROS Recruitment reminding them of this obligation.

Big deal.

He follows with: You have raised concerns with the conduct of the security guards, in particular allegations of assault and violent actions towards protestors. The ORS has no role in investigating offences involving assault and violent behaviour.

He hands off to the Police and basically says "Job done, case closed".

Welcome to Canberra PROS Security, kicking heads, going into liquidation and running to another State near you. Watch for them at Nightclubs and shopping malls everywhere.

Postscript

During the protest, one female protestor was accused by the itinerent guards of throwing a rock at them, from over the fence. She was charged on the word of the security guards. After several months of changes to Court hearings, changes of dates and times of the alleged offence, and changes of "witness" statements, the protestor pleaded not guilty in the Canberra Magistrates Court. The police prosecutor admitted he had no evidence and the protestor was discharged.

The guard (who actually brought the complaint) is called Brian Walsh. So there is Abdul Rashidi (centre) and Brian Walsh (in the jeans and shirt). The other one sitting next to Rashidi was not a witness, he was there as a 'friend' of Rashidi (even though he took part in the cull as a security guard). We don't know his name. This is the calibre of the security guards employed by PROS. We do have to say that one Australian security guard didnt agree with the kangaroo kill, but said he needed the job, and he told us where the holes in the fence were, how we could get in if we wanted to, and some of the terrible things were happening to the kangaroos inside the BNTS fence.

Photos and More coming!

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We dont know, but it's interesting to note that some of the players who suppported killing the kangaroos in the wildlife disaster at Belconnen, have links to Lendlease(Stockland) who have acquired many of the no-longer-used ADF sites for development. Hmmmmm.....

We haven't finished yet, there's more coming! Readers will appreciate that those involved in this massacre are not comfortable about being identified. Both the ACT Government and Defence have blocked any attempt by us to obtain info about the massacre through the Freedom of Information process.

To watch a video of the masssacre, copy and paste this link....

http://www.efarming.com.au:80/News/general/19/05/2008/3532/roo-cull-incites-animal-activists-anger.html

See more here...

Kangaroo Lives

Canberra Roos