On the European Kangaroo Trail!After being contacted by a whistleblower within the kangaroo industry, Animal protection groups from around Australia rallied together to expose the cruelty, contamination & dwindling numbers of certain kangaroo species who are slaughtered for a niche export market where profits are earnt by a select few. The groups, including Animal Liberation, Wildlife Protection Association of Australia, Animals Australia, Australian Wildlife Protection Council Inc & others have been investigating the industry for the last 2 years and have found damning evidence which will more than likely halt this brutal trade. Note the whistleblower will remain nameless for safety reasons. Over 24 chillers around NSW and Southern QLD were inspected and swabs of Kangaroo carcasses taken. In summary, the findings suggest: 1. Between 70-80% of all kangaroos shot are currently female. This means that there is a population imbalance between males and females. Obviously there are more females than males now as most of the big males have already been shot which leaves the females to be shot. 2. Many of the carcasses were only just above the minimum ‘human consumption’ weight (NSW) of 13kg, some actually weighed less. Females at this weight would be unlikely to even have had their first joey. The kangaroos allowed to be killed in NSW and QLD are Reds, Eastern Greys and Western Greys. Obviously there were male carcasses in the chillers, however none of them were even close to what would be considered a ‘big red’ which would have a carcass weight of around 45kg. 3. The swab results revealed contamination of carcasses with: E.coli, Streptococcus & Staphylococcus. The results showed muscle tissue having an active growth of these microbes from low to heavy growth. 4. The Australian Government approved method of killing a joey at foot is to either bash it over the head with a heavy object, or chop its head off with an axe. This is written into the 'Code of practice for the humane Killing of kangaroos'. This is essentially too brutal to think about, and the image lends itself to that of seal pups being brutally bashed to death on the ice of Canada. If even half of those females have a joey at foot, then up to 1million joeys will be killed this way in 2007 under the currently approved kill quota of 3.8million kangaroos. 5. The other issue which is even more serious is the fact that female kangaroos often have a joey at foot. Which means a joey who no longer lives in the pouch, but needs its mum for milk and protection from predation as well as to learn life skills. When a shooter intrudes on a family unit and shoots the mum, this joey at foot hops away frightened and will die a slow death of predation or starvation as it will not get the necessary nutrients that it still requires for growth. This is a fact of the kangaroo industry, and it is also a thorn in the Governments side as there is currently nothing in the 'Code of Practice for the humane killing of kangaroos' that deals with this issue. Several Australian wildlife groups have lodged an appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal with regards to several issues listed above. This is a Tribunal which decide on the legitimacy and legality of Government decisions - i.e. the decision to 'cull' kangaroos and what numbers to 'cull'. If the issues above are not addressed at the Tribunal, the wildlife groups will continue to appeal to the High Court of Australia until this issue is looked into seriously and a real decision is made by a real Court of Law. At the end of the investigation in March this year, knowing we needed to move with this information quickly, Animal Liberation and the WPAA sent a delegation overseas to Russia (biggest export country) and Europe to inform not only the public about these concerns, but the relevant health ministers in the various countries as well as EU representatives. So far there has been significant media attention in Russia and several restaurants have been visited in Berlin, as well as the Consular General, Foreign Affairs and Trade based in the Australian Embassy, Berlin. A complete report of the European events will be outlined on the Animal Liberation website shortly. The true outcome of any meetings will not be known for some time, at present however, we do know that the leading company which exports Kangaroo meat for human consumption has closed all its chiller doors in NSW, which, as far as a discerning eye can tell, is as big an admission of guilt if ever there were one. If you come across any restaurant selling kangaroo meat, be it in Australia or overseas, please let us know. If you know of somewhere that has stopped selling kangaroo meat because of the cruelty involved, please also let us know.
Below is a sample letter which you could use to contact the following people/companies to let them know what you think about killing of kangaroos. • National Parks and Wildlife Service, responsible for NSW quotas info@environment.nsw.gov.au • QLD Minister responsible for quotas in that state, EandM@ministerial.qld.gov.au • German restaurants serving or distributing Kangaroo meat Corroboree: info@corroboree.info Australian Spirit: info@party-service-noller.de Australian Food and Wine: trendfoods@gmx.net Australia Shop: australia@australiashop.com Las Malvinas: las_malvinas_9@hotmail.com Kangaroo’s Land: info@kangaroos-land.de Never Never Land: never-never berlin@web.de Down Under: info@down-under-hamburg.de Outback-bar Crocodile 71: info@crocodile71.de Yours Australian Bar: maybe info@yours-bars.de Toowoomba's cafe-restaurant: info@toowoombas.de Springtown: info@springtown-wetzlar.de Ned Kelly's Australian Bar: KiliansIrishPub@aol.com Coen River: info@australische-kueche.de
•Austrian Restaurants selling or distributing Kangaroo meat Billabong: office@top-lokale.at Koala: info@australianbar.at
•German food- monitoring company: Foodwatch: info@foodwatch.de • French restaurant serving Kangaroo meat: L'Epicerie, 30 rue Montorgueil, 75001 Paris, France. (No email sorry, however after several conversations with the owner of this restaurant he is refusing to move on the issue, he also believes that Kangaroos are ‘farmed’. However we’re in the process of dispelling this myth. Please post your letters to this restaurant so they know what we really feel.) Kiwi Corner: eat@kiwicorner.fr •French Kangaroo meat distributors chef-henrick@australgourmet.com contact@australgourmet.com • France – Health ministry contacts: General email: ministre-santesolidarites@sante.gouv.fr Didier Houssin : didier.houssin@sante.gouv.fr • Russian restaurant serving Kangaroo meat Australian Open: aus.open@mtu-net.ru • Russian Customs responsible for the importation and inspection of Kangaroo meat umts_kudryavtsev@mail.customs.ru
Sample Letter Dear ……, Re: Commercial Kangaroo Industry I am writing to you concerning the plight of Kangaroos in Australia. It has been brought to my attention that there are at least 5 serious problems with the current legal killing of kangaroos for commercial purposes in Australia. 1. Killing of joeys after their mothers are shot. The national code of practice allows an acceptable way of killing these baby animals is to chop off their head with an axe, or for them to receive a blow to the head with a heavy blunt instrument. As per the Canadian seal ‘cull’, killing of baby animals is an extremely traumatic experience, it is in no way humane, and can in no way be regulated. We are living in the 21st century and still allowing medieval practices to occur in our outback. I feel it is necessary to condemn the killing of kangaroos solely on this point alone. 2. Contamination of the carcasses has recently been shown to occur quite often due to the way the kangaroos are processed in the field. They are gutted by a shooter who is not trained nor, after a nights shooting, has the ability to cleanly gut the kangaroo. The result is that carcasses are left wide open to contamination. All this happens in such temperatures which promote bacteria and pathogen growth. Even the chillers have been shown to be unreliable when it comes to maintaining temperatures which kill bacteria. 3. Species decline. NPWS (NSW) issues permits based on aerial surveys of numbers of kangaroos. Only a third of the ‘culling/harvesting’ area is counted each year on a rotational basis. As we all know, kangaroos are mobile animals which can, as far as an aerial survey cares, be in two places at once, particularly if the count is spread essentially over 3 years. This means the animals can be counted twice, hence potentially overestimating/underestimating the population and therefore any quotas for killing purposes. NPWS each year comes up with new ways of counting kangaroo numbers, this is not reliable, nor is it scientific to continuously change counting methods. When it comes to our native animals, close enough is not good enough. 4. Kangaroo shooters are paid per kg, therefore they (understandably) shoot the biggest animals first. Over time, this reduces the population structure so much so that a smaller, weaker genetic species remains. This reduces the survival ability and strength of the targeted species. This has not been scientifically proven by any researcher, it is common Darwinian sense. 5. The other issue which is even more serious is the fact that female kangaroos often have a joey at foot. Which means a joey who no longer lives in the pouch, but needs its mum for milk and protection from predation as well as to learn life skills. When a shooter intrudes on a family unit and shoots the mum, this joey at foot hops away frightened and will die a slow death of predation or starvation as it will not get the necessary nutrients that it still requires for growth. This is a fact of the kangaroo industry, and it is also a thorn in the Governments side as there is currently nothing in the 'Code of Practice for the humane killing of kangaroos' that deals with this issue. I along with many other Australians am calling on you to cease your involvement in the commercial harvesting of kangaroos immediately. This will have virtually no effect on Australia’s economy, or that of overseas economies which import kangaroo meat. The Russian National Meat Association spokesperson has already stated that kangaroo meat is not a relevant contributor to their economy. I await your response. Yours Sincerely,
Name, Address
Press clippings to date: • Russia http://ecosever.ru/ecodigest/5906.html http://www.yoki.ru/news/social/society/26-04-2007/41534-kenguru-0 http://www.pir.ru/article.asp?ArticleID=4954 http://www.dp.ru/msk/news/foodindustry/2007/04/25/215408/ http://www.nr2.ru/moskow/116492.html http://www.from-ua.com/news/685c3aad3c73d.html http://www.utro.ru/news/2007/04/24/643880.shtml http://www.newizv.ru/lenta/68524/ http://www.rosbalt.ru/2007/04/24/294354.html http://forum.msk.ru/material/news/331150.html http://www.gazeta.ru/news/lenta/2007/04/24/n_1061201.shtml http://www.agronews.ru/newsshow.php?NId=35813 http://www.mospravda.ru/issue/2007/04/26/article6057/ • Belgium http://www.vilt.be/nieuwsarchief/detail.phtml?id=13562
|
