Fact or fiction: Kangaroos are a pest. They destroy farmers’ crops and steal resources intended for livestock. Kangaroos are over-abundant, making them a sustainable resource. If we harvest kangaroos for meat, people will eat less beef and lamb, thus reducing green house gas emissions.
These ideas are accepted as truth by many Australians, yet they are far from reality when it comes to our national icon.
That kangaroos are a sustainable, alternative source of red meat is a convenient theory for the $270-million-per-year kangaroo industry. As long as people believe that kangaroos are both a threat to our environment and a ‘green’ meat, the industry can continue to exploit our native fauna, in what is the world’s largest land-based commercial wildlife slaughter. Unfortunately for kangaroos, these widely-held beliefs are in fact myths, perpetuated by land owners, media, government and industry, and accepted by those eager to engage in ‘sustainable’ meat consumption.
Many Australians believe that there has been an explosion in the kangaroo population, resulting in damage to the environment, crops and livestock. However, some ecologists believe that there may be only a quarter of the number of kangaroos today that existed at the time of white settlement.
The number of kangaroos that can be killed for commercial operations is currently set at 10-18% of the total estimated kangaroo population. This does not take into account those killed outside of the sanctioned cull, such as joeys who are lawfully bashed to death and the young-at-foot who are left to die when their mothers are shot. Like the slaughter of harp seals, who are beaten to death for their fur, the kangaroo ‘industry’ is driven by profit, rather than by any conservation or environmental imperative.
One of the main myths about kangaroos is that they damage the environment. This idea is prevalent despite the declining kangaroo population and lack of scientific evidence to back up this claim. Kangaroos have co-evolved in the Australian environment for millions of years, and are part of a delicately balanced, interdependent ecosystem. The damage to the land comes when we clear it for urbanisation, grazing and agriculture, all of which reduces biodiversity. Damage can also occur when we deprive the ecosystem of its top herbivores, kangaroos.
Similarly, it is because humans have so altered the natural landscape, stripping away native animals’ traditional habitats and preferred food sources, that kangaroos venture onto farming land to eat crops. Interestingly, studies show that it is only in times of extreme drought that kangaroos actually compete with livestock for food and water. During normal climate conditions, the notion that kangaroos damage farm production is yet another myth.
Finally, we come to the idea that kangaroo meat provides a sustainable source of protein for the Australian population. Many argue that because kangaroos are not ‘farmed’ and are not hard-hoofed animals, they are less harmful to the environment, and therefore provide a green alternative to lamb or beef. However, if every person in Australia switched to eating kangaroo meat just once a week, this would require up to 96 million kangaroos to be killed annually. Considering that most livestock meat is exported and that the latest estimate of kangaroos in Australia is around 28 million, a large-scale switch to kangaroo meat is clearly unsustainable for kangaroo populations and would not significantly reduce livestock meat production.
When kangaroos are harvested, it is often the biggest and strongest who are killed, because they have the most meat. This may weaken the gene pool and alter delicate social structures. Most ecologists agree that free ranging kangaroos cannot be farmed and domesticated. Assuming they are correct, kangaroo numbers cannot be increased sufficiently to sustain our meat demands.
The commercial harvesting of kangaroos is not only unsustainable, but upsets the balance of the Australian environment. Far from causing damage, kangaroos are an integral part of the natural system. The commercial killing of kangaroos has no environmental benefits. Conservation common sense indicates that we should put an end to the commercial culling of kangaroos and restore the natural ecosystem in the rangelands. Australia’s native flora and fauna should again be allowed to coexist without interference, for the sake of the environment, the kangaroos and all of our native animals.
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Australia’s Kangaroo Cull: Green or Greenwash?
Fact or fiction: Kangaroos are a pest. They destroy farmers’ crops and steal resources intended for livestock. Kangaroos are over-abundant, making them a sustainable resource. If we harvest kangaroos for meat, people will eat less beef and lamb, thus reducing green house gas emissions.
