We commercially slaughter approximately three to four million kangaroos and wallabies each year. They are slaughtered in the bush by part time and full time professional shooters, shot under the cover of darkness and without any scrutiny at the time of kill.
A code to kill our Coat of Arms
Legally – via the National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies for Commercial Purposes – adult kangaroos are to be killed by a single shot to the brain. In reality, some kangaroos are not fatally hit, but injured in the neck or the body, and flee in response, suffering a prolonged and painful death. The numbers are unknown but given the conditions under which the shooting takes place, one can assume that they are not inconsiderable.
To make matters worse, just over an estimated one million joeys are killed each year as a consequence of the kangaroo slaughter. The Code specifies "humane" methods for killing joeys such as by a single forceful blow to the base of the skull, decapitation or by a single shot to the heart or brain. It has been shown that the "single forceful blow to the base of the skull" is often achieved by hunters smashing the joeys into the ground, against the tow bars of cars or with a metal pipe or other blunt instrument. Alternatively, when not caught, an out of pouch joey will be left to fend for itself and will generally die of predation, starvation or dehydration.
Not surprisingly, the Code has been found by RSPCA Australia, one of the peak bodies for animal welfare in Australia, to be severely deficient on a number of issues relating to "[f]reedom from pain … [and] injury".
In some schools of thought, kangaroos are considered a pest, a resource, an ecological alternative to cow and sheep meat. These are convenient reasons for the $270 million per year commercial kangaroo industry to continue with the slaughter. What may come as a surprise to some is that these justifications for the fledgling industry do not stand up to scientific scrutiny. 
Kangaroos are not a pest
There is no scientific basis for labelling them as such. The kangaroo populations vary according to the climate. For example, during drought, populations decline dramatically while after wet seasons, populations increase. Due to the variable nature of the populations, there is a risk of over-exploitation when there is a natural decline.
There is no evidence that sheep or cow meat can be replaced with kangaroo meat. Most of the meat from a kangaroo is not premium grade and is of low value for human consumption. Twelve kilograms of edible meat per kangaroo is a conservative estimate. Based on populations of kangaroos in harvesting zones over a 30 year period, there are estimated to be 27 million kangaroos available for harvest. For each meat-eating Australian to be able to eat one meal of kangaroo meat per week, we would need to harvest 22 million kangaroos per year. This would require a total population of 151 million to support the off-take. The numbers just don't add up.
There are ongoing and significant health concerns associated with kangaroo meat. These concerns recently led Russia, formerly Australia's biggest importer of kangaroo meat, to ban the import of kangaroo meat due to concerns with E. coli bacteria, salmonella and other pathogens and a concern about the kangaroo meat production process. Other issues include insufficient inspections when kangaroos are killed, long transport time without refrigeration and the inadequate hygiene standards of chillers in which kangaroo carcasses are kept.
Harvesting… don't you mean killing?
Some ecologists argue that kangaroo harvesting offers considerable ecological advantages to the Australian landscape and could decrease greenhouse gas emissions through replacement of sheep. Their argument is based on two premises.
The first premise is that kangaroos are uniquely adapted to the Australian landscape, for example, they have soft feet which have less of an impact on the fragile Australian soils than the hoofed feet of sheep.
The second is the belief that kangaroos emit only marginal greenhouse gas emissions as opposed to sheep (and cows) that contribute 11% greenhouse gas emissions through burping and flatulence.
The problem with this theory, as illustrated above, is that there are not enough kangaroos to replace sheep and therefore any ecological advantage would be miniscule if at all.
The welfare concerns raised by the slaughter of kangaroos are vast. The theories promoted by industry are mythical. Kangaroos are sentient beings. Like us they have complex social structures, strong maternal-infant bonds, they feel and they are aware. They are our coat of arms. Let's treat them without cruelty and not be party to destroying them or inflicting pain and suffering on their young.
Further reading:
- Queensland floods: Cheers for our kangaroo rescuer (Herald Sun report)
- Voiceless kangaroo factsheet
- A Shot in the Dark: A report on kangaroo harvesting by Dror Ben-Ami
- Shooting our wildlife: An analysis of the law and policy governing the killing of kangaroos by Keely Boom and Dror Ben-Ami
- Advocating kangaroo meat: towards ecological benefit or plunder by Dror Ben-Ami, David Croft, Daniel Ramp and Keely Boom
- THINKK website
- Kangaroos: Myths and Realities 3rd edition edited by Maryland Wilson and David B Croft (Australian Wildlife Protection Council, Melbourne, 2005)
Written by Ruth Hatten, Voiceless
Image credits: (top) © Nick De Villiers; (right) © Suze Chalmers
Comments
The beef and sheep meat industry is one of the main contributors to greenhouse gases, animal pain and suffering and land degradation.
Become an eco-tarian. Eat kangaroos.
Would you prefer your prey to be farm-packed into a slaughter house and get a bolt gun to the head amidst their panicking friends, or a one-kill shot out of the blue in a natural environment?