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Australia's Kangaroo Slaughter

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Australia's Kangaroo Slaughter attempted for the three primary species, the Australian government establishes kill quotas for the euro and whiptail kangaroo, he world's second largest cow hide. It is used primarily for athletic too. Only these five species are authorized commercial wildlife slaugh­ shoes, as well as for dress shoes, boots, for export. An additional five species may ter is going on right now, purses, wallets, belts, and golf bags. be legally killed for the domestic market. in Australia.* There, 6 Kangaroo fur is used for stuffed koala toys, However, the Australian government com­ million kangaroos will which, along with kangaroo-paw bottle plains that it is too difficult to police the be shot this year for openers and other novelties, are sold to hunting since it takes place at night in the the burgeoning athletic-shoe industry tourists. The United States is the world's rugged and unpopulated outback. Thus, under the pretext of ''wildlife manage- largest importer of finished kangaroo pro­ there is virtually no control over which ment.'' ducts, although they compose less than 2 animals are shot, and many shooters can­ The HSUS seeks to end the mass com­ percent of all leather imported annually and not even distinguish among different mercial exploitation of all wildlife, regard­ less than 1 percent of all leather sold in this species. A Greenpeace study of Italian less of whether the species involved is in country. But few suburban shopping malls kangaroo imports found evidence of trade danger of extinction in America are with­ in skins of rare or endangered kangaroos. yet or not. For that out kangaroo-leather The vast majority of kangaroos are killed reason, we have shoes. using inhumane methods. Hunters use joined Greenpeace, This year, several powerful spotlights to stun the kangaroos the International Australian states lifted momentarily; the animals are then shot with Wildlife Coalition, their bans on the hu­ automatic weapons. Joeys, young kangaroos, and other concerned man consumption of are of no economic value and are not con­ organizations working kangaroo meat, cre­ sidered to be worth the cost of a bullet. They to stop the Australian ating additional in­ are often killed by being thrown against a kangaroo slaughter. centive for economic tree or car bumper or kicked in the head. The Australian exploitation of the Non-professional, weekend shooters often government set this animals. This is also employ even crueler killing techniques, run­ year's legal quota at potentially dangerous ning the animals down in trucks, poisoning 3.7 million animals, to humans, since their water holes, snaring them, or shooting but an additional 1 kangaroo meat often them from helicopters. Ninety percent of million kangaroos carries salmonella, commercial kangaroo hunters are such will be legally killed tuberculosis, tape­ weekend shooters. There have been many for non-commercial worm cysts, toxoplas­ documented incidents of animals skinned use. The illegal kill is mosis, and hydatid alive, impaled on stakes, and beaten to undetermined, though diseases. death. it has been estimated Eight of the forty­ The Australian government supports the to be greater than the A red kangaroo male is undis- eight kangaroo spe­ kangaroo industry as "an important manage­ legal quota. There­ turbed in Sturt National Park. cies are already ex- ment tool." It claims that there are too many fore, although the tinct, many as a result the three most plentiful and heavily ex­ The last published population figures for no accurate statistics for the present popu1a­ kangaroos and that they have become pests, government claims it will "limit" the kill of human over-exploitation. Twenty-four ploited species, the red, the eastern grey, the red, eastern grey, and western grey tion, which is particularly alarming given competing with livestock and damaging to 3.7 million animals, more than 6 million more species are listed as endangered, and the western grey, listed as threatened by kangaroo estimated that there were 10 to 12 the high rate of kill. The substantial decline crops. This has been openly contradicted by kangaroos are likely to be slaughtered. threatened, or rare by the Convention on In­ the ESA. Unfortunately, a special rule ex­ million in 1984. The Australian government in estimates seems to indicate that the the Queensland state government, which Kangaroos are killed for their skin, which ternational Trade in Endangered Species of ists in the ESA regulations that exempts asserts that the present population is 15 kangaroo population is at risk. Kangaroos stated in its kangaroo-management program: is considered softer and sturdier than Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the U.S. kangaroos from the ban on commercial million for all kangaroo species. Just nine are now outnumbered by sheep by more "It is important to recognise that, while the Endangered Species Act (ESA), or the In- trade in threatened species products. (The years ago, it claimed there were as many than ten to one. kangaroo industry was originally a response * The fur trade is first. ternational Red Data Book. These include HSUS opposes this special rule.) as 60 million kangaroos. In fact, there are Although population surveys have been to the pest problem caused by the animals, AUSTRALINS KANGAROO Millions of an.imals die for shoes and novelties 20 HSUS NEWS • Fall 1989 HSUS NEWS • Fall 1989 21 it has come to exist in its own right as the ment officials defend quotas by observing for two of the species for which quotas are nation is virtually meaningless, since there of the dangers. Modern day flora and fauna They do not eat the vegetation as sheep do, user of a valuable natural resource." that "kangaroos breed like rabbits" and that set, the whiptails and the euros. Aerial is no national management program or na­ are the products of millions of years of leaving more growth in place. Further There have been no scientific studies to their populations are not at risk from com­ surveys are used by the government for the tional control of the state management natural selection and co-evolution. Com­ depletion of kangaroo populations will lead support the claim of competition for food mercial exploitation. This is simply not true. other three species, but this method was re­ systems. Each state is expected to submit a mercial harvesting alters this process by to an increase in erosion and environmen­ between kangaroos and livestock species. In Kangaroo reproduction varies with climate. jected as inaccurate by the Queensland state management plan to the Australian govern­ removing the largest, healthiest members tal degradation and deplete other wildlife fact, several studies have shown that, while In a good year, only 56 percent of the young government (which sets the highest quota), ment for approval. None of these plans is of a population. This substitutes "artificial species as well if it results in an increase there is potential for overlap in their diets, reach sexual maturity. Under drought con­ and it is impossible to distinguish between consistent with the guidelines suggested by selection" for natural selection and com­ in use by domestic livestock. kangaroos and sheep prefer different vegeta­ ditions, sexual maturity is delayed, all the eastern grey and western grey in aerial the central government, yet each one is ap­ promises the "wild" status of the animal. As the largest importer of kangaroo prod­ tion, even under drought conditions. Aus­ breeding activity ceases, and there is 100 surveys, in any case. Quotas have continued proved. The Australian government has con­ The resulting changes in inter- and intra­ ucts, the United States provides a huge in­ tralian livestock populations have decreased percent mortality of young. In the past cen­ to increase greatly despite no corresponding sistently failed to exert control over the state species demographics may de-stabilize the centive for the continued slaughter of by about 25 percent in recent years, while tury in Australia, only twenty-two years increase in populations. management programs, the kangaroo population, normally kept in delicate bal­ kangaroos. kangaroo quotas increased by 242 percent. were free of drought. A female kangaroo Second, the tagging and quota system finishing plants, or the kangaroo export ance with its environment. The effects this Without the international market in kan­ Clearly, if competition between kangaroos produces two young every three years under does not limit the number of kangaroos ac­ market, all of which encourage the illegal will have on the species being exploited, garoo products, the price of kangaroo skins and livestock were the true reason for good conditions and none during drought. tually slaughtered. It is designed to limit the kill. Regulations that do exist are rarely or its fitness, the surrounding species, and the would plummet. Shooters already make slaughtering kangaroos, kill quotas would For fifteen million years, kangaroos have number of skins which enter the commer­ weakly enforced. The kangaroo industry, ecosystem cannot be estimated or ignored. very little profit, and if the value of have decreased with the livestock co-evolved with their ecosystem. Like all cial market, not the number of animals worth a relatively small $10-15 million a If the rampant exploitation of the kanga­ kangaroo skins were to fall, they would not populations. wild animals, they are subject to predation killed. year, seems to have more control over the roo is allowed to continued, the kangaroo, make enough money to make it worth their The numbers of kangaroos killed is sub­ by other animals, such as dingos and foxes; Third, kangaroo quotas are not an ef­ government than the government has its neighboring species, and its habitat will while to kill kangaroos. jectively determined by the wildlife ranger disease, starvation, and drought also take fective means of population control.
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