HOME > AFP-JIJI PRESS NEWS JOURNAL > Article
Australia told to shoot kangaroos before they starve
Australia's kangaroos could die in catastrophic numbers if a population boom is left unchecked, ecologists have warned, while backing the industrial-scale culling of the marsupials.
To outsiders, the kangaroo is an instantly-recognisable symbol of the Australian wilderness, but within the country the native animal poses a major environmental headache.
Kangaroos have a boom and bust population cycle -- when fodder is plentiful on the back of a good wet season their numbers can balloon by tens of millions.
Hopping mobs of kangaroos can rapidly strip paddocks bare, but ecologist Katherine Moseby warned they would starve to death in droves when food ran out.
The last drought we estimated that 80 or 90 percent of the kangaroos in some areas died, she told AFP.
They are starving to death -- going into public toilets and eating toilet paper, or lying on the road starving while their joeys are trying to feed, she added, referring to events from the last population boom.
Moseby said the kindest way to save kangaroos from this fate was to shoot them, and harvest the meat, as a way of keeping numbers in check.
It keeps the numbers down so that when we do get drought we don't get these welfare issues, she said.
If we saw them as a resource and managed them like that, we wouldn't get the catastrophic deaths that we see.
Kangaroos are protected in Australia but the most common species are not endangered -- this means they can be shot and killed in most jurisdictions, but government permission is needed.
Each year, as many as five million kangaroos are shot as part of a homegrown industry, which harvests their carcasses for meat, pet food and leather.
Dennis King from the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia believes the country is on the cusp of another kangaroo boom.
After three years of La Nina right down the east coast, we've seen the perfect growth scenario for kangaroos over the next couple of years, he told AFP.
The breeding cycle really speeds up.
King said the national kangaroo population fell under 30 million following a crippling drought in the early 2000s, but could soon rebound to as many as 60 million.
- 'Cruel slaughter' -
Animal rights activists have denounced the commercial cull as a cruel slaughter, pressuring global sportswear giants such as Nike and Puma to phase out the use of kangaroo leather.
Nike divested of its only kangaroo leather supplier in 2021 and will stop making any product with kangaroo leather in 2023, a spokeswoman for the company said in March.
Politicians in Oregon, where Nike was founded, introduced a bill earlier this year that would outlaw the use of any part of a dead kangaroo.
These native animals are slaughtered for the sake of commercial profit, Animals Australia said earlier this year.
George Wilson, a leading researcher on kangaroo management, said attempts to shut down the industry were well-intentioned but ultimately misguided.
They say it's unethical, but it's unethical to let them starve to death, he told AFP.
The cruelty is not doing anything about it.
Moseby agreed, saying ending the culling of kangaroos would actually be more cruel in the long run.
Trying to stop the harvest of leather or meat, it's not going to have any welfare benefit, she said.
It's going to make it worse.
(2023/05/26 17:13)
Click Here for Japanese TranslationAFP-JIJI PRESS NEWS JOURNAL
- 05/26 17:13 Australia told to shoot kangaroos before they starve
- 05/26 17:12 Musk's Neuralink says cleared for human test of brain implants
- 05/26 17:11 US Navy probe finds major problems with SEAL training
- 05/26 17:10 Peru seizes cocaine bricks wrapped in Nazi insignia
- 05/26 17:09 Animal rights activists 'rescue' lambs from farm on royal estate
- 05/26 17:04 South Korea hails successful launch of homegrown rocket
- 05/25 19:35 Miami zoo's meet-a-kiwi scheme ruffles feathers in New Zealand
- 05/25 19:31 $6 mn raised to preserve Nina Simone's childhood home
- 05/25 19:26 Barcelona veteran Alba leaving club after 11 years
- 05/25 19:21 'Wide open' for business-- Russia makes play for Gulf money
- 05/25 19:08 French defender Le Normand obtains Spanish nationality
- 05/25 19:00 US top health official sounds alarm on child social media use
- 05/24 17:36 Netflix expands password-sharing crackdown worldwide
- 05/24 17:33 Police search Portugal reservoir in Madeleine McCann case
- 05/24 17:32 Mexico raises alert level as volcano ejects smoke, ash, lava
- 05/24 17:31 Taiwan says last wartime 'comfort woman' dies at 92
- 05/24 17:29 New Zealand fights to save its flightless national bird
- 05/24 17:25 Spain arrests seven over Vinicius racism incidents
- 05/23 17:05 Climate-- 'dangerous heat' could afflict billions by 2100
- 05/23 17:03 Harvard study finds implicit racial bias highest among white people
- 05/23 17:00 New Zealand sheep outnumber people less than 5 to 1, a record low
- 05/23 16:58 Macron makes first French presidential visit to Mongolia
- 05/23 16:56 Godard's afterlife begins at Cannes
- 05/23 16:53 Spain opens investigation into racist abuse of Vinicius
- 05/22 17:22 Private mission carrying Saudi astronauts launches to ISS
- 05/22 17:20 Guitar smashed by Nirvana's Kurt Cobain sells for nearly $600,000
- 05/22 17:19 Building 'Mad Max' vehicles for Ukraine's fighters
- 05/22 17:18 Paris sees success in bringing Zelensky to G7
- 05/22 17:16 'I love being older', says Harrison Ford as he retires Indiana Jones
- 05/22 17:14 After SpaceX, NASA taps Bezos's Blue Origin to build Moon lander
- 05/19 18:43 London show explores sari's 21st century reinvention
- 05/19 17:15 DNA study of famed US sled dog shows what made him so tough
- 05/19 17:12 India's top court upholds bull-taming festival
- 05/19 17:11 Turks in Germany hope for citizenship law overhaul
- 05/19 17:07 Italy flood deaths rise to 13 as thousands wait to come home
- 05/19 17:06 Nadal pulls out of French Open, set to end career in 2024