6,000 Kangaroos to be killed...

Australia to shoot 6,000 kangaroos
By ROD McGUIRK, AP


CANBERRA, Australia — Australia's army has started shooting 6,000 kangaroos to thin their population on an army training ground near the capital, an official said Friday, outraging conservationists who have vowed to protest.

The killings are intended to protect endangered plants and insects that share the grassy habitat with the kangaroos. A much smaller slaughter of 400 kangaroos on another Defense Department site in Canberra last year was disrupted by protesters.

Civilian marksmen contracted by the department began shooting the kangaroos on Tuesday night at Defense's Majura Training Area, where an estimated 9,000 of the wild marsupials roam, Army Brig. Brian Dawson told reporters.

"The culling is intended to reduce the kangaroo population to sustainable levels," Dawson said, describing the action as that of a "responsible landowner."

The nighttime shooting is expected to continue intermittently until August. The training ground covers more than 7,400 acres (3,000 hectares) and includes grenade and artillery firing ranges.

Bernard Brennan, president of Canberra's Animal Liberation conservation group, said protesters planned to descend on the area starting Friday night and many more would flock from around Australia next week. He could not predict how many.

"We're not going to sit back and let it happen," he said.

The kangaroo slaughter follows a recent government environmental report that the common eastern gray kangaroos are too numerous in Canberra's parkland and grassland, eating scarce native grass which is the habitat of endangered insects such as golden gun moths and perunga grasshoppers.

The kangaroo overpopulation is also threatening endangered reptiles, the grassland earless dragon and the striped legless lizard, the report said.

Kangaroos are slaughtered to control population throughout Australia, but government agencies have been reluctant to kill the beloved national symbol around Canberra in the past 20 years because of public outcry.

It's not a pleasant solution, but one that obviously has to be done. Not only are they wiping out endangered plants, insects and reptiles, but soon they themselves will be starving to death because they will have stripped the land of food to sustain themselves. It makes sense, as unpleasant as it may be, to keep the population at a manageable level. I know that it's done with deer in many parts of this country, and it always meets with opposition, but I would rather see them culled, then starve. :(

So long as it is being done humanely and that the animal can be used in some fassion (feeding people ect) I can't see an alternative to population control. Im not sure I agree with the animals being used only for combat traning though...something about that seems grousome to me.

It may be the most humane thing to do unfortunately. Otherwise, they could starve. I hear kangaroo meat is actually good. I wonder what they will do with the meat.

We have culling of Deer in my favorite place Oak Mountain State Park. This is a 10,000 acre park that is land locked by suburban development. The Deer are starting to dwarf from lack of proper nutrition. The under forest browse plants are almost nonexistent. This forest is over mature so this adds to the problem. We have protest over the deer culling and the limited tree cutting done to increase browse. Tree hugging in this case is counterproductive.

Sad, but necessary.

Is there a link to where I can get 10 pounds of Kangaroo steaks shipped?

Too bad they can't do a TNR type thing with them.