Kangaroo Matters
  • OPEN LETTER
  • 2019 Canberra Statement

AN
oPEN
​lETTER
​ABOUT
​KANGAROOS

AN
OPEN
LETTER
​ABOUT
​KANGAROOS

image: Matt Jarrett, Clover's Run Wildlife Sanctuary
Organisations are joining scientists and academics with their voice of concern about the shooting of kangaroos - the largest commercial slaughter of terrestrial wildlife on the planet.
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OPEN LETTER

WE THE UNDERSIGNED URGE THE PUBLIC, LAWMAKERS & DECISION-MAKERS TO CONSIDER THE CONSERVATION, ANIMAL WELFARE AND HUMAN HEALTH RISKS CAUSED BY THE COMMERCIAL AND NON-COMMERCIAL SHOOTING OF KANGAROOS
We are concerned that claims of health, sustainability and humaneness used to promote continuation and expansion of shooting kangaroos are industry-biased and can be scientifically disproven.
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​We believe that scientific evidence demonstrates that the slaughter of kangaroos, ​the ​largest commercial killing of land-based wildlife on the planet, is putting at high risk kangaroo populations and people’s health, and causes profound suffering to kangaroos and their young.

SPECIFIC AREAS OF CONCERN INCLUDE:​

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  • Loss of habitat, urban development, agricultural practices and continuing industrial-scale slaughter eliminate kangaroos across vast regions where historical records described them as once widespread and abundant. 
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  • Kangaroos grow and breed slowly and have high juvenile mortality. For example, a Grey Kangaroo doe can produce up to 8 independent joeys in her lifetime,[1],[2] with just two likely to survive to independence.[3]
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  • Maximum wild population growth rates average ~10% in optimal conditions,[4] with annual declines of up to 60% during drought recorded.[5],[6],[7] It is biologically impossible for kangaroo populations to increase rapidly.
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  • Shooting quotas of 15-20% or more[8]  of population estimates exceed actual kangaroo population growth rates. 
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  • Analysis shows critically flawed kangaroo survey methodologies systematically inflate population estimates from which commercial shooting quotas are then over-allocated.[9]​
 
  • Consideration of commercial shooting impacts on kangaroo populations has never included millions of kangaroos additionally shot by landowners and illegal shooting. Other major mortality factors are also ignored.
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  • Government survey data and commercial shooting statistics illustrate declining populations and landscapes now significantly depleted of kangaroos.[10]
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  • Shooting occurs away from any scrutiny and in darkness when nonlethal shots are inevitable, often causing horrific injuries.

  • Evidence suggests 4-40%[11],[12] commercially shot animals are not shot directly in the brain but in the neck or body.  This equates to between 65,284-652,839 animals mis-shot in 2015 [for example].[13]

  • Unknown further numbers of mis-shot kangaroos are left to die in the field by commercial and non-commercial shooters.
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  • The national Code of Practice requires shooters to shoot at-foot joeys, and decapitate or “crush the skull and destroy the brain”[14] of pouch young.

  • Research confirms most dependent at-foot joeys are left in the field[15] to suffer exposure, starvation, or predation, and that pouch joeys’ heads are generally swung against vehicles.

  • Joeys killed or left to die are not recorded. Around 8 million dependent joeys are estimated to have died due to commercial shooting in the period 2000-2009.[16] 

  • Over 110,000 joeys died from commercial shooting alone in 2015 based on reported figures. [17] 
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  • ​75% of emerging human pathogens originate in wildlife.[18]

  • Kangaroo is a wild bush meat sold in supermarkets and restaurants. It is not tested[19] for the many human-harming pathogens it harbours.[20]
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  • Wild kangaroos are shot and butchered in the field without supervision.

  • They are transported on unrefrigerated open trucks exposed to dust and flies and frequently high ambient temperatures.
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  • There have been repeated findings of contaminated kangaroo meat over many years.[21] 

  • In 2014 Russia renewed its ban kangaroo meat imports for a third time due to pathogenic contamination.[22],[23]
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  • Acetic acid is routinely used to cleanse the meat of systemic contamination.[24],[25]

SIGNATORIES


Animal Active, Australia
Animal Liberation: Compassion without compromise
Animals Australia - the voice for animals.
Arcohab - Association for Respectful CoHabitation
Australian Society for Kangaroos
Choose Cruelty Free: Not tested on animals
Coalition for the Protection of Kangaroos
Creative Cowboy Films, International. Logo
Food Empowerment Project
For the Love of Wildlife, Australia
Four Paws Australia
Humane Research Australia: ending animal experimentation
Humane Society International, Australia
The Humane Society of the United States. logo
International Fund for Animal Welfare. Australia. logo
Kangaroos at Risk, Australia
The Kerulos Center for nonviolence. USA
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA), Australia
Pro Wildlife, Germany
Kangaroo the Movie by Second Nature Films
Sentient. The Veterinary Institute for Animal Welfare, Australia
Viva! Vegan is a state of mind. United Kingdom.
Voiceless -the animal protection institute, Australia. logo
Wildlife Victoria, rescue, rehabilitation, advocacy and education about wildlife in Victoria Australia
Working for Animals, India & Australia
World Animal Protection, Australia logo
ENDNOTES
[1] Dawson,T (2012) Kangaroos: Biology of the Largest Marsupials Cornell University Press. Ithaca, US Based on Table 6.1
[2] Bilton, A & Croft, D (2004) Lifetime Reproductive Success in a Population of Female Red Kangaroos Macropus Rufus in the Sheep Rangelands of Western New South Wales: Environmental Effects and Population Dynamics Australian Mammalogy 26: 45-60
[3] Arnold GW et al (1991)  Population ecology of western grey kangaroos in a remnant of Wandoo Woodland at Bakers Hill, southern Western Australia  Wildlife Research 18(5) 561-575, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne
[4] Arnold et al op cit. *Arnold’s grey kangaroo population growth rates equate to x7.86% pa over 4 years, and then x8.47% pa over a subsequent 6 years. Red Kangaroos are slightly higher. 
[5] Robertson G (1986) The Mortality of Kangaroos in Drought Australian Wildlife Research 13(3) 349 – 354 
[6] Newsome AE, Stephens DR, Shipway AK (1967) Effect of a long drought on the abundance of Red Kangaroos in central Australia CSIRO Wildlife Rescue 12: 1-8
[7] Caughley, G , Grigg, GG, Smith L. (1985). The effect of drought on kangaroo populations. Journal of Wildlife Management 49: 679-685
[8] State Kangaroo Management Plans: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/wildlife-trade/trading/commercial/management-plans
[9] Cairns, S et al A report to the New South Wales Department of Environment and Climate Change on the consultancy: ‘Kangaroo Monitoring: Hunter and Central Tablelands Commercial Harvest Zones Design and Analysis of Helicopter Survey (2009); Cairns S & Bearup D A report to the NSW OEH on the consultancy: Design and analysis of helicopter Surveys of kangaroo populations in the Central tablelands North & South management zones (2012); See also  transect locations in western NSW, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, and Mjadwesch, R (2013) Letter to NSW Scientific Committee http://bit.ly/KangaroosAtRisk_Mjadwesch2003_NSWSC
[10] Mjadwesch op cit
[11] RSPCA Australia (2002) A Survey of the Extent of Compliance with the Requirements of the Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos http://www.environment.gov.au/node/16659
[12] Ben‐Ami, D et al The welfare ethics of the commercial killing of free-ranging kangaroos: an evaluation of the benefits and costs of the industry (2014). http://bit.ly/2z03uIc  Explanation of methodologies: http://bit.ly/2ByJ4eX
[13] Australian Government Kangaroo and wallaby population, quota and harvest statistics 2015 (2016 not available) http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/wildlife-trade/natives/wild-harvest
[14] Australian Government National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies for Commercial Purposes [and for Non-Commercial Purposes] http://bit.ly/1zEeFT2
[15] McLeod, S and Sharp, T Improving the humaneness of commercial kangaroo harvesting 2014 Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation http://www.agrifutures.com.au/wp-content/uploads/publications/13-116.pdf
[16] Ben-Ami et al op cit
[17] Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy, Population, quota and harvest statistics, 2015. http://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/pages/d3f58a89-4fdf-43ca-8763-bbfd6048c303/files/kangaroo-statistics-new.pdf Joeys calculated using standard constants for fecundity (Dawson 2012) and survivorship (Arnold (1991), Banks (2002) See Mjadwesch 2011  http://www.kangaroosatrisk.net/2-biology--population-ecology.html))
[18] Taylor, LH et al Risk factors for human disease emergence Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Lon B 2001 356 983-989 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11829994_Risk_Factors_for_Human_Disease_Emergence
[19] Community Affairs Senate Committee, Population Health, QoN196 (Senator Rhiannon), Supplementary Budget Estimates 2012-13, 20 Nov 2012, Australian Senate http://bit.ly/2ACunD8 
[20] Ladds, P Pathology of Macropods [ from Pathology of Australian Native Wildlife (Ladds 2009)] Australian Registry of Wildllife Health, Taronga Conservation Society Australia http://bit.ly/2BIXRDX   
[21] Rural, Regional Affairs & Transport Legislation Senate Committee, Department of Agriculture, Exports Division, Q104 (Senator Lee Rhiannon), Supplementary Budget Estimates May 2017, Australian Senate. http://bit.ly/KangaroosAtRisk_EUContamination2013-15
[22] Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitory Surveillance news (25 July 2013) The Rosselkhoznadzor Detained a Kangaroo Meat Consignment of a Questionable Quality http://www.fsvps.ru/fsvps/news/7137.html?_language=en
[23] Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee, Dept of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Exports Division, Q60 (Senator Rhiannon), Additional Budget Estimates Feb 2015, Australian Senate http://www.kangaroosatrisk.org/uploads/1/0/8/3/10831721/2015feb_rhiannon_rrat_exports_contaminationinaust_russia_q60.pdf
[24] Macro Investments (Macro Meats) Letter to shooters (19 May 2012) http://www.kangaroosatrisk.org/uploads/1/0/8/3/10831721/20120819_macroletter_aceticacid.png 
[25] Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee, Dept of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Food Division, Q232 (Senator Heffernan), Supplementary Budget Estimates Oct 2012, Australian Senate http://www.kangaroosatrisk.org/uploads/1/0/8/3/10831721/2012oct_heffernan_rrat_agric_fooddiv_acetic.pdf
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ABOUT

The open letter is a project of the Kangaroo Roundtable, which is a partnership between organisations, scientists, researchers and academics who believe the data, science and research about kangaroos is cause for concern. 

We urge lawmakers, decision-makers, media and the general public to learn about the biology, ecology, behaviour and absence of kangaroos in Australian landscapes. We encourage critique of the deeply held and widely repeated myths about kangaroos. We encourage questioning about the reported status-quo regarding kangaroos. We call for acknowledgement and understanding of the historical, political and commercial interests that have shaped the kangaroo space, and for public access to and robust  examination of the raw data, and the survey and the extrapolation methodologies that make up the Population Estimates on which all public discourse is based.
contact@kangaroomatters.org
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  • OPEN LETTER
  • 2019 Canberra Statement