Kangaroo Cull Ignites Protesters

Despite the prevention of a cull of kangaroos six weeks ago by media attention and widespread protests, it inevitably (according to the RSPCA) began on Monday on Commonwealth Defense land.

According to those who are carrying out the killings, they are necessary due to not only an overpopulation at the Belconnen Naval Transmission site near Canberra, but also to the possibility of the kangaroos starving this winter.

More than four times the sustainable level of kangaroos live at the site ““ 600 Eastern Grays. According to a report by ecologists, feeding the kangaroos would not solve the problem because other threatened plants and animals in the area would remain threatened by overgrazing and habitat loss.

When the cull was halted six weeks ago, Defense investigated moving the kangaroos to another site. According to the government, 3.29 million dollars would be necessary to move the 400 kangaroos due to be killed, and this is not an effective use of taxpayers’ money.

Activists, on the other hand, are infuriated and believe that the kangaroos could be moved for only around 750,000 ““ a fraction of the government’s projected cost.

According to Pat O’Brien, the spokesman for the National Kangaroo Protection Coalition, they have had plenty of offers of donations to cover that cost. Some animal rights activists are trying to contact Paul McCartney, who is a member of Viva, another animal rights group who condemned the culling plan, to help save the animals.

The culling has begun, yet activists remain to protest. The killings are being carried out with appropriate guidelines according to Michael Linke of the RSPCA.

Protestors have watched from behind a 3 meter fence as several dozen kangaroos were tranquilized. Bernard Brennan, an activist with the Canberra Kangaroos Coalition as well as spokesman for Animal Liberation ACT said it was “pretty horrific because you can see [the tranquilized kangaroos] fighting to stay conscious.”

Brennan was also shocked to see a country allowing the slaughter of their national symbol. In Brennan’s words, “You don’t see the Americans killing the bald eagle, or the Chinese slaughtering the panda, or New Zealanders butchering the kiwi. We are the only country that kills our national emblem. There’s more respect for our kangaroo overseas than here."