Red Kangaroo

I have been very self absorbed of late in my postings on this blog. This post is about something of concern to me and of which I have passionate opinions...

When I was a kid the Red Kangaroo was plentiful. They were culled because of their numbers for competing with cattle and sheep for grazing resources, they were shot to supply the pet food market and they were shot on mass for sport but still they were plentiful so not at danger of extinction. That was when I was a kid. Today it is a much different picture. Today an industry has developed and expanded with the Australian Governments full support which is blind to the realities of sustainability of the industry it sanctions.

Today the Australian Government promotes this animal, this Australian Icon, as a marketable and supposedly sustainable resource. An industry that hunts the kangaroo for profit. Australia now exports 3 or more million kangaroo skins annually. The government sanctions a quota of over 6 million kills annually. These skins are used for football boots, some are used for golf gloves, baseball mitts and other sports goods.

Unfortunately for kangaroos, the Red Kangaroo, in particular (which is larger and therefore worth more), the gene pool is being diminished to the point of no return. All the large males are targeted as the most valuable leaving the smaller animals to reproduce when conditions oblige. Immature animals "joeys" are killed as worthless. In the 1960's the average age of a Red Kangaroo was 12, today it is 2. Professional roo shooters have virtually cleared the western parts of the state of New South Wales and are now lobbying for access to national parks and reserves to maintain quota numbers.

The national drought has also severely affected kangaroo numbers as the animal naturally restricts it's breeding cycle when climatic/rainfall conditions are adverse. The wild harvest of these animals is NOT sustainable. I see no problem with the industry if they were farmed but they are not and the wild population is being genetically decimated at current levels of slaughter.

"The largest massacre of land animals on the planet takes place in Australia each year. Millions of adult kangaroos are shot for their meat and skins. Millions of orphaned baby joeys, "worthless" to the industry, are shot, stamped on, clubbed over the head or abandoned to die." From the Save the Kangaroo website .

I think the Australian Government does a wonderful job of covering up this disgraceful situation. The resulting industry is reminiscent of the government bounty placed on the Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger (now thought extinct) and it is interesting to note that the government listed that animal as "protected" the same year as the last one died in captivity...