Australia Continues to Shoot / Kill / Slaughter Kangaroos

Just another writing in the segment “take the easy way out and kill” that we so sadly have to bring to attention monthly.

Article:

Australia to shoot 6,000 kangaroos

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090508/ap_on_re_au_an/as_australia_killing_kangaroos_2

By ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press Writer – Fri May 8, 8:15 am ET

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.

Cruel Australia will Resort to Shooting Kangaroos to Deal with Population Issues

Again, a group taking a very limited view of how to deal with an issue. Going straight to the “let’s kill it away” proposal.

Article:

Kangaroos in the firing line in Australia

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090317/ap_on_re_au_an/as_australia_shooting_kangaroos_3

By ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press Writer Rod Mcguirk, Associated Press Writer – Tue Mar 17, 7:48 am ET
Kangaroos are seen in a field outside of government house in Canberra, Australia AP – Kangaroos are seen in a field outside of government house in Canberra, Australia Oct. 23, 2006. An official …

CANBERRA, Australia – Australia's capital is plagued by too many kangaroos, and the best solution is to shoot them, an official said Tuesday. Horrified conservationists vowed to demonstrate if authorities followed through.

Canberra has among the densest populations of the common eastern gray kangaroo in Australia, and they are regularly seen hopping in parks and other places around the city.

The kangaroo is a national emblem of Australia, but it can also be a nuisance. The animals munching grass and shrubs around Canberra are degrading their own habitats and adding to threats posed to rare insects and lizards.

Kangaroos hopping across streets are a frequent traffic hazard in the city, and they can pose other problems — as one family in the area discovered last week when a confused and panicked kangaroo leapt through a bedroom window and bounded around the house until it was thrust out the front door.

Jon Stanhope, the chief minister of the Australian Capital Territory where Canberra is located, released a draft plan Tuesday describing how his government would reduce numbers the city's kangaroo population by shooting them — a method that has long divided this community of 330,000 people.

The plan does not say how many kangaroos should be killed.

Supporters say the absence of more effective biological controls leaves shooting as the most humane way to control kangaroo numbers.

"There are probably more eastern gray kangaroos in Canberra now than any time in the last 100 years," Stanhope told reporters. "I think we have perhaps tried too hard not to cull."

The population of kangaroos in the area is hard to determine because the animals move frequently, according to the availability of grass and water.

The territory's government has been involved since 1998 in research to develop an oral contraceptive for kangaroos but none is yet effective in the wild.

Stanhope said the research to develop humane alternatives to shooting would be encouraged.

The report ruled out trapping and trucking kangaroos to where they are less abundant because the process was expensive, unproven and illogical given there was no threat to the species' survival.

Pat O'Brien, president of the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia, warned that authorities would be met by protests if they tried to shoot kangaroos.

"The whole thing is a propaganda exercise to try to get public support for killing kangaroos," O'Brien said. Kangaroo number were high, "but there's certainly not too many of them."

The killing of 400 kangaroos out of 600 at an abandoned military site in Canberra last year triggered several heated protests.

Those kangaroos were killed with lethal injections because firearms were judged to be too dangerous at the site, which was within Canberra's city limits.

Recent government surveys said some 17 percent of Canberra drivers had reported colliding with a kangaroo at sometime in the past, though 82 percent of respondents considered it important that wild kangaroos continue to live in the city.

Adidas Uses Kangaroo Skin for Soccer Shoes: As a Result, California Decides that Adidas Cannot Sell Soccer Shoes Made from Slaughtered Kangaroos

Incredible action that hopefully will lead to a national ban. Sick that Adidas uses the skin of slaughtered kangaroos.

Article:

State Supreme Court nixes sales of shoes made with kangaroo hide

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/
2007/07/23/BAGV2R5B795.DTL&tsp=1

Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, July 23, 2007

(07-23) 11:56 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Sportswear giant Adidas cannot sell popular soccer shoes fashioned from kangaroo hide in California despite the company's contention that federal law preempts a state ban on products made from the marsupials, the Supreme Court of California ruled today in a unanimous decision.

The ruling could have a major impact on the state's soccer retailers and players. Australian kangaroo skin, beloved by many players for its softness, has long been used in a variety of higher-priced shoes made by a number of brands -- including Adidas' famous Copa Mundial cleats.

The justices ruled in favor of an animal-rights group, Viva International Voice for Animals, a British nonprofit with its U.S. office in Davis. The group challenged Adidas in 2003, arguing that the California ban was valid because states have the power to enact stronger protections for wildlife than the federal government.

The state prohibited the import and commercial sale of kangaroo products in 1971, a year after banning products made from 23 other animals.

But a San Francisco Superior Court judge and the state Court of Appeal in San Francisco said the law conflicted with federal policy that resumed imports of kangaroo-skin products after Australia implemented a conservation program. The Supreme Court today reversed the appellate decision.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service banned imports of products made from three kangaroo species in 1974 after their population had dwindled in Australia. The agency allowed those imports to resume in 1995. Adidas now sells athletic shoes in California made from the hides of the red kangaroo, the eastern grey kangaroo and the western grey kangaroo.

Animal rights groups remain in a tense battle with soccer teams and retailers over the controversial leather. The California Senate voted in May to legalize the import and sale of kangaroo skins unless a particular species is considered endangered. The bill is now in the Assembly.

The Supreme Court said today that the kangaroo case was analogous to another high-profile court battle pitting Napa vintners against the maker of popular Two Buck Chuck wines. The court in that case said wine bottles labeled with the "Napa" name must be filled primarily with the juice of Napa-grown grapes, as state law mandated. Federal rules had an exception for brands established before 1986.

The case is Viva International vs. Adidas, S140064. The opinion is available at www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions.

Cruel Australia at it Again: Plans Kill of 3,200 Kangaroos

Wow, once again Australia proves that it defaults to killing over any perceived issue it must face. Interesting that it’s in regard to Defense Department property. Connection between mentality…..

Article:

Animal rights activists warn of protests against cull of 3,200 kangaroos in Australia
The Associated Press

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/20/
asia/AS-GEN-Australia-Kangaroo-Cull.php

CANBERRA, Australia: Animal rights activists warned of protests after authorities Wednesday approved the cull of 3,200 kangaroos on the national capital's grassy fringes, saying the animals have become too numerous and risk starvation.

Canberra's administration, the Australian Capital Territory government, announced it would allow the Defense Department to shoot 2,800 kangaroos at one of its properties and use tranquilizer darts to kill another 400 on a second property, where shooting bullets its regarded as too dangerous to the public.

Defense officials said in a statement Wednesday that they would reveal on Thursday if they intend to go ahead with the cull.

The department argues that the 6,500 common eastern gray kangaroos that have overrun the properties at suburban Belconnen and Majura will starve if their numbers are not drastically reduced.

The defense officials and government agree that the kangaroos are also destroying the grassland habitats of endangered species of lizards and an insect.
Today in Asia - Pacific
Japan's universities fighting to attract students
Manchester City accepts bid from Thaksin
U.S. negotiator on surprise visit to North Korea

"We must care for the kangaroos as well as the threatened species of plants and animals, but our priority is to protect the rare and declining species," government official Russell Watkinson said in a statement announcing that the cull had been approved.

Pat O'Brien, president of Wildlife Protection Association of Australia, which has as its patrons the family of the late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, threatened to trespass at the Belconnen site if the Defense Department attempts to dart kangaroos there and then administer lethal injections.

"I'll be the first one over the fence," O'Brien told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Animal Liberation's Canberra spokesman Bernard Brennan predicted others would follow O'Brien in attempting to shield the kangaroos.

"If people feel that strongly, you can't stop them," Brennan said.

A government environmental adviser, Ian Fraser, said darting kangaroos was a last resort because the stress of capture can kill them.

"It's a very undesirable thing to do," Fraser said. "Shooting is much better, but that might not be an option at Belconnen."

Fraser said the most pressing problem was the environmental damage the kangaroos were doing to the grassland through overgrazing.

"This is native temperate grassland which is a critically endangered habitat," Fraser said, adding that there was no evidence yet that kangaroos were starving.