Author Archives: AWPC

KANGAROO MEAT CAN KILL YOU AND YOUR PETS

There is a big difference between animals slaughtered in an abattoir with an inspector present and a kangaroo shot in the bush among the dust, dirt and blowflies without any supervision. Ante mortem inspection that excludes animals that are showing signs of disease, is carried out by shooters who are more interested in numbers than health issues.

  • The kangaroo meat industry’s failure to adhere to hygiene regulations is placing public health at extreme risk.
  • Dangerous levels of salmonella and E.coli have been found in kangaroo meat on sale at retail outlets and destined for human consumption.
  • The industry is failing to adhere to the Australian standard which determines the conditions under which the animals are harvested, transported and stored.
  • There is no enforcement of these standards.
  • Most of them don’t know what they’re doing.

1. To rid meat of salmonella and other pathogenic bacteria, while cooking, the deep muscle tissues must reach at least 60 o C . But the tradition of serving kangaroo rare to avoid toughness means it is unlikely to reach such a temperature in the deep tissues.

2. As well as poisoning from salmonella and E.coli, diners on kangaroo meat sourced from unhygienic environments, also risk contracting other pathogenic diseases, including toxoplasmosis, which can result in foetal death or birth defects in affected women. e.g. a pregnant woman ate kangaroo meat and contracted toxoplasmosis, which was transmitted to her unborn baby. Her baby was born blind.

3. Until the shooters are required to protect the carcases while being taken to the refrigerated storage units there will always be contamination from contaminated dust.

4. The time taken in summer temperatures after the first kangaroo is placed on the outside of the truck until it reaches the refrigerated unit must cause the temperature to be in the extreme danger zone for multiplication of all pathogens. This can only be prevented by shooters carrying the carcases in refrigerated properly constructed units.

In May 2010 their Sydney office was raided by NSW & Queensland police after accusations by the industry that activists had broken into chillers in northern NSW and southern Queensland and contaminated carcasses. Animal Liberation’s spokesman, Mark Pearson, denied the allegations and said all the chillers accessed were unlocked at the time the samples and video evidence were taken. Police said their investigations were continuing and no charges had been laid over twelve months later.

The video footage showed paws and necks touching dirty floors stained with old blood, and fresh blood, kangaroo carcasses crammed so close together that it would be impossible for cool air to circulate adequately. It is essential that kangaroo carcasses in chillers have adequate space to allow the cold air to make contact with the whole carcass that still has not had the skin removed.

Shipping containers are not suitable for refrigerated storage units.
The videos also showed that a kangaroo shooter had blowflies and other insects in the spotlight and there were carcasses hanging on the back of his truck while driving along dusty dirt roads. The dust on the roads contains decomposing vegetable matter, dried faeces of farm animals and kangaroos as well as the dried blood of kangaroos from previous shootings carried on the trucks. The dust must be responsible for the high microbiological numbers.

The kangaroo industry has always claimed that kangaroo meat is the most healthy of meat because ot the low fat content. Recent reports challenge this claim. See (www.australiansocietyforkangaroos.com/not_so_green.html) and the following quote:
“ Executive chairman of Obesity Australia and Professor of Medicine at Monash University John Funder said given that kangaroos had more L-carnitine per gram than any other red meat, consumers should be wary of excessive consumption”. He said companies selling the meat may also have to reconsider how they market it, given that it is widely perceived to be healthier than other red meats.

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(“Kangaroo steaks on sale” by Maksym Kozlenko – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org)

KANGAROO PET MEAT
In 2009 dogs and cats were reported to be suffering from thiamine deficiency. The Author and Richard Malik,of Post Graduate Foundation in Veterinary Science, the University of Sydney investigated these cases and wrote an article tiled: Thiamine Deficiency Due to Sulphur Dioxide Preservative in “Pet Meat” – A Case of Déjà Vu.

Firstly, we should advise consumers not to be seduced by the claims on the packaging. Most owners of companion animals wish to do the best they can for their pets. They are told that the contents of ‘pet mince’ and ‘food rolls’ are nutritious and provide the best quality meat for the animals. Furthermore, they are often cheaper than fresh meat fit for human consumption, more convenient to buy and sometimes do not require refrigeration. Owners should be informed that because there is no legal requirement to state the presence preservatives in these foods, their presence is not invariably advertised on the label.

Secondly, we should explain that the use of preservatives does not prevent spoilage or putrefaction, but that rather it only masks the most revealing signs viz. the unsavoury odour and brown discolouration of the meat.

Thirdly, we should draw pet owners’ attention to the fact that ‘pet meat’ has not necessarily been subjected to the stringent meat inspection and processing assessment that occurs for meat designated for human consumption.

by Des Sibraa, a former NSW Meat Inspector who has seen it all first hand.

Reference:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16035179
by R Malik – ‎2005 – ‎Cited by 8 – ‎Related articles
Aust Vet J. 2005 Jul;83(7):408-11. Thiamine deficiency due to sulphur dioxide preservative in ‘pet meat’–a case of déjà vu. Malik R(1), Sibraa D.

 

Featured image: “Kangaroo Meat” by Eric in SF – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kangaroo_Meat.jpg#/media/File:Kangaroo_Meat.jpg

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Kangaroos are essential land managers – naturalist Bob McDonald

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Kangaroos and their Kin as Essential Land Managers, Fire Fuel Reducers and Preservers of Water Quality

Bob McDonald.

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Australia was ‘settled’ with a European academic and nobleman’s dream of cultivating ‘wastelands’. Kangaroos were, and still are, mistakenly seen as ‘the stock’ of Aboriginal people – the key to their diet. The evidence from their eating places and stories shows the opposite is the fact.
Believed to be a hindrance to cultivation and competition for ‘sheep and cattle’ they are blamed for farming’s failures. This belief is perpetuated by government and ‘agricultural’ scientists.
To those who know kangaroo’s, wallabies and their kin each species have different social structures, make different noises and do different remarkable things – for which they are loved and cherished. To us the shooting and wanton killing of kangaroos is as abhorrent as the love of them intuitive.
But, despite our best efforts – the slaughter continues.

Now, to end this needless slaughter, we will reveal he role of kangaroos as essential land managers – to inform or, when necessary, dispute bad colonial science, to educate the public, farmers and the government.

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We will reveal the essential role of kangaroos and their kin, eating the dangerously dry introduced grass species along and beyond fence-lines – the most common source of bush and grassfires. They are efficient graziers with even each kangaroo consuming only as much grass as two rabbits!
Their dry droppings do not contaminate water supplies, creeks, streams and estuaries with toxic bacteria as stock do and their soft feet preserve soils and prevent erosion. Their abundance in time of drought is stupidly seen as competition for stock when it’s a clear sign of how poorly adapted the stock we have introduced are to this southern continent.

Kangaroos have adapted to periods of isolation and climate change with their own methods of population control – unlike people and their ‘feral’ animals. They are extremely efficient using little energy to move and gaining the most from selective grazing. Invariably abundant in drought times which stock can barely survive they are shot in rancid colonial ignorance.

Region by region, place by place, the true story of kangaroos and their kin will be collated from history, the stories indigenous people share, observations and the knowledge of carers and others with special relationships with them. This will inform new science, management and their protection and change the minds of people who have never loved a kangaroo – and give more people reason to for in love with them and bring light to this dark ignorance.

Bob McDonald has worked as a naturalist for over 40 years, with brief breaks working in factories, on farms and fishing boats.

(feature image: Sheila Newman)

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Kangaroos blamed for road kill, and for eating crops

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We’re concerned about farmers’ attitude and lack of compassion for kangaroos; that kangaroos are causing accidents and killing people in car accidents… article published in The Age Nov 15, 2105.

This is victim-blaming. What strategies prevent these accidents? There are few wildlife crossings, no continuous, interlinking wildlife corridors in Victoria, no technology to prevent such accidents.

Kangaroos are not killers, but one of the most peaceful and gentle Australian animals. What kills is traffic, speeding vehicles, lack of warning of wildlife on roads, and the Colonial attitude that humans have the RIGHT OF WAY – and any obstructions must be “culled”!

Senior Sergeant Mark Edwards, officer in charge of the Bendigo highway patrol, told The Sunday Age that a lot of the crashes in the area covered by his team directly involved kangaroos. “Collisions with kangaroos, they are certainly higher than I’ve ever seen before,” he said.

This does not mean there are more kangaroos, in Victoria, but more traffic on our roads! According to DELWP the planned population for Victoria by mid century will be 10 million people, which will mean inherently more traffic, urban sprawl, human impacts and more land needed for food production.

One farmer said he regularly saw kangaroos in large numbers on his property. “This year is the worst in my experience,” said the farmer, who did not wish to be named. The experienced farmer said he was running about 10 per cent less sheep than he would otherwise be able to. This translated to about a 10 per cent reduction in profit, in a year when earnings were already affected by the severe dry conditions, he said.

1 Timothy 5:18 (CEB) The scripture says, “Don’t put a muzzle on an ox while it treads grain, and Workers deserve their pay”. In other words, we can take from Nature, but some sacrifice must be made to maintain fairness, and food for wildlife. 

Just how many kangaroos are there in ‘large numbers’? Kangaroos are endemic to Australia, not feral pests. Australia has the world’s highest rate of mammal extinctions…not something of which we can be proud! In fact we fail to protect our world famous, most recognized symbol.

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We live in a mega-diverse continent, and farmers need to recognise that some of their resources belong to kangaroos and other native animals. We are an ancient land, and need to live off the Interest that Nature bountifully provides, not take away the Capital.

Some land must be provided for native trees, and wildlife corridors, rather than resentfully deny kangaroos a mere 10% of “profits”. Scripture says we must not “muzzle the oxen while it is treading the grain”. Kangaroos are part of our natural heritage, and should be catered for. They help manage grasslands, grazing on excess grass, helping to prevent bushfires. They also add value to soils and are re-generators of native grasses.

Peter Tuohey, president of the Victorian Farmers Federation, said more action needed to be taken to deal with kangaroos. There must be more wildlife corridors, wildlife crossings, over passes, underpasses on roads, respect, compassion, more technologies to prevent this carnage, not just for people but for all animals.

Why aren’t there sensors, to detect motion on the roads, connected to signs warning drivers? Default solution always seems to be to KILL more kangaroos, rather than address the issue non-lethally. The State government does not know how many kangaroos there are in Victoria, and so much habitat has been taken away, and not replaced with offsets and wildlife corridors!

‘Farmers call for more action to be taken against kangaroos’ Nov 15, 2015 by Darren Gray

We are asking the  Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, to provide some compassion for kangaroos, as they were here a long time before us!

Kangaroos are the symbol of Australia, and recognised around the world as such. They should be appreciated rather than constantly victimized and demonised.

We respect our Premier and we ask him to show some balance, innovation and leadership in protecting our roads and keeping them safe for humans, kangaroos and other wildlife.

from AWPC Committee

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Kangaroos must be “culled” for urban sprawl

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A wildlife “consultant” has called for a radical new plan to cull kangaroos along Melbourne’s urban fringe before there is any more housing development.  What’s “radical” about this solution to wildlife?  Due to lack of vision, foresight and planning, it means killing them!

This new “plan” is about caving into the whims of property developers, and the plans of our State government to blow out our urban fringe for more growth-gluttony  and housing.

Thanks to Melbourne’s obesity, urban sprawl keeps stretching out north, causing problems for residents and wildlife. There are more fences, road and houses, causing chaos and causing kangaroos to become trapped in factories, rooftops and school yards.  Their habitat is being impinged upon and eaten away by infrastructure and clogged up, due to human population growth.

Instead of addressing the problem, and implementing any real plans for the city, the waist-line of Melbourne keeps expanding as 100,000 new people per year keep it engorged.

Wildlife Victoria has received about 6,500 emergency calls about kangaroos this year, double the number they received three years ago.

DELWP, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, is meant to administer the Wildlife Act, and enforce the protection of our native species, is also the State government department responsible for Planning! There are massive and blatant conflicts of interests here. 

According to DELWP’s own website, they have control over our population growth!  By 2051, there will be a projected 10 million people in Victoria, a “natural increase” of 1.7 million, and a whopping 2.8 million due to net migration.

Wildlife Victoria spokeswoman Amy Amato said “It’s definitely not an increase in the number of kangaroos in Melbourne….we’re just seeing the number of incidents in human conflict with kangaroos rising.”  In fact, our government does not know how many kangaroos there are in Victoria.

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(image: The True Cost of Sprawl)

Victoria’s Department of Environment has engaged independent wildlife management consultant Ian Temby to review the situation.  His solution is to kill the kangaroos before development goes ahead, arguing kangaroos are being slowly culled by cars anyway!  So, their deaths are inevitable, and shooters don’t kill will be finished off by cars.   Then, the housing industry won’t be hampered by obstructed by native animals.

Author Ian Temby, in the past, recommended learning to live humanely with wildlife.  Known to Wildlife Victoria members as a long time as wildlife advocate with over 30 years in the DSE.

He claimed that “action to resolve conflicts with wildlife does not have to be lethal. Exclusion, repellents, changing human practices and habitat modification are all examples of non-lethal actions”.  And, “rather than killing wildlife, our real challenge is to develop and apply methods of problem resolution that are proactive, anticipating where problems may occur and taking action to prevent them from actually happening”. 

Now, his solution is CULL, CULL, the easy and lazy way of removing the problem.

There are no interconnecting wildlife corridors in Victoria, so whatever “Planning” happens doesn’t include the fate of our native species.

For too long our capitalistic economy has gorged on “growth”, and worshipped the real estate industry, caving into it’s whims for resources.  Already our infrastructure is choked and overloaded, and congestion is impeding productivity.   We are falling into an abyss of infrastructure deficit.

What values are we promoting and what benefits are there from our city’s explosive growth- except for property developers and real estate investors?

The high immigration that was beneficial in the 1950s, and 60s is now causing our cities to be over-crowded and overpopulated. Our governments are addicted to growth, and our economy is on thin ice if it depends on rising house prices and population growth.  It’s admission of being bereft of ideas, innovation, and enlightenment. It’s lazy economics, to just turn up the immigration tap to boost our economy, and expect the public to finance the retro-fitting of our city, endure a crumbling housing market, and all the deprivations of perpetual growth imposed on us!

The lack of innovation and diversity in our economy means that there’s an over-reliance on housing and population growth.  It’s a lethal and self-destructive Ponzi scheme, and will not only have a deadly impact on our wildlife, biodiversity and environment, but eventually cause impoverishment, deprivation, eroded living standards, congestion, and spiralling costs of living for human inhabitants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Koala extinction? Protection is being watered down!

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According to the Australian Koala Foundation, there is currently no legislation, anywhere in the country, that can protect Koalas and Koala habitat in Australia. The listing of the koala as “vulnerable” under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act in 2012 changed nothing. This is supposed to be the premier law for protecting Australia’s environment, yet it is powerless.

The Australian Koala Foundation’s (AKF) research indicates that the Koala is in trouble and that extinctions of local populations have already occurred. In contrast to the millions of Koalas which were thought to be present at the time of European settlement, the AKF believes that there could be less than 80,000 remaining today, possibly as few as 43,000. If this rate of decline continues then yes, the Koala is at risk of extinction.

In 1902 in the state of New South Wales alone 600,000 koala skins were publicly sold. The historian Ellis Troughton has claimed that nearly 2 million koala skins were exported from Australia as recently as 1924. By the late 1920’s the Koala was almost extinct. The situation was so dire that they became extinct in the state of South Australia. There were only a few hundred left in New South Wales and a few thousand in Victoria and Queensland.

The major threats to koalas are listed as

  • Habitat loss
  • Motor vehicle and dog attacks
  • Bush Fires
  • Disease

“We need a national recovery plan that would mean developers have to change their behavior. And yet there’s no sign of it. They’ve got rid of so many people in the department I’m not even sure there’s anyone left who can do it” says Deborah Tabart, chief executive of the Australian Koala Foundation. Unless there’s a plan for a sustainable human population size, and a more diverse economy, then there are few options left for these iconic and world-renown animals!

Habitat loss, motor vehicles and dog attacks, bush fires will all increase with housing and human population growth.

The National Koala Alliance (NKA), which was launched recently, and aims to ensure the national icon survives and thrives for future generations. It is a non-profit network of koala conservation, welfare, advocacy and research groups working in habitat conservation, political lobbying and the protection of individual koalas. Biodiversity legislation is being watered down and koala habitat is being destroyed by coastal peri-urban development and other harmful activities such as industrial-scale logging in the state’s forests, poorly regulated private native forestry and mining, the article says. Corporate power and demands for resources and land, means continually loosening environmental controls, and releasing land for housing developments.

Queensland Koala Crusaders secretary Vanda Grabowski said State Government law dictates all koalas that are not considered reproductively viable are euthanised.

Property developers said back in 2011 that the push to list koalas as endangered will threaten an industry which employs 11 per cent of the state’s workforce. The Property Council of Australia said koalas were adequately protected! Anything in their path gets bulldozed, and with the heavy support of governments, housing always is prioritized over native animals that can go “elsewhere”!.

“At the moment if a koala isn’t considered reproductively viable it is killed, that’s the law,” Ms Grabowski said. In the past 30 years, koala populations on the Sunshine Coast have dramatically declined.

Unfortunately a lot of wildlife corridors are not linked, so koalas can’t move from one to another. This effectively restricts them to one area. The placement of wildlife corridors should be planned so that one links to another to allow free movement of our native wildlife.

The Pacific Highway threatens to bisect koala populations in the north of NSW. Habitat loss for urban development continues on the coastal lowlands. The future looks bleak for koalas. If current declines continue, koalas will be extinct in NSW by 2055.

Property developers have had a boom time, and now it’s time for a sustainable and innovative economic model. The destruction of habitats for the housing boom must end. We need to stop the addiction to “growth”, and it’s destructive bulldozing of koala habitat. We need a sustainable population plan for Australia, not just bulldozer economics!

Stop Driving Koalas towards extinction

Koalas in Australia suffer from a severe chlamydia epidemic. Take action!

Please Save our koalas from extinction – Call in and refuse the ‘Shoreline’ Development Application to Redland City Council – Redland Bay MCU013287

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Please write to him and tell him to “lay the maps on the floor, make a coffee and ingest what you are seeing in this graphic display of science at its best”.

Email: Malcolm.Turnbull.MP@aph.gov.au

Tweet: @TurnbullMalcolm

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Koala habitat being cleared, mined and “developed”, with impotent environmental protection laws

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Almost all the Australians are aware of the Koalas existence and they associate Koalas as one of the most native animals. We consider Koalas to be one of the national symbols of Australia, along with Kangaroos.  They are iconic animals.

The koala is featured in the Dreamtime stories and mythology of indigenous Australians. The Tharawal people believed that the animal helped row the boat that brought them to the continent.  In 2012, the Australian government listed koala populations in Queensland and New South Wales as Vulnerable, because of a 40% population decline in the former and a 33% decline in the latter.  In this light, protection of koala habitats should have been UPGRADED, not loosened!

Now, it seems that koalas in Queensland are simply “green tape” prohibiting the advancement of industries on their land!

The koala’s territory is getting smaller because people are cutting down trees and making farms on them.

A gas company has been given federal approval to clear 54 hectares of critical koala habitat for new coal seam gas wells on Queensland’s Western Downs.

QGC, which is owned by Shell, applied to drill 25 new wells near Dalby as part of project Anya. Four Corners reveals how several leading vets and wildlife organisations say high-rise developments up and down the eastern coastline are culling the koala population.

“While the identified koala habitat values within [the site] is considered to be in good condition, the very low density of koalas combined with large home ranges within a geographically extensive intact remnant, will result in “no significant impact”,” the report read.

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(image: CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29524856)

Wilderness Society Queensland Campaign Manager Gemma Plesman said: “It’s outrageous that the [Malcolm] Turnbull Government would approve clearing more of their habitat when it is a threatened species supposedly protected by Federal law.

“Koala populations in south-east Queensland are feeling the crunch. Their homes are being torn up from urban development, industrial scale agriculture and, as we’re seeing here, mining.”

Ms Tabart Chief Executive of the Koala Foundation said the federal environmental act had failed koalas in Queensland.  Numbers of the iconic animal have been depleted in Queensland in recent years in large part due to lax land clearing laws and little government oversight to protect habitats.  Australia Koala Foundation chief executive Deborah Tabart described koalas in the region of southeast Queensland as “functionally extinct” and said the whole system of wildlife protection was broken.

“The Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act in my view has been a complete waste of time to protect koala habitat,” she said.

“An area of 187 hectares within QGC’s biodiversity property in central Queensland will be set aside to offset any potential loss of habitat.” But Ms Tabart said that was pointless.

“You get up to 70 and 80 per cent mortality once you move animals away from their homes,” she said.  You can’t just “offset” habitat. 

Under pressure from big business Federal, State and Territory governments are moving forward with an aggressive plan to wind back our environmental protection laws. By cutting ‘green tape’, handing important federal approval powers to the states, and fast tracking approvals for large development, federal protection for our most special places and wildlife will be removed, and mining and other destructive development in our forests, woodlands and along our coasts will be accelerated.

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(image: http://www.youyangsregion.org/tourism-region/koala-tourism)

In another attack on our native icons, koalas,a Chinese property developer closely connected to a mayor in southeast Queensland has secured approvals to build a $750 million resort in a koala habitat that the state government has said it will not oppose.  Why are foreigners able to “develop” our land, anyway? Would Australians be building a resort over Panda habitat?

The above approval by Logan council, which is expected to deliver massive windfalls to developer Liansheng Yue after he bought the farmland for $843,000 in 2009, was granted despite 28 of 29 public submissions received by council opposed to the project.  What’s windfall for the developer, is a permanent tragedy our nation, being cleared of native animals.

Koalas are facing death by a thousand cuts, and legislation that protects big businesses and corporations, just obliterating any environmental laws that protect our native animals. Where is our “Environment” Minister, and environmental protection laws? They don’t exist if they can just be over-ridden.

Unless we stop the bulldozers, the koala will go extinct in Queensland.  Extinction is a process, not an event.  Australia’s reputation as being famous for fast-tracked native animal extinctions must end.

 

 

This was sent via email to Dr Steven Miles is the Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection and Minister for National Parks and the Great Barrier Reef.  Steven has a PhD in Political Science and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Journalism from the University of Queensland.  Note: NO environmental, ecological or zoology credentials at all!

 

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