Category Archives: commercial kangaroo industry

Put a stop to Australia pushing kangaroos into extinction for profit

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author: Graham Atherton-Ryan is one of our members in the UK.
target: Greg Hunt Australian Environment Minister

Greg Hunt has recently shown he is in full defence of a sick barbaric kangaroo killing industry that exists in Australia. Other members of parliament see them as an artificial plague on the landscape !!

2010 population estimates put the numbers of kangaroos in Australia at just over 25 million; down by over 32 million on the 2001 figure of 57.4 million. What is the benchmark for “plague” and normal kangaroo populations? Historic records report numerous macropods across Australia, as native animals. Six species of macropod are already EXTINCT and a number of species listed as ENDANGERED OR THREATENED They are not immune from droughts, disasters, loss of habitats, and human hunting! In Queensland alone kangaroo populations have crashed by 50% in the last year alone.

A former kangaroo shooter reveals the inherent cruelty of this industry. “The mouth of a kangaroo can be blown off and the kangaroo can escape to die of shock and starvation. Forearms can be blown off, as can ears, eyes and noses. Stomachs can be hit expelling the contents with the kangaroo still alive. Backbones can be pulverized to an unrecognisable state etc. Hind legs can be shattered with the kangaroo desperately trying to get away on the other or without the use of either….”

Kangaroos are wildlife, and they can’t be farmed or handled like livestock! It means the horrendous disposal of in-pouch and at-foot joeys. Official numbers for the kill do not include the baby kangaroos that also die as a result, the worthless ‘waste’ of the industry.

Unlike livestock, kangaroos grow and mature slowly, produce only a few kilograms of human edible meat, and take up to 12 years to grow to maximum size.

The Australian Government have high hopes the free trade agreement with China could open up a lucrative market for “roo and kanga bangers”. They obviously think that there is an unlimited and inexhaustible supply of kangaroo meat, and that these animals can breed endlessly to meet the demands of the world, once they acquire a taste for their meat!

To help stop this barbaric and cruel industry please sign this petition so that the Australian Wildlife Protection Council can pressure people like environment minister Greg Hunt into ending this senseless slaughter. Australia is the only country in the world to slaughter wildlife on a commercial basis , it has been going on for many years and now it is time it STOPPED . Help us help the kangaroo today !!!!!!! less

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Roos in CrossHair – shooting zones being depleted

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‘ROOS IN CROSSHAIR’ written by Helen Bergen

Politicians and public servants shouldn’t be allowed to make decisions about things they know nothing about.

Kangaroos are actually in trouble in the commercial shooting states, with the published “estimates” hyper-inflated extrapolations of counted kangaroos in remnant habitat (native cover) over landscapes where government survey raw counts are zero. For example in the western NSW shooting zones Grey kangaroos had declined from 46% absence to 69% absence, and Reds declined from 49 to 56% absence. This is recorded by the NSW Government’s own actual survey count data received under Freedom of Information applications. The “estimates” (not the counts) bear no resemblance whatsoever to what is happening on the ground.

The reason the industry has worked so hard to open up Victoria is because they are running out of kangaroos in the older commercial shooting zones – with zones in each of the commercial shooting states closed down to shooting regularly because not enough kangaroos have been counted.

The fact that the “take” (numbers of shot kangaroos) is less than 20% – 15% at the most, often less than 10% – of the quota in all existing shooting zones should wave a very red flag and invite more critical examination than anyone bothers to apply generally. This is because the quotas are impossible – being hyper-inflated targets for shooting extracted from the hyper-inflated “estimates”.

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Victoria originally banned commercial shooting of kangaroos back in the late ’70s/’early 80s because it was recognised that these slow-growing, low-reproducing animals were being shot beyond their reproductive capacity and were in serious trouble. The Australian government then even banned the export of shot kangaroos, and the US government listed them as threatened with the Australian government’s support. Ironically this just made the industry get highly organised and strategised.

It has taken decades for the industry to finally access shooting this native wildlife in Victoria.

Australians really need to learn about our iconic species – I think Darwin was correct in the 1830s when he forecast that the kangaroos’ doom was surely fixed after noting their disappearance from the settlements, the destruction of their habitat (85% of Australia’s open woodland EGK habitat has been cleared) and the devastating effect of men on horses with guns and the English kangaroo hunting dogs – which were efficient kangaroo killers compared to dingoes that like wolves, were not indiscriminate killers of all kangaroos.

What is the story with Australians’ attitudes to kangaroos?

There’s a very strange uneducated disregard by all sectors of the community about kangaroos. I believe that with the opening up of Victoria to commercial shooting, and the juggernaut that is the KIAA/Australian government effort in growing markets – especially in Asia – that my children will see the complete collapse of wild kangaroo populations. And no-one is even noticing it’s happening – with undeserved belief that the survey and extrapolation methodologies to arrive at the kangaroo population ‘estimates’ stand up to scientific scrutiny. They don’t.

Learn something: www.kangaroosatrisk.net

www.kangaroosatrisk.org

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The commercial kangaroo industry’s inherent cruelty

Improving the humaneness of commercial kangaroo harvesting 2014

Download at https://rirdc.infoservices.com.au/items/13-116

The above research shows that the public believe commercial harvesting is an acceptable form of kangaroo management, as long as it is done by professional and skilled shooters, and the carcases are used rather than wasted. The suffering of kangaroos must also be minimised, and the most humane methods used.

peter lik_Joey
This noble sentiment, and lofty aim, is to “improve” the image of the commercial kangaroo industry, the biggest terrestrial wildlife industry in the world. It’s a recognition that the public are concerned about the welfare of kangaroos, especially that of their young.

The authors of a survey of kangaroo harvesters in 1986 stated that “…different shooters are making varied and ill-founded assumptions about the biology and reproductive characteristics of does and the likely survival prospects of orphaned joeys.”

“Harvesting” or shooting at family mobs of kangaroos inevitably means killing and maiming the young, and must be disposed of as the industry’s collateral damage. The young have no commercial value, and must be “humanely” disposed of! At least the authors recognise that the kangaroo meat and skin industry is flawed, and that the public image must be revamped. this research is a recognition that the industry isn’t as “humane” as they promote themselves to be. However, you can’t put lipstick on a pig, and make it glamourous and “humane”, as if the killing was inevitable? It’s damage control, to allow the industry to continue with a “better” public image!

A high number of dependent young are impacted by the killing, approximately 300,000 young at foot and 841,000 pouch young per year (for an average yearly kill consisting of 40% females) . Young at foot have little chance of surviving on their own and it is unlikely that they are killed humanely.

This research is to recommend that kangaroo harvesters need to make a greater effort to locate and euthanase orphaned young-at-foot. Failure to do so will have significant animal welfare implications.

This research supports the methods currently used for euthanasing in-pouch joeys, when done correctly, can lead to a quick and humane death. Harvesters need be trained in the best practice application of these methods.

There is no way to judge that kangaroo harvestors make a “significant effort to locate euthanase orphaned young-at-foot joeys”. The industry is self-regulating, and the killing occurs in remote areas, far from RSPCA or public scrutiny.

The Code states that young-at-foot should be euthanased with a single shot to the brain or heart using a firearm. This is also seen as problematic since dependent young that are out of the pouch when their mother is shot may not be seen by the shooter or they may flee before the shooter can deliver an accurate shot.

Of the 24 young-at-foot that were observed, only one was euthanased by a shot to the head, in accordance with the Code. Another suspect young-at-foot was shot at twice but
both shots missed and the animal escaped. During their observations only one young-at-foot that was euthanased with a single shot to the head. The euthanasia of another stationary young-at-foot was attempted by firing two shots but both missed.

The word “euthanise” is used, something that we associate with animal welfare, of releasing sick and injured animals from long and lingering suffering, when they can’t be cured or treated. This “euthanising” is about using less emotive language for what’s really for commercial profits, of coldly disposing of healthy, young in the pouch joeys, and joeys at foot. This isn’t about “animal welfare”, but brutal killing!

In this project, the researchers examined two key issues;

  • -evaluation of the humaneness of current methods of euthanasia of pouch-young,

    • and
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  • determining the fate of orphaned young-at-foot that escape euthanasia.

Eastern and western grey kangaroo young spend at least 12 months in the pouch and around six months as a young-at-foot, before being weaned. Over two-thirds of females will have a joey at some stage of development in the pouch and one in five will have a young-at-foot.

Also, following a recommendation from RSPCA Australia, they trialled the use of a captive-bolt device to determine if further improvements to the welfare of euthanased dependent- young can be achieved.

Current methods of killing joeys

For unfurred pouch young, decapitation (with or without cervical dislocation) and blunt trauma to the head are unlikely to cause suffering. They are small and vulnerable enough to quickly dispatch!

With partially furred and fully furred in-pouch joeys, the most suitable method that is currently available is blunt trauma to the head. Blunt trauma to the head is also recommended for joeys at the in/out stage of development that are in the pouch when the mother is shot, or can easily be caught by the harvester.

Blunt trauma to the head can’t be measured, or supervised, in remote areas of the outback, in the sticky heat, the dust and darkness! How accurate are these “blunt traumas” to the head? This brutality is being aimed at our national, iconic and symbolic native animals, not pest cane toads or other feral pest species!

These results indicate that bringing the head into contact with a stationary object, such as the tray of the shooters vehicle, is the most effective method available. Young-at-foot are very mobile and gunshot is the most suitable method for the euthanasia.

So, these young-at-foot foot joeys are very mobile, probably already stressed and traumatized by noise, the loss of their mothers, and being confronted by human predators with firearms! How can they be caught, and constrained, to “bang on the head” with the tray of the shooter’s vehicle? How many times must the joey’s head be in “contact” with the stationary object to “humanely” kill it?

A standard operating procedure that describes in detail how the methods should be applied would reduce or even prevent some of the negative welfare impacts.

An alternative method such as a captive-bolt gun. To date, there have been no studies that explore the use of a captive-bolt gun for the stunning or euthanasia of kangaroos. If a captive-bolt gun is effective in causing rapid insensibility in kangaroo young, it may also have another advantage of eliminating the short but intense period of stress for joeys caused by removing sentient young from the pouch.

The device is propelled by a spring mechanism and developed for use on rabbit-sized animals— is “effective and practical” for stunning in-pouch joeys during harvesting. They don’t have to be removed from the pouch, but dispatched inside the dead mother!

Based on the results of our preliminary trials of the Dick KTBG spring-operated, penetrating captive- bolt gun on in-pouch kangaroo cadaver heads and live animals, at this time we do not recommend the use of this device for stunning or euthanasia of these animals during harvesting. Despite appearing to cause adequate damage to the brain when trialled on cadaver heads, an unacceptable proportion of animals were not successfully stunned with a single shot when this device was used on live animals.

Not surprising that the joeys weren’t successfully stunned with a single shot- they are so small, tiny in fact, and not seen!

Separation of young-at-foot from their mother The hypothesis that young-at-foot will become moribund (and may die) within three days of separation was rejected. None of the young-at-foot became moribund within three days of being separated from their mother, and all survived for at least ten days (when the experimental treatment was concluded).

So, the industry assumed that the young-at-foot joeys would be moribund, or dead, within (only) three days – when in actual fact they survived for at least 10 days without maternal support, and protection! They died horribly, coldly, lonely deaths, from thirst, starvation and predation! This revelation is an outstanding admission of cruelty, and barbarity. No livestock are allowed to die over days, slowly! This fact undermines any association of the word “humane” with the kangaroo industry!

We observed an increase in risky behaviours by separated young-at-foot, such as an increase in the number of vocalisations, which may alert predators.

These vocalisation are about calling their mothers, which of course would alert predators.

Separated young-at-foot were more frequently the recipients of aggressive acts from others after separation. In particular, adult females would act aggressively in response to an approach by a young-at-foot that was not her own.

There’s laws of the jungle out there, and it’s a vain hope that a mother kangaroo can adopt another’s joey! Limited maternal resources and protection of their own genes determine this.

However, not all approaches to adult females resulted in aggression toward the separated young-at-foot. On two separate occasions, the researchers observed two separated joeys with their head in the pouch of another female.

So, there is some adoptions of orpaned joeys! This shows the strong bonds between members of the mob.

Harvesters with a more favourable attitude towards euthanasing young-at-foot, and who feel more social pressure to do so, are more likely to intend to euthanase young-at-foot. So, the euthania is not mandatory, but let to individual shooters. Older harvesters also had a more positive attitude toward euthanasing young-at-foot compared with younger harvesters.

No Shooter will ever allow himself to be filmed killing joeys.

Harvesters …strongly believe that a negative consequence of euthanasia is that they take
away the joeys “chance at life”, especially when they appear to be old enough to survive by themselves.

The RSPCA found that even if young at foot are captured by shooters, there is difficulty in killing them. The Code provides that any dependent young must be shot as soon as possible, yet it is clear that many joeys endure death, pain and suffering each year as collateral of the kangaroo industry.
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Because of their size, at-foot joeys are assumed to be old enough to care for themselves and survive, but this is not the case. Ex-pouch joeys are still reliant on their mother s milk for protein, warmth in the cold winter s nights, protection from predators, and they are dependent on their mothers for psychic support. They spend time in and out of the pouch and when their mothers are killed, they are left to fend for themselves.

Lethal injections
THINKK
The NSW Young Lawyers Animal Law Committee has proposed that all of the current prescribed methods for killing joeys be replaced with the following requirement:
Shooters must administer lethal injection to pouch young and young at foot whose mothers have been killed. After administering the injection the shooter must be certain that the animal is dead … The shooter must not dispose of the dead pouch joey or young at foot in any manner other than: incineration by fire so that the entire carcass is destroyed or burying the carcass so that the top of the carcass is at least 30cm underground.

Administering such lethal injections would require a specific skill set on the part of the shooters to ensure that these injections are safe. If the procedure is poorly performed, the joeys may experience great pain and suffering. It hardly seems practical or safe for shooters to be supplied with large amounts of lethal poisons for use in remote locations with little or no supervision.

Kangaroos have not been shown to be overabundant in the landscape level and for this reason the aims of three state management programs (excluding WA) have been revised from culling to resource management.

The existing data from RSPCA Australia’s field data and Animal Liberation NSW’s chiller data suggests that many kangaroos are not brain shot per the mandated welfare standard in the Code. Finally the impact of the commercial harvest on the kangaroos’ social systems and genetic integrity has not been adequately assessed.

Do the ends justify the means? THINKK July 2011 final

Conclusion

The results also indicate that the majority of the general public do not like blunt trauma to the head as a method for euthanasing dependent young. However, there is clear evidence that blunt trauma to the head is a humane method of euthanasia for neonates with thin skulls and is currently the best method available for killing furred pouch-young. The jury is out for at-foot joeys!

Researcher Details
Steven R. McLeod
NSW Department of Primary Industries Centre of Ecosystem Science, School of Biological,

Trudy M. Sharp
Orange Agricultural Institute Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New
1447 Forest Road South Wales
Orange NSW 2800 Kensington NSW 2052

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Victoria’s trial of kangaroo meat – more kangaroos to be slaughtered due to liberal distribution of killing (“control”) permits

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Environment Minister Lisa Neville said there is no link between the number of permits issued and the number of kangaroos processed for pet food? 

Each year, DELWP authorizes the “control” (killing) of kangaroos to reduce damage to landowners.  They claim that all practical, non-lethal control options must be exhausted before authorizing the killing of the animals.

Despite this supposedly exhaustive policy, the number of Eastern Grey kangaroos allowed to be killed in Victoria has more than doubled in the two years the government has permitted the commercial processing of kangaroo meat! Once any form of native animal management becomes a commercial venture, there will be more kangaroos to lethally “manage”.   It’s a self-fulfilling prophesy.

These control permits have no requirement for shooting-skills testing for landholders, nor routine monitoring.  Amateur, or infrequent shooters, are likely to cause tremendous injuries, and suffering, rather than clean, instant killings.

Despite “very, very, strict conditions” of this trial, nobody knows how many kangaroos there are in Victoria, so an expanding pet food trade is assuming inexhaustible supplies of meat!

“I do not accept that kangaroos destroy crops, compete for pasture and destroy the environment; AWPC will prove that it is more financially viable to protect kangaroos, the environment and other species.

“It is very easy to make wild assumptions and put it forward as a fact. I do not accept that kangaroos destroy crops, compete for pasture and destroy the environment. I hear and see these claims all the time, however I never see any evidence (scientific or financial) to prove these claims.

“It is my belief that our wildlife and their habitat bears the brunt of very poor land management practices. Unfortunately it would seem if you have enough money, there is always a way to destroy habitat and wildlife, more commonly known as ATCW permits and Native Vegetation Offsets.”

Craig Thomson – AWPC Planning Officer

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(image: In 1998, Viva!’s director Juliet Gellatley visited Australia and created a storm of controversy - doing about 50 media interviews and a press conference at Canberra’s Houses of Parliament - filmed live on national and regional TV news.  http://www.savethekangaroo.com/campaign-history)

There are glaring conflicts of interests, in DELWP being the protector of wildlife, administers of the Wildlife Act, and at the same time distributing landholders Authority to Control (“cull”) Wildlife (ATCW) to destroy them. The reason given for giving out ATCWs is because landholders claim that kangaroos can “destroy crops” and cause “economic hardship”.

With commercial interests involved, and the seemingly “pest”-control basis of the ATCWs, more of them are likely to be requested and issued – based on industry and monetary gain from the pet food industry! It then becomes an introduction of a commercial kangaroo meat industry for Victoria, by stealth, something that was denounced by previous governments, and the CSIRO, back in the early 1980s as being unsustainable – due to insufficient animals, and intensive farming.

There is a lack of transparency, and a Review process with stakeholders, to question the validity and thoroughness of the issuing process

How frequently and regularly do site inspectors actually, and exhaustively, advise landholders of alternative measure to avoid lethal controls?

Without wildlife corridors, just how much land is safe, connected and reserved for wildlife, even “common” animals such as kangaroos, numbers can decline – and there are many cases of once common animals becoming extinct?

The Victorian fires in 2008, and since, has claimed the lives of huge numbers of wildlife.

Tragically, thousands of kangaroos and other wildlife are killed or injured in road accidents each year. Kangaroos feed in the early morning and late afternoon at dusk and are often hit when crossing from one part of a grazing area to another on the opposite side of the road. In the years ended 30 June 2015 and 2014 Wildlife Victoria recorded over 6,000 animals hit by vehicles in the state of Victoria with the two preceding years recording 4,655 and 3,801 respectively.

Minister Peter Walsh said that he “did not expect the processing of Victorian kangaroos to lead to any more kangaroos being killed in Victoria, but once there’s monetary gain from the carcasses, there’s no limit to how many landholders will see kangaroos as agricultural “pests” – and have them lethally “managed”.

(The Age, March 19, 2014)

 

The number of Eastern Grey kangaroos allowed to be killed in Victoria has more than doubled in the two years the government has permitted the commercial processing of kangaroo meat. (The Age, March 10, 2016) We suggest that this increase is no accident, but motivated by the $1.4 million pet food trade.

Without knowing just how many kangaroos in Victoria at any time, and assuming fluctuations due to climatic conditions, it remains a subjective and arbitrary assessment to what level of killings is sustainable.

With declining numbers of kangaroos in NSW, their interests are in extending the industry to Victoria.

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What statistics is this Government basing their figures and their assumption that Victoria is able to sustain the slaughter of up to 70,000 kangaroos each year? Prior to this trial it was accepted that the annual number of Kangaroos shot under permit was around 30,000, but there has never been a comprehensive count of kangaroos in Victoria because the terrain makes it too difficult.

Councils can see an opportunity to add to their coffers, and thus support a “cull”.

Applicants for a ATCW do not pay a fee. The cost falls onto Victorian tax payers. If landholders were required to pay for their permits and numbers issued would be drastically reduced.

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Victorian kangaroo pet food trial – to be broadened

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More than 23,900 kangaroo carcasses have been processed for pet food in Victoria, under the trial so far, which started in 2014. The government recently decided to extend the trial for another two years.

The trial operates in 12 council areas, but councillors and farmers from other regions have urged the government to do more to address kangaroo numbers, citing the negative impact they are having on farms and the dangers they pose to motorists.

Now, the trail will include Bendigo and the Glenelg Shires, where it is believed that kangaroo populations have increased.

Reports from the City of Greater Bendigo indicate that hundreds of kangaroos are killed each year in that municipality after being struck by cars.

However, human population growth is being ignored in the strategy, and assessment!  The City of Greater Bendigo population forecast for 2016 is 112,853, and is forecast to grow to 156,151 by 2036.  This will bring more habitat loss to native animals, more traffic on roads, and more collisions.

Environment Minister Lisa Neville said the trial had not led to more kangaroos being destroyed.

“This doesn’t result in more kangaroos being culled, what it does is result in better management of the carcasses to reduce that waste and vermin,” she said.  So, they carcasses are just “wastage” and need to be commercially utilized, as an alternative to actually mitigating the problem!

Most of the kangaroos that are shot are on agricultural land.  Farmers are intolerant about sharing pasture.

It’s a de-facto commercial kangaroo meat industry in Victoria, something that was rejected decades ago as being unsustainable, and ethically questionable.

An early 1980s C.S.I.R.O. study questioned the whole basis of kangaroo management and commercialization in Victoria, and the principle of issuing agricultural wildlife destruction permits under the Wildlife Act 1975.  A “National kangaroo Management Program” working group met in 1981, and it was determined that Victoria could not meet most of the requirements of the Plan, and that commercial shooting should cease.

Our government does not know how many kangaroos there are, and extinction is a process, not an event.  Instead of mitigating the problem, our native animals are vilified as “pests”, only valuable as meat!

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Letter in The Age, 27th February, 2016

 

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Environment Minister Lisa Neville’s comment that kangaroos in Victoria are being killed “humanely” and under “strict conditions” (The Age, 25/2) is misleading. When mother kangaroos are shot, their joeys are killed or left to starve or die from predation. Many kangaroos are shot and do not die immediately, suffering internal injuries and having body parts blown off.

More than a decade ago, the CSIRO conducted a study into the viability of commercially killing kangaroos in Victoria and found there were not enough to sustain an industry. Victoria has even fewer kangaroos now.

Australia wide, up to 5million kangaroos are allowed to be shot every year – the largest slaughter of land-based wildlife in the world. If current rates continue, the icon of Australia faces extinction.

 

Anne Skelly,

 

Australian Wildlife Protection Council

AWPC President, Maryland Wilson, says that numbers are no guarantee against extinction; look at the carrier pigeon in the USA.   Victoria has never had a commercial ‘roo industry because it does not have enough kangaroos to sustain one. They are universally loved, making them exceptional.                                                                                                                               Lisa Neville’s DNRE does not know how many kangaroos there are in Victoria, but it is her job to protect this ‘protected’ species!

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Victory for vegan campaigners as Iceland dumps kangaroo meat

After receiving criticism from animal welfare charity Viva! and pressure from consumers, British supermarket giant, Iceland have announced they have stopped selling kangaroo meat. Viva!’s long running consumer campaign included a funeral procession for wildlife inside an Iceland store and a nationwide Day of Action, demanding they stop selling kangaroo meat.

• Kangaroos are brutally killed in the outback for international meat trade
• Baby joeys ripped from mother’s pouch and clubbed to death
• Health risks associated with consuming kangaroo meat

Iceland had stocked kangaroo meat, marketing it to consumers as a ‘low fat exotic meat’. However, what they failed to mention is that the kangaroo meat industry is one of the most brutal and violent in the world. It is sold as ‘just a bit of fun’, but don’t be fooled. It is the product of suffering and blood-shed on an enormous scale. Millions are shot every year at night in Australia’s vast outback. Mesmerised by powerful search lights, the animals are supposedly shot in the head but many are mis-shot and die a slow, agonising death.

Experts from both the UK and Australia have expressed their concerns about the health implications of consuming kangaroo meat and warned than it ‘could be riddled with pathogens’. Five years ago, independent testing had found dangerously high levels of Salmonella and E.coli in kangaroo meat bought from Australian supermarkets. In 2014, dog ‘treats’ made from kangaroo meat were withdrawn because of Salmonella contamination.

In addition to the potential health risks, Viva! warns of serious animal welfare issues surrounding the killing of kangaroos. In the UK it is a common misconception that kangaroos are farmed; when they are in fact completely wild animals. As such, their population can fluctuate massively – and can be especially impacted by factors that can be difficult to predict, such as drought (which is only expected to worsen because of climate change) and disease.

Baby kangaroos (joeys) are pulled from their dying mother’s pouch to be clubbed to death. Still dependent adolescents are shot and dumped or left to die from predation or hunger without the protection of their parents. Popularising and commercialising the meat of wild animals – whose populations are finite and unstable – is deeply irresponsible and potentially disastrous.

Whilst populations can build up in some areas they have plummeted in others. In 2015 alone there was 6.8 million kangaroos earmarked for slaughter. According to the Australian Government’s own figures, since 2001 (compared to 2015) there has been an overall drop of 12,577,598 kangaroos in the areas where they are hunted.

Animal welfare organisation Viva! have campaigned against the sale of kangaroo meat since the late 1990s. Recently they have also successfully stopped major British supermarkets Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s and Tesco from selling the meat. Only Lidl has failed to listen to Viva! and their customer’s concerns about the meat and as a result is the last major supermarket still selling it.

Juliet Gellatley, founder and director of Viva!, explains why Iceland ditching kangaroo meat is an milestone:

“We are delighted that Iceland have taken kangaroo meat off their shelves after listening to Viva! and their customer’s concerns. What was being promoted as a little bit of fun to British consumers hid the brutal reality that the kangaroo trade drives the largest massacre of land based wild animals in the world today. We are committed to supporting Australian wildlife groups to end this repugnant, merciless and thuggish trade.”

Notes to editor

1. Iceland quote was obtained from Keith Hann, Director of Corporate Affairs keith.hann@iceland.co.uk on 30 January 2018 – his full quote was:

“I am happy to confirm that Iceland removed all lines containing kangaroo meat from sale last year, in response to feedback from our customers.”

2. Viva!’s kangaroo campaign website www.savethekangaroo.com
3. Viva!’s previous campaigns against this industry have achieved wide media coverage including: The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Grocer and The Sun.
4. For details of the human health implications of eating kangaroo meat please see Viva!’s updated fact sheet: https://www.savethekangaroo.com/factsheet (it includes details of a brand new kangaroo butchering facility closed down because of health concerns)
5. Viva!’s Day of Action took place in 2015- however the consumer campaign has been ongoing since

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