2 June 2011

Skippy slaughter kicks off tomorrow

2 June 2011 | johnboy

Territory And Municipal Services are warning parts of the Canberra Nature Park will be closed as the lights are turned out for hundreds of the overly populous eastern grey kangaroo.

The ACT Government wishes to advise residents that areas within Canberra Nature Park will be closed from 6 pm Friday 3 June 2011 to 6 pm Thursday 30 June 2011.

The sites to be closed are Mulligans Flat Nature Reserve, Goorooyaroo Nature Reserve, Mount Painter Nature Reserve, Callam Brae Nature Reserve, Jerrabomberra West Nature Reserve and Kama Nature Reserve. Unleased territory land adjacent to Kama Nature Reserve will also be closed.

The closures are in the interest of public safety while a kangaroo cull takes place. The purpose of the cull is to reduce the number of kangaroos to environmentally sustainable levels so that the biodiversity characteristics of these important reserves is maintained. The numbers to be culled have been based on kangaroo counts in each location.

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getreal8:19 pm 03 Jun 11

Oh the comical rants of the kangaroo rights movement, how I have missed them. If I could make a couple of points. Firstly the RSPCA supports the cull not because they are part of some giant conspiracy rather have the ability to look at the issue logically and dispassionately. I will come back to the conspiracy shortly. Secondly 75% of everything has E.coli and salmonella in it. It’s the strain of the bug that makes it pathogenic not the bug itself. Kangaroo meat is statistically is clearer than, chicken, beef, pork and lamb. Thirdly what happens in every other states is millions of kangaroos are culled each year for damage mitigation, tourists boycotting the ACT huh. Also there is a big difference between culling an overabundant species and whaling. Fourthly the ACT is surrounded by commercial culling zones, you cannot tell me there is a good reason an animal shot near Majura cannot be processed for meat but an animal shot in Sutton can.

Back to the conspiracy and the ACT Government, conservation groups, RSPCA, scientists and every one else hating kangaroos, why would this be so? Did a kangaroo steal the cars of these people or break into their houses, perhaps kangaroos sold drugs to their children. I know, maybe the wombats are slipping these people brown paper bags to go after kangaroos so there is less competition for grass. Why would all these people focus this hatred on one species but none others?? Maybee these people and groups are right about the impacts of kangaroos and care about other things that may not be cute.

Oh to the red neck who shots roos with his bow. You are as much of the problem as the “greenies”, (who by the way are not greenies – kangaroo rights people only care about cute animals, they could not give a stuff about the environment). There is a standard applied to this activity, stick to it. That is unless you have a reason why you cannot obtain a firearm, I don’t know like some sort of condition.

The_Bulldog1:31 pm 03 Jun 11

qbngeek – I believe we aren’t allowed to be taking ‘roos with a bow, and not for any other purpose than approved culling (with tags, minimum cal .222), or for licenced commerical purposes (again, minimum cal .222). Be careful making broad statements such as you have – and if you are indeed taking ‘roos with your bow on public or private land do some research on it before you next head out. I’m not getting into the rhetoric about wheter we have enough ‘roos to make this sustainable, or the mechanics of how effective a well placed arrow with a good quality broad-head is, but the rules are the rules and if we don’t abide by them we make it harder to participate in our chosen pastimes and attract much unwanted attention from the good folks who don’t understand why we do what we do (and they are predominatly good folks – we just don’t agree on some issues).

Besides – the skill level required to “stalk” a ‘roo is hardly comparable to a deer, and if you need to get the animal hung and butchered for you you’re not really harvesting your own meat – so you’re not really impressing anyone by alluding to your finley honed man-skills.

Watson12:28 pm 03 Jun 11

fgzk said :

qbngeek you have such traditional 1800s values. There was a time in “Canberra” when shooting Kangaroos led to conflict, displacement, starvation and disease. Not so long ago, in the scheme of things.

Woah, you should use those recreational drugs in moderation, man!

Are you insinuating that the colonisation and displacement of the Indigenous community revolved around shooting kangaroos? Or did I just have too much coffee?

fgzk12:04 pm 03 Jun 11

qbngeek you have such traditional 1800s values. There was a time in “Canberra” when shooting Kangaroos led to conflict, displacement, starvation and disease. Not so long ago, in the scheme of things.

monomania11:20 am 03 Jun 11

Chop71 said :

I wish they could use them in a more productive way than dumping them in a big pit. They would make great skippy burgers, sausages, pet food or even blood and bone.

They could get out of work Indonesian abattoir workers to process the carcasses.

Watson11:04 am 03 Jun 11

Mental Health Worker said :

Disgusting. The reasons for this cull change every year. It cannot be justified. It will seriously impact on overseas tourism to Australia (what does Orpah think?). We will continue to lose the moral high ground in the campaign against whaling. It’s cruel. It gives nutcases the impression it’s OK to shoot roos (and whatever else they get in their sights) whenever they want and wherever they want (and they do, in the rural residential areas around the ACT). The pest here is humanity. When the ACT government implements some human population control, rather than encouraging the illusion that is continual “growth”, then they might be credible.

MHW

It only harms tourism because of people like you making it appear that we shoot kangaroos purely for our sadistic pleasure. Stop stealing our tourist dollars!!!

qbngeek10:50 am 03 Jun 11

Joaquin said :

tonkatuff82 said :

Chop71 said :

I wish they could use them in a more productive way than dumping them in a big pit. They would make great skippy burgers, sausages, pet food or even blood and bone.

There are restrictions on where meat comes from if it is to be suitable for human consumption. Even if the government wanted to, due to the nature of the cull they wouldn’t be allowed to do anything else with them. Kangaroo meat sold in shops is under just as many, if not more restrictions and controls than beef.

Have you actually been to any of the locations where the culls are due to commence? If so, you would see there is no over grazing! There is no “starving Kangaroos”.

Did you even read the justifications behind this cull?
Quote from ABC news –
Daniel Iglesias from ACT Parks and Conservation says “The numbers that we’ve calculated this time are based on sitting back and thinking how many kangaroos can these areas sustainably manage so that we can have a healthy population of kangaroos, but also healthy populations of other animals”

So these jerks “sit back and think” …then decide how many Kangaroo’s to shoot. There’s no population count, no assessment of the vegetation. Not even a mention of these so called “other animals” under threat? There is NO need for this cull.

What?! What exactly are these strict restrictions you’re talking about?
Shooters go out and shoot the Kangaroos, they then get their back legs slit and hung upside down in the back of an ute until the shooter is done for the night, then they’re stored in a chiller bin simular to a ship container until sold for meat.
Who knows how long they hang in the back of the unrefrigerated ute?!
I’ve seen many a chiller bin and they are disgusting – they’re always full of old blood and dirt are rarely cleaned out due to their remote locations.
Laboratory testing conducted by Biotech laboratories on 25 kangaroo meat samples taken from Australian supermarkets showed 75% contamination with Salmonella and/or E.coli. Mmmmm Bon Appétit !!

And I will still continue to go out with my bow and hunt my own lovely fresh Kangaroo, deer and rabbit and take it to my lovely butcher who will hang it to age and cut and prep it for me. My kids also love lying on the kangaroo and deer rugs.

The animals I shoot are in huge abundance, I take enough to feed my family and it taste better than anything from a shop. If anyone has property around canberra with an abundance of any of these animals or pigs, I am more than happy to come and take a couple for you.

Kangaroo meat should be more widely used. It is ain huge abundance adn they do less damage to the environment than cows or pigs. If your bleeding heart greenies would pull your headds out of your rear ends you would realise that half of what you preach is rubbish.

fgzk10:30 am 03 Jun 11

Bring on the science. +1

Its a nice day for walking the dog on a reserve……Get spotted, but not found and try not to get shot.

chow10:05 am 03 Jun 11

The setting up of a commercial processing operation should be considered. It would have to be small and like most other food production enterprises in the ACT, boutique. I would suggest going one step further and setting up a Halal kangaroo meat industry here. The export market to Indonesia should be opening up (Kanga makes GREAT Rendang) considering the problems with beef. Kangaroo is also well suited to at least one other iconic islamic dish, as you can read about here: http://the-riotact.com/the-quest-for-the-rooner/46249

The_Bulldog9:41 am 03 Jun 11

Joaquin – you obviously have absolutely no idea what you are talking about in relation to ‘roo culls in general, and what happens to the carcasses.

I have culled ‘roos legally in the ACT and NSW and can attest to the humane approach. As for leaving pouch-young unaccounted for – that’s against the protocols that are in place for professional shooters and private land-holders, and I’ve never seen a shot ‘roo go “unchecked”.

Do I enjoy culling ‘roos? Definately not. Is it something that needs to be done? You bet your sweet bippy it does. Consider, if you will, how much of the land has changed since we white-fullas settled in the region? With more cleared land comes more Kangaroos, however this does not necessarily mean sustainability. As for the people stating that there’s no drought so we can afford to let the population boom – this is just not a considered viewpoint. Should we wait until a grazing shortage before we seek to manage the population? This is far more risky than sustainable management.

I would be very surprised if science had not been applied to the Government consideration of the matter. This would have needed to include discussion with land-holders in the region, head counts and inspection of grazing sites. If this hasn’t occurred, then the Government has left themselves exposed to criticism, and made a pretty poor (arbitrary) decision on a highly emotive subject.

I also agree that a balanced approach to culling in the region could result in a small commerical enterprise that could be profitable – not to mention far more eco-friendly that burying the carcasses whole.

Greg Tarlinton6:06 pm 02 Jun 11

I think you’ll find that this latest round of killing is not science based but being done as an experiment by a scientist employed by the ACT government who seems to think of the ACT’s nature reserve as his own private petri dish.

Over the past few years there has been a number of different justifications for this government ordered shooting.

In 2008 it was because they might starve, nothing to do with the land grab by the ACT government for the new suburb of Lawson.

In 2009 it was firstly to save the kangaroos at Majura from dying of starvation. When that was proven to be false the reasoning changed to save the habitat of the earless dragon at Majura, some of which is now covered with a new servo and a McDonalds and is being regularly mowed to keep the grass down around the enclosure supposed to protect the dragons, exposing any dragon trying to leave the area to predators.

In 2010 it was to prevent damage to the button wrinklewort, perunga grasshopper and golden sun moth as well as the endangered habitat within the nature reserves. Obviously the drought breaking did the job anyway for the reserves as well as the sides of the roads and anywhere else grass grew in the ACT to the point that the glorified local council that the ACT government is couldn’t even manage to mow enough of it to make driving through a roundabout safe.

Now in 2011 the reason is the opposite of what it was. Now there is enough grass around so they need to kill kangaroos in case they don’t die of starvation and might breed and survive.

Taking an objective look at the past few years, it seems that kangaroos in the ACT are not allowed to live the natural “boom and bust” life cycle they have in the past which has worked quite well for them. If they look hungry, they get killed. If they look healthy, they get killed because they might breed properly and then get hungry and need to be killed. It makes for an interesting flowchart, whatever the scenario on the way down, everything leads to the “kill them” box at the bottom.

Kangaroo populations are controlled by food and in a small way by predators. In good times they breed and survive, in bad times they die. There is very little else that controls their populations. This killing is little more than an experiment to see what happens when you kill kangaroos at different times in different conditions. If there is any peer reviewed research to justify the ACT’s “annual culls” I would be very interested to see it. At least in other states, the killing that is done (which I admit I also don’t like) is driven by a purely commercial motive and not as the result of someone using the ACT nature reserves as his own private ant farm. There would be no doubt that this would be endorsed by the RSPCA, why would they bite the hand that feeds them?

Just in case anyone thinks I am a tree hugger/hippie or the like, I’m not. I’ve had to shoot well over 1000 kangaroos in the past 5 or 6 years but obviously not for the ridiculous reasons this current killing is happening for. I’ve also shot foxes, pigs and rabbits. If the ACT government put out a press release saying they planned to kill 3500 foxes in the next month I would applaud them and it would make a much bigger difference to some of the smaller species, particularly ground nesting birds, that they are claiming to be protecting by killing kangaroos.

To top it off, I hit a kangaroo in my car 6 weeks ago, totaling the front of it. I’m not small minded enough to think that what this government are doing would have prevented that, it’s part of living in a region where we still do have some bush and the animals that inhabit it.

I would really appreciate it if the ACT government made public the science driving this latest round of killing, preferable something a bit more substantial than the smug little fact sheet they currently provide.

Joaquin4:39 pm 02 Jun 11

tonkatuff82 said :

Chop71 said :

I wish they could use them in a more productive way than dumping them in a big pit. They would make great skippy burgers, sausages, pet food or even blood and bone.

There are restrictions on where meat comes from if it is to be suitable for human consumption. Even if the government wanted to, due to the nature of the cull they wouldn’t be allowed to do anything else with them. Kangaroo meat sold in shops is under just as many, if not more restrictions and controls than beef.

Have you actually been to any of the locations where the culls are due to commence? If so, you would see there is no over grazing! There is no “starving Kangaroos”.

Did you even read the justifications behind this cull?
Quote from ABC news –
Daniel Iglesias from ACT Parks and Conservation says “The numbers that we’ve calculated this time are based on sitting back and thinking how many kangaroos can these areas sustainably manage so that we can have a healthy population of kangaroos, but also healthy populations of other animals”

So these jerks “sit back and think” …then decide how many Kangaroo’s to shoot. There’s no population count, no assessment of the vegetation. Not even a mention of these so called “other animals” under threat? There is NO need for this cull.

What?! What exactly are these strict restrictions you’re talking about?
Shooters go out and shoot the Kangaroos, they then get their back legs slit and hung upside down in the back of an ute until the shooter is done for the night, then they’re stored in a chiller bin simular to a ship container until sold for meat.
Who knows how long they hang in the back of the unrefrigerated ute?!
I’ve seen many a chiller bin and they are disgusting – they’re always full of old blood and dirt are rarely cleaned out due to their remote locations.
Laboratory testing conducted by Biotech laboratories on 25 kangaroo meat samples taken from Australian supermarkets showed 75% contamination with Salmonella and/or E.coli. Mmmmm Bon Appétit !!

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