extinction-watch

Some claim kangaroo meat is 'green'. Some even claim killing kangaroos is 'better' for Australia's environment. So what if Australian farmers of lamb, beef, pork and chicken transitioned to kangaroo?

To this author it is like employing Ivan Milat to skin platypus for cheap token tourist purses.

Personal bias aside, Australia's Federal Treasury Secretary, Ken Henry, has highlighted the flawed presumptions of Australia's roo trade as unviable.

The following extracts are taken from Sydney Morling Herald's Jacob Saulwick in his article 'Henry doubts viability of roo harvesting' of 13-Mar-10:

The message being sent by the Australian Government in this 21st Century and in this UN International Year of Biodiversity is that killing wildlife and trade in wildlife is in 2010 somehow acceptable. Even Australia’s Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett at the CITES conference this month failed to oppose the continuation of international trade in critically endangered Bluefin Tuna and Polar Bears. Garrett should go back to singing for his supper.

Australia’s many species of macropods (mainly kangaroo and wallabies) used to be prolific. Now according to the World Wildlife Fund, 42 macropod species are listed, or in the process of being listed, on the IUCN red-list of species threatened with extinction. The distribution and abundance of all bettongs has been severely affected since European settlement. Of all 10 types of bettongs four are extinct, three are threatened and three are considered to be at low risk of extinction.

Western Australia’s woylie population has suffered more than a 90 per cent decline and has been re-listed as critically endangered. Of all five types of potoroos, one species is extinct, three are threatened and one subspecies is considered low risk despite suffering a 10-50 per cent decline in population. With 80 per cent of potoroo species extinct or at risk of extinction, this group of macropods has been severely affected.

There was one type of desert rat kangaroo, which is now extinct. Only known from the hottest and driest parts of Central Australia, has not been seen since 1935.

So long as Australia’s Liberal and Labor governments permit wildlife shooting, there will be people out there like Chris that will exploit it. It is time to outlaw wildlife poaching throughout Australia. It is morally wrong and it is driving species extinctions.

CONFESSIONS OF A WILDLIFE SERIAL KILLER

The following responses to questions were made by a self confessed wildlife killer in Dalby Queensland between 27th and 30th March 2010.

1. Killing kangaroos for commercial meat and destroying their remnant habitat is just a hangover from illegal colonist exploitation of Australia. Killing wildlife is poaching.

Roo Killer Response:
“its only poaching if the animal is protected form all licensed shooting - example koalas, wombats platypus.”

2. Killing native wildlife is wrong. Eating it only encourages supply of kangaroo meat, and perpetuate the wrong.

Roo Killer Response:
“why is it wrong explain that no one can cause there is no right or wrong just different points of view.”

3. Most kangaroo meat is sold as pet food, "not for human consumption". The pets (mainly cats and dogs) are introduced animals. Not only are colonists killing wildlife, they feed it to their pets.

Roo Killer Response:
“71% of roos shot in Australia are exported to Russia for human consumption, 25% for pet food and 4% are shot only for there skins…i shoot only for human consumption.”

4. If as roo poachers claim, that it is ok to eat Kangaroo, what about wombat, Koala and Platypus and dog?
Roo Killer Response:
“wombats, koalas and platypus are protected by law roo's arent protected if you have a marco pods harvesting licence and mate i dare you to eat a dogs liver and see if you live to tell the tail.”

5. "People are capable of eating anything that is available." So why is cat and dog not included? They are introduced animals. Thousands remain unwanted in RSPCA depots and lethal injection is a humane way of killing them. The Koreans eat dog so why not Australians?

Roo Killer Response:
“cause we’re Australian not Korean, dog is a delicacy to Koreans as is kangaroo to most of the world.”

6. Rood poaching ignores the ecological cost. If the roos shooters had to pay per carcass for the loss of the wildlife, their commercial exploitation would not be profitable. I can't see that with roo meat selling for under $4 a kilo how it is profitable anyway. Shooting wildlife for pet meat for pittance?

Roo Killer Response:
“so should people that own cats then have to pay for all the wildlife they kill. all we do is make a good living of an over populated community of animals keep the numbers down for everyone. and i can get a different job when ever i want i'm a mechanical fitter/welder by trade but i choose to do what i love.”

7. So long as cowboy poachers in utes hoon around the scrub shooting wildlife for a pittance and seek to legitimise it by calling it a 'kangaroo industry', there ought to be calls to set up a Poacher Culling Industry.

Roo Killer Response:
“I agree cause 98% of the cowboys hooning around the bush culling roo's aren't accredited and there shooting roos that i can make good money off. poacher's should have the book thrown at them they dont treat the animals the way professional's do.”

8. So where are kangaroos "out of control"? Why were theyr not out of control pre-white fella?

Roo Killer Response:
“if you knew anything about the Australian bush you'd know not much can actually live of the native grasses so when white fellas came and introduces good feed the roos got outta control. put a gold fish in a small tank it grows to the size that suit it's environment.... put the same gold fish in a big tanks and it will grow bigger to suit that environment if there is sufficient food.”

9. What is the minimum definition of a "professional shooter"? Is it anyone licenced to shoot holding a long arm licence? In NSW, this can mean a supervised 12 year old. How are recreational shooters and farmers holding a shooters licence distinguished from professional marksman with a marksman rating? I don't think they are. Australian shooting associations are all amateur and voluntary and there is no official 'professional shooters licence' as much as many roo shooters would comfort from such legitimacy.

Roo Killer Response:
“You have to hold a special license to harvest kangaroos in Australia, issues after an accuracy test and 2 TAFE courses are passed and your vehicle is up to spec and registered threw the states macro-pod harvesting agency the license is issued by the state you live in, the shooters association of Australia has nothing to do with it except issuing me with a gun license saying i can legally own a firearm,you must have a Queensland macro-pod harvesting registration number to btw and there is a special license, if anyone with out this license is caught shooting roo's it is classed as poaching and they get the book thrown at them with a jail term in toe.”

10. A kangaroo's head at 300 metres at dawn or dusk when kangaroos are grazing and so typically shot by roo shooters. This marksman standard ought to be the Australian professional standard. But I reckon we'd find bugger all shooters competent to that accuracy. Hence, despite this being a typical scenario this is why the lack of independent monitoring and systemic cover up of body shots.

Roo Killer Response:
“the government states an accuracy test must be past at 100 yard, 5 out of 5 shots in an inch and a half circle at 100 yards it like the size of a coke lid at that distance, and on a typical night i will take shots in excess of 450yards with a ruger mark2 m77 varmint rifle .223 caliber and hit it in the eye 9 out of 10 time, the other time it goes up its nasal cavity, roo shooters can out shot any long distance sportsman shooter by a long shot we depend on it for a living and shooting targets is a waste of time unless your sighting in your new rifle.”

11. Why is there no independent government watchdog overseeing roo shooters in outback QLD, NSW, SA, WA? Is it because state governments couldn't give a toss?

Roo Killer Response:
“Queensland macro-pod harvesting branch is located in charleville, and each shooter has to purchase tags with the numbers on it so a table to field trace can be establish and all carcasses are inspected by a government vet b4 the go for human consumption, or dog meat. yet again your not in the industry so i wouldn't expect you to actually know the facts only the emotional stuff.”

12. "Kangaroos are destroying...crops" Where?

Roo Killer Response:
“go talk to any wheat. lucerne, oat, or any veggie farmer and they will give you the honest truth and you have to actually leave the city to see where the kangaroos are doing the damage, go to any country town sit at the bar at the local pub and ask the old fellas or any locals from the area and you'll be told what you need to be told.”

13. "Kangaroos are taking valuable feed away from cattle" Where?

Roo Killer Response:
“the macro-pod harvesting license is issued by the EPA (environmental protection agency) just to add insult to injury. check out www.rooshooter.com.au for a little heads up”

(Kangaroo killing) ..."it’s not a pittance of a wage mate since the chiller box re-opened on the 15/1/2010 till this morning 29/3/2010 i placed my 5204th tag on the last roo i shot last night. and that's just for this year so far..... at an average weight of 28kg's going off my records that's right every roo has to be recorded when, where, weight etc..... so far this year that's a grand total of $98,876 b4 taxes.... so if i actually shot for the entire year i will have shot 20816 roos for the year there lucky i take 3 months off over winter aren't they.... and that's just me 1 of over 1500 registered roo shooters in Queensland alone. And yet most of us full timers shoot an average of 20,000 roo's a year and somehow we keep doing this year in and year out and the numbers aren't dropping there's still in excess of 60 million roo's in Australia according to last years study done by the EPA so really we need more roo shooter's."

"well you all have a good day I'm going to bed got a long night ahead of me making my pittance of a wage. oh and tiger quoll maybe some time you should come out roo shooting with me so you can see what its all about. sorry but i can't let you shoot any cause well that would be poaching but you'll still see them in plague proportion and actually know how it really is and see first hand the damage they do. well y'all have fun working the jobs that you hate while i sleep the day away after a profitable night 1100 buck for one night at work who woulda guessed you could make this kinda money and actually enjoy your job."

Further comments:

lol that was funny (29-Mar-2010):

“lol just fueled me ute up at the bp in dalby with a 32 roos and 8 pigs on the back, there were a bus load of city slickers there lol, never seen so many peeps near threw up and crying lmao why do people react to it like that if you dont like wat we do in the bush stay in the city. might have been cause watto and i were eating kfc while we were fueling up dont know. you all need to harden up. its the easiest thing a person can do for a living. yet again your all just turning the situation back around to emotional crap the roo's dont feel a thing they dont even know wats happened to em.

And yeha roo's may have been here for thousands of years but i can tell ya this i'll be shooting them till the day i die and i wont even make an impact on there numbers in australia, my son is an up and coming roo shooter to at the age of 4 he can skin and gut a roo nearly as quick as me and over the last 4 weekends he has shoot over 50 roos with only 8 misses they still didnt get away tho like always dad was there to clean up the mess. my advice is roo shooters are here to stay deal with it weather it's leagally or illegally roos will be shoot till the end of time or at least untill they learn to shoot back. if you dont like it dont purchase any of the products and you'll be rite out of site out of mind.

i'm chris's partner (29-Mar-2010)

“hi all look i'm a chick and go out every now and then shooting with chris and yes he told me he said about our son going along look its something that as an animal lover i see your point of view on the situation , i used to hate it until i started going out shooting with him and there is actually nothing morally wrong with it at all, chris kills every animal with the utmost respect and never hurts or injuries any joeys they get a quick and painless death like the rest of the roos in his sites, in the last 6 years we've been together i think i've only seen him misses 10 times and that wasn't a complete miss that was a neck shot instead of a head shot, he truely is a master at what he does, and plus the look on his face when he teaches his son and spends time with him out there is worth any amount of roo's lives, i have a photo of chris with our son and the first pig he shot the smile on chris's face i've only seen a few time , when we got married and when our son was born. it's like any thing if you love it you excell at it and do it right. look what happens out there is up to the individual dont judge all roo shooters on the ones you see in the papers giving them a bad name they arent doing anything wrong, there making a living of the land and helping out the local farmers. if cattle were australian wildlife would you all be lobbing to stop them being farmed???? or trying to make life harder for the beef industry i think not.

And to answer you suggestion (29-Mar-2010)

"...Yes, it is as easy as choosing a small or large macca's meal, he doesnt even bat an eye lid at them when i first went out shooting with him i grabbed one of the joeys and tried to take it home with us, chris went off and killed it i felt bad but i understand why he lives by the you gotta be cruel to be kind theory cause well its true it's a sad fact but it has to be done. it's not cruel or inhumane the way he does it, he does it by the book. if he can he tries to avoid shooting doe's for the fact that well i dont think he actually likes to kill the joey's, he might not flinch or have any compassion for the joey if he does shoot a doe's that has a joey but he doesnt smile for a while after. so i think it does in a way affect him when he has to kill a joey just he's not the type to show it. he's gunna be pissed at me for saying that but well he isn't a cold heartless killer like most of you may think.

loop holes mate loop holes (30-Mar-2010):

"There's a loop hole in the claws that people shooting with an accredited shooter, can if deemed competent by the accredited person to assist in them in there duties it doesn't actually state that they can't shoot the roo's while under the supervision of an a credited shooter, i was just getting my point across to tiger quoll that it's not poaching in any way shape or form if you have the correct license's. i honestly think that any one and every one should be aloud to shoot roo's with no limitations, its plain and simple there's to many of them i boxed 114 of them last night and could have easily shot more, but the night isn't long enough, also got 26 pigs there worth more but harder to find even tho there in plague proportion to unlike a roo a pig has a mind and thinks as soon as a pig see's you, your dog, a spotlight ect they do the bolt. and this instinct isn't from being in a spot light before cause like a roo they'd be dead, nothing roo, goat, pig, deer, cat, rabbit, fox or dingo lives to tell the tale when i get my sights on it. a few of my cousins came up to my place last weekend and where trying to challenge me to see wat i could and couldnt do with my .223, there was a hare about 600 to 650 yards away and they put money on it that i couldnt hit it, more fool them, took its head clean off and just to show them it wasnt a fluke i placed the other 4 rounds in to the carcass."

"Look nothing that get shoot by a professional feels a like, it's oh look a light and there dead before they even hear the shot. now any other animal would be long gone after the first shot. but no a mob of roo's are the stupidest mob of animals in the world they jump 15-20 meters away and stop look back then start eating again if the paddock is big enough you can take out a mob of 20 within half and hour, and you only have to move your ute about 20meters in a circle. if they had any kind of smarts they would dissappear after the first shot, still doesnt help tho there just as perdictable on the hop as standing still just sit there and wait watch them threw the scope get the highest point while on the hop line it up and let her rip in the 6 years i've been shooting i've only missed maybe 10 roos that are on the hop and they were clean misses i dint nick the animal’

[Above comments were sourced from responses from Chris Palmer and his partner to a previous article by Menkit Prince ‘Kangaroo Meat: Why it's Not Good Bush Tucker!]

Tiger Quoll
Snowy River 3885
Australia

The Black Cockatoo Conservation Team has just pulled off a remarkable rescue of wildlife habitat. One West Australian Black Cockatoo colony has been saved from the developers, in the nick of time, but the species is still not out of danger. Video-link inside article.

See also: “Help save West Australian black cockatoo from extinction”, blackcockatoorescue.com.

Last year we ran an article calling for help to save land for the Black Cockatoo at “Help save West Australian black cockatoo from extinction”. The University of Western Australia had been determined to bulldoze rare bushland in the middle of Perth for future property development, and that would have destroyed the habitat of one of very few remaining West Australian Black Cockatoos. Sixty per cent of pristine 36 hectare bushland was to be razed to make way for offices and housing. The situation looked hopeless, but this area has now been saved.


I was delighted today to receive an email pointing to a video link to a news item which shows David Dewhurst and others from the Black Cockatoo Conservation Team in West Australia reporting on the establishment of that threatened habitat as land for Black Cockatoos under Land for Wildlife provisions on private land.

Having said this, I have to add that I have personally run into trouble over Land for Wildlife in Victoria. The occasion was when a number of people went to the Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) to attempt to stop intensive development of 9 Diosma Court Frankston, on the banks of Sweetwater Creek. One of our major arguments was the new development would impact adversely on parts of the creek held under Land for Wildlife. We were astonished and dismayed to hear that the Member who presided over the case had never heard of Land for Wildlife and that he held that it had no legal status to protect wildlife from adverse developments.

The history of this struggle and others to do with these birds may be read at this website.
There will soon be a new website. And there are two other struggles to save what remains of these endangered birds' habitat at Perth Airport and Jandakot airport.

These birds take a long time to mature sexually and then they only have a maximum of one baby every two years. This means that as they have already become rare the risk of losing all of them is very serious.

See also: “Help save West Australian black cockatoo from extinction”, blackcockatoorescue.com.

This is is a call for help.
The University of Western Australia wants to bulldoze rare bushland in the middle of our city for future property development. The Minister for the Environment David Templeman is soon to make his decision on whether 60% of this pristine 36 hectare bushland will be destroyed to make way for offices and housing.

David Templeman's contact details are:
The Hon. David Templeman MLA
Minister for the Environment,
Climate Change, Peel
29th Floor
St. George's Terrace
PERTH 6000

email: david-templeman[at]dpc.wa.gov.au

Please open the website www.blackcockatoorescue.com.

Once in there have a look at the site and click on UWA link.
Watch the videos and then click on the link to protest, on each vision or just one.
Make your comments known to the ministers and send it off.
Remember the ministers have not made their decisions yet so be nice.
We need all your help.
click for video
WE NEED TO ACT NOW AS THE DECISION IS NEAR, VERY NEAR.

Glen Dewhurst of Black Cockatoo Conservation team

These are lovely, intelligent, sociable and long-lived animals. To lose them would be tragic - and the situation already is tragic. (Ed.)

Hans Brunner, internationally respected Victorian wildlife ecologist and forensic hair identification expert, author of Hair ID, says that information provided in the Victorian Government's Land and Biodiversity at a Time of Climate Change Green Paper highlights the rapid decline in the quality of our environment. The blame is mainly put on global warming and, thankfully, also on the government’s persistent push for economic and human population growth.

This “growth" will exacerbate the present decline not only in the environment but also in the future welfare of the people.

It is the government’s first duty to make sure that we can survive. This will obviously not happen if it does not change its policies. Those who make peaceful changes impossible, make violent changes inevitable!

Unfortunately, no politicians have the guts to treat the population and growth issue with the seriousness it deserves. This seems to be due to political cowardice and blind obsession.

Sadly, the green paper offers mainly band-aid solutions.

Whatever the conscientious little man achieves is more than undone by the present policies of the government. Hence, we keep on losing thousands of species of plants and animals resulting in local and national extinctions.

The admits that “This level of growth ( of human population) will necessitate the release of significant areas of new land for urban development and the building of more than 600,000 new households, as well as increasing the demand for the food, fibre and other services our ecosystems provide.” And, “ as the population increases and economic growth continues, the demand for land and housing as well as for energy, transport and water infrastructure also grows. This inevitably places pressure on native vegetation.”

Because of the way our activities are endangering so much life on earth, we need to have a serious and honest look at ourselves and realise that, objectively speaking, we are in fact the greatest pest species on earth. In this light, it should not be difficult to see that all our environmental and social problems are directly and proportionally linked to the obsessionally driven population and economic growth rate.

Democratic views ignored

Community recommendations to submissions like this are mostly ignored, in violation of the democratic process.

Page 8 shows the bioregions of Victoria but does not show urban bioregions of urban cities and towns.

Pages 13 and 14 do not show when country towns ran out of water and when water restriction were implemented.

Page 17: Why is there no text for fig, 7, “Summary of threatened animals in Victoria, 2007?”

Page 40: 6.6, Building ecological connections is continuously ignored in outer urban areas where existing wildlife corridors are wantonly destroyed.

Page 46: The desperate water issue has not been sufficiently linked with population growth!
The blame has been manly put on global warming and an uncertain future. Why then gamble with increasing the human population?

Page 52: “ While some adopt modern approaches and consider principles of sustainability and biodiversity, others are outdated and do not consider recent knowledge and threats.” An example is the proposed Frankston Bypass where road easements were reserved in 1960, a totally outdated decision.

There is also a constant “nibbling” at the Green Wedges, resulting in environmental groups suffering burnouts through constantly fighting VCAT’S etc.

Page 89: Consultation paper submission raised concerns about the continuing population growth, increased resource use, urbanisation, pollution and the sea change/tree change phenomenon, which means I am not alone in highlighting the absurd and obsessed push for population and economic growth. The 2030 plan expects over one million more people in the Melbourne growth areas and another 50’000 on the Mornington Peninsula. On top of that we have an artificially created baby boom by giving $ 5’000.00 for every new borne baby, and added to this we allow 170,000 more migrants to come here each year.

My major concern is that the GREEN PAPER will give people false hope. We have to realise that it is us, and rapidly more of us, that are destroying this earth by pollution and over use of resources such as fuel and water as well as destroying the environment. And , importantly, we must not blame global warming and climate change for the rapid decline in biodiversity etc., since it is also all of us who have caused it and keep on increasing it.

Finally, we must still go on and do what we can to protect the species we still have but also strongly and openly protest against the “ poles apart “ policies of the government.

Hans Brunner, Wildlife Ecologist, Frankston, Melbourne
(Hans Brunner is an animal hair specialist who is famous for his forensic work in showing that hairs in the Azaria Chamberlain case were dog hairs (Dingos are dogs!), thereby overturning Lindy Chamberlain's conviction, and who made the world news in 2002 through his identification of hair from a previously undocumented primate in Indonesia, which locals thought could be the "Orang Pendek".
This article was based on his submission to the Victorian Government re the Green Paper.

The Weekly Times promoted the so-called ‘commercial culling’ of kangaroos in Victoria, where it is currently banned, in an opinion piece by John Kelly, Executive Officer of the Kangaroo Industries Association of Australia. (“It’s time to say hoor-roo,” May 14, 2008, p.17.)

John Kelly correctly writes that in Victoria there are no reliable estimates of the size of the kangaroo population.

“Virtually nothing goes into ensuring the animal is protected or managed in any way. The state has no clear idea how many kangaroos it supports, where they live, what’s happening to their populations in response to seasonal conditions or, most disturbingly, how healthy they are."

He is right. Unfortunately the Victorian Government either doesn’t care, or it may actually want to get rid of wildlife because preserving it means restraints on development and human population growth.

But, with a kind of shoot first and ask questions later logic, Kelly argues that, “Establishing a commercial harvest and the data collection mechanisms required to implement it instantly changes all this.” He means that the Kangaroo industry should be given a license to kill kangaroos in exchange for doing the government’s job of collecting statistics.

We do need good data collection mechanisms because the data available on the structure of kangaroo populations and the size and health of individuals gives reason for anxiety. To authorize commercial kills in return for data, however, is to put the cart before the horse and then shoot the horse as a good business deal and good for horses.

Kelly cites the RACV as having recently reported an increase in animal collisions in 2005 of 43 per cent over the previous two years.

Kelly then proceeds to create an impression that
(a) kangaroos are the cause of increasing road collisions; and that
(b) they therefore must be more numerous.

Shamelessly he concludes that “It is also reasonable to expect a well managed kangaroo harvest to reduce this [imagined kangaroo proliferation].”

Let us look at the first claim, that animal collisions are increasing. Kelly implies that collisions (with all kinds of animals) are increasing because the number of animals is increasing. According to the AWPC, however, this does not make sense:

“Likely reasons for more animal collisions are more toll-ways, roads and suburban expansion. More cars and human activities are coming into conflict with animals who were previously in safe habitats in Victoria."

“Humans are the only species in Australia that is rapidly increasing and our numbers and expansion coincide with a decrease in other species.”

Indeed, uprooted dying trees and devastated grasslands are a familiar sight in Australia, a country where extinctions are proceeding at a greater pace than almost any other country on earth (refs: 1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 1990 and 1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2008

The overall trend is a decrease in other species and a higher death rate. Commercial kangaroo killing will only accelerate the death rate.

If a farmer built a housing estate in his front paddock and chased all his stock out onto the road, would he count the pile of corpses and conclude that there were more cows in his front paddock as a result? This is what the Kangaroo Industries Association of Victoria seems to be doing.

Maryland Wilson, President of the Australian Wildlife Protection Council (AWPC) agrees that more accurate counting, assessment, protection and better treatment is necessary, but cannot agree that there is any evidence that the numbers could warrant kangaroo killing commercialisation. The AWPC came to the opposite conclusion through scientifically based and accurate counting of kangaroos and other wildlife in local areas, starting with the Mornington Peninsula. The AWPC warns that the population structures and the trends in numbers long-term point to high extinction risks unless we protect the animals from road and suburb encroachment by providing connecting corridors and protecting and extending habitats.

But Kelly writes, “Put it altogether and a commercial kangaroo harvest would be worth well over $15 million a year to Victoria. It turns a shameful waste into a valuable resource and delivers better kangaroo damage mitigation to embattled farmers and better animal welfare outcomes than current practices.” In a final flourish, he adds, “It is [also] likely to improve public safety on roads, helps to protect plant bio-diversity from overgrazing, and creates jobs in the bush. Why not do it?"

But Maryland Wilson of the AWPC, said that Mr Kelly’s conclusions are simply astounding.

“Mr Kelly is completely out of date, even citing the industry’s own authorities. Gordon Grigg, the author of the industry ‘bible’, 'Commercial Harvesting of Kangaroos in Australia', upon whose research the industry developed, recently repudiated his original conclusions. He stated that, 'The damage done on grazing lands by kangaroos has been overestimated by up to 500%.' His conclusion was that, 'This would mean that kangaroos are a much smaller component of the total grazing pressure than is generally accepted'. And he concluded that, 'The hope of getting a significant improvement in wool production by pest-control of kangaroos is probably doomed to failure'".
(Grigg citation by Juliet Gellatley, UK zoologist, in, "Slaughter of the innocents", Viva Life, UK, Spring, 2002.)