meat contamination

"Meeting a friend out walking one morning." Photo by Wildlife Carer, Anne-Marie.

"Russia has just announced a ban on all kangaroo products from the 1st August, citing consistent contamination. For those that are unaware, the kangaroo meat exported to Russia is manufacturing meat. This is forequarter bones with meat attached, offal, trimmings and bruising, all put through a grinder and turned into slush, then boxed, snap frozen and exported. The Russians use it for salami and sausage mostly. They add chopped root vegetables and fat, fill the slush into sausage casings, and smoke them. Its then hung for some weeks until cured, then eaten. This is what our politicians have been doing in China lately, trying to convince the Chinese to buy the rejected Russian export kangaroo slush." Pat O'Brien

Perhaps our politicians think that, because China already has world attention due to contaminates in material used for baby formula and pet food, where babies died and pets died, that it won't matter if we push contaminated roo meat on them. Let us hope that is not the case.

Film and Interviews

For more from Pat O'Brien, President of Wildlife Protection Association of Australia, on the problems attached to preparing and exporting kangaroo meat, see these films:
"Meatworks", at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY1UD7GpYsw
"Lay Reports on Kangaroo Numbers"

See also, "Urgent Need for Wildlife Corridors in Australia" from the Australian Wildlife Protection Council.

Petition against kangaroo shoots and other resources

A petition is also available, calling for a moratorium on commercial and non-commercial kangaroo killing.

For an extraordinary series of photographs documenting the behaviour and interaction of wildlife with each other and carers click here

Kangaroos are being killed in areas where they are quasi extinct. Learn more at http://www.stopkangarookilling.org

Picture of protected young orphans by Wildlife Carer, Anne-Marie.

Russia blames food safety for Australian kangaroo meat ban

Thursday, 09/07/2009

On the ABC it was reported that Russia has banned all kangaroo meat from being imported to the country.
It has been claimed that the news "is a massive blow to the Australian kangaroo harvesting industry as Russia takes up to 70 per cent of supply and that the industry contributes up to $270 million to the Australian economy per year and employs over 4000 people." LiveExportShame queries these figures.

Peas are 'harvested'; Kangaroos are 'slaughtered'

People who disapprove of the way that Kangaroos are hunted or that they are hunted at all query the sanitising terminology of 'harvesting'. This comment appeared at LiveExportShame: "The kangaroos are SLAUGHTERED not 'harvested'. Thats what is done with peas."

Project officer with the Queensland Macropod and Wild Game Harvesters Association, Tom Garrett, said that "They're saying that there's a systemic problem with the import of Kangaroo meat into Russia and their quoting E-coli in one shipment so I believe it's a little bit to do with politics as well," he says. Mr Garrett says the ban come in on the 1st of August this year and it will see the price of kangaroo meat become worthless.ABC original source

Peter Garret and Law (EPBC) Policy & the System

Pat O'Brien was very disappointed with Mr Garrett's failure to carry through with pre-election committments to reform the EPBC Act. See "Law (EPBC), Policy & the System" interview here about those promises and contrast with Garrett and his government's conduct towards our wildlife. This film also gives a very commonsense appraisal of the ideal of maintaining kangaroos in the wild by making them our national dish when we have 21.6 million people here and growing rapidly, and looks at the history of 'wild life for food scams'.