cull

These photographs of a mass-burial pit in Canberra for kangaroos gunned down by the government was sent to me by 'Friends of AnimalArmy' with the message, "We cannot find an investigative journalist anywhere who will expose the corruption and the lies." I cannot understand why not. Don't we want to know the truth?

Do we want to know the truth?

I think that Australians do want to know the truth, but it seems that the mass media is letting us all down.

This infinitely sad photograph of the dead kangaroo with bent head and hand placed around the body of a hairless joey might remind some of you of pictures of Mary and the infant Jesus, and others of bodies in a pit in Auchwitz. The point is that the photograph documents a deeply tragic mistake on the part of the ACT government, that taints it as brutal and dishonest. This is one of several remarkable photographs that came to me via "Friends of AnimalArmy," with the message,

"Canberra's Nature parks will be closed tomorrow for a "cull" of Eastern Grey Kangaroos. About 2000 are to be slaughtered for a "sustainable" number, to protect the flora and fauna. Polls of about 600 residents reveal that 79% of the city want the killings to go ahead. It's ironical that 9 "Nature" parks will be closed, under that assumption that kangaroos are not part of Nature and a threat to conservation efforts and sustainability.

Endangered flora and fauna are being threatened by "over-abundant eastern grey kangaroos". Just how does Daniel Iglesias, the public servant responsible for the decision, actually evaluate what is "abundant" or "sustainable"?

There are never any government polls or public debate on what is a sustainable human population, for Canberra or any city. Kangaroos are native animals, living in harmony with the environment, and softy-treading animals on the Earth. Humans, on the other hand, drive cars, use energy-consuming technology, change irrevocably the landscape, emit greenhouse gases and pollution, but there's no discussion on human "carrying capacity" or sustainable numbers, only for kangaroos!!

Something very shonky is going on in Canberra with unjustified massacre of kangaroos. As the previous blog mentioned, no science to back it up.
Learn some more facts and take action! We can only stop this if lots of people take action!

Two years ago the Canberra Environment and Sustainability Resource Centre wrote a compelling document explaining how kangaroos help the environment in so many ways. It was written at a time when another big cull was being decided so of course Maxine Cooper, the Commissioner for the Environment, ‘culled’ the document and demanded return of funds paid to CESRC, and the document can now only be found online at http://www.nokangaroomeat.org

And here we go again! It’s that time of the year boys and girls, when the shooters get out their guns and have a shooting spree till the end of June and wipe out thousands of beautiful, healthy, environmentally friendly, gentle kangaroos and their babies, the national icon we are all so proud of that we put its image on our aeroplanes, on logos ‘Proudly Australian Made’ and title our best rugby teams. (See http://candobetter.net/node/2063 )

Back in July Parks and Wildlife culled about 600 of the island's kangaroos, wallabies and pademelons. Adults were being shot and vets were euthanasing orphaned joeys.
Parks says it is necessary to "manage" the island's wildlife population.

Correspondence from David O'Byrne, Minister for Environment, Parks and Heritage. O'Byrne grew up in Launceston and studied at the University of Adelaide where he gained a degree in Labour Studies. He has no environment/wildlife expertise or training. He is a manager of Tasmania’s parks and reserves system.

Forester kangaroos and Bennetts wallabies were introduced to Maria Island in the late 1960s. However, by the early 1990s the numbers had increased greatly and there were indications that parts of the island had been adversely impacted by overgrazing with regeneration failure of trees, shrubs and herbs and erosion problems on foreshore areas.

This overgrazing was not only affecting the survival of native vegetation but also leading to serious animal welfare concerns where animals have become sick, stressed and eventually died of starvation during periods of low rainfall when there is insufficient feed to support their numbers.

Another massacre on Maria Island leaves me in despair. What is Tasmania doing to her wildlife? This is not a cull – a cull removes the weak and sick animals. This is an outright massacre of 600 beautiful native Australian animals, supposedly 'protected.' The people making this decision are government officials devoid of compassion for the individual animals so tragically destroyed and for the suffering of the people who love those animals.

Governments lie saying their 'cull' was 'sustainable,’ 'humane' and necessary as the animals were 'overgrazing' or 'threatening endangered species.' Nothing humane about bludgeoning a joey to death which is the 'humane' code of conduct for killing kangaroos. Nothing true about overgrazing or threatening other species either. And why is there never a non-lethal alternative such as fertility control or relocation? Does it cost too much? Another lie.

It cost the ACT government $500,000 to kill 514 kangaroos at Belconnen in 2008. Relocation by wildlife people would have been a fraction of the cost.

On 18th June, the ACT Government advised that areas within the Canberra Nature Park would be closed from 19 June to 31 July 2010 to allow for the controlled culling of 'over-abundant' Eastern Grey Kangaroos. The sites closed were Callum Brae Nature Reserve, Crace Nature Reserve, Goorooyarroo Nature Reserve, Jerrabomberra West Nature Reserve, Kama Nature Reserve, Mount Painter Nature Reserve, Mulligan’s Flat Nature Reserve and unleased territory land adjacent to Kama Nature Reserve.

This makes a mockery of 'nature park' when there is supposed to be a higher level of protection for native animals than in National Parks. It also makes a mockery of democracy when there was no public consultation on the cull. It also makes a mockery of science when the ecological benefits of native species is totally disregarded.

The purpose of this cull is to 'maintain kangaroo populations at appropriate levels to protect the integrity of ecosystems, several of which contain endangered flora and fauna such as Grassland Earless Dragon, Golden Sun Moth, Striped Legless Lizard, Perunga Grasshopper and threatened plants such as the Button Wrinklewort (a perennial herb).'

Once again the Preston Beach Golf Club near Mandurah, Western Australia is undergoing a kangaroo cull. In 2007 the Shire of Waroona was granted permission to shoot 50 western grey kangaroos on this two-bit golf course and now the DEC is allowing them to kill 100. Officially the cull started on the 1st of May and the shire has until the 16th to obtain their quota.

This bargain basement 9 hole golf course is situated on sand dunes and strategically located next to Yalgorup National Park. It appears the voluntary green fees are not sufficient to raise enough cash to dig a few bunkers let alone erect a fence to try and prevent kangaroos from entering the course. I would suggest this is not the desired outcome for those managing the course anyway as kangaroos are used as a drawcard when advertising the area.

It's truly time that the Australian government, farmers and Australians everywhere realised the tremendous contribution kangaroos make to our ecosystem instead of shooting them on sight as vermin and scapegoating them as 'pests'.

We wonder why we are in the worst drought of 100 years, why we have out of control bushfires and climate change. Nobody seems to make the connection between chopping down trees (to create grazing pastures) which shade the land and keep it cool and higher temperatures. Or between soil erosion caused by hoofed livestock and the drying of the continent. Nobody seems to get that the worst pest in Australia is not kangaroo or rabbits, foxes, cats, cane toads but US HUMANS who are destroying habitat for the very native species that keep the ecosystem in balance, introducing feral animals that compete with natives, and on top of that treating native animals as inconveniently in the way of 'our' farmland, our roads, our cities etc.

The really sad fact is that Australia has the worst record of wildlife extinctions since the arrival of the early settlers in 1770, having wiped out 38% of our mammals and at the rate we are killing kangaroos in the world's largest massacre of land-based wildlife, they are on track to extinction too (see http://www.stopkangarookilling.org ).

ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment, Dr Maxine Cooper, is ACT's inaugural full-time Commissioner in the role, yet what relevant environmental qualifications and experience does the incumbent have, or indeed lack, to be officially condemning another local indigenous popluation of Australia's iconic marsupials, our kangaroos, to slaughter for pet food?
The Environment Commissioner's own website lists her formal qualifications in the areas of Environmental Planning, Environmental Design and Environmental Science. All these 'environmentally' friendly prefixes sound impressive, until one realises that each of these areas of academic study are not fauna focused, but indeed all about human-centric utilisation of the natural environment for the benefit of humans. That is, these qualifications are all about maximising the convenience of the environment for humans. A wolf in charge of the kangaroos?

Belconnen May 2008

In May 2008 a total of 514 healthy kangaroos were exterminated on the former Belconnen Naval Transmission Station by the Department of Defence.

RSPCA-ACT chief Michael Linke insisted that the kangaroos were ‘starving’ even though eye-witness accounts and photographic evidence showed no starving kangaroos. They do after all, eat dry wild grasses, and have been doing so for the last 40 million years.

According to Dr Maxine Cooper, Environment Commissioner, the kangaroos at Belconnen were a threat to certain vulnerable and endangered species of fauna and flora on the site (Ginninderra Peppercress, Striped Legless Lizard and Golden Sun Moth), even though the EPBC Act lists threats other than kangaroos (such as weeds, feral animals, domestic dogs and cats, land clearing, agriculture, slashing, inappropriate burning, livestock, rabbits, rock removal and vehicles).

Yet cows were grazing in the adjacent paddock, apparently not a threat to the species listed (as if moths and lizards recognise fences!).

So if both excuses of starvation and threat to endangered species were untrue, what was the real reason for the Belconnen massacre last May?

The real reason why Defence killed 514 kangaroos at Belconnen last May had nothing to do with endangered species. If allowed to live longer, kangaroos might have shown symptoms like the blind sheep previously at Belconnen. And now the truth is out!

How can groundwater and soil be heavily contaminated with dioxins, heavy metals, lead, asbestos, hydrocarbons and PCBs on the BNTS site but not the surrounding areas where people already live?

It’s already in the groundwater, the soil and therefore blowing in the wind. Exactly where are they planning to remove the contamination to? How can everything be rosy after the cleanup since it’s already in Ginninderra Lake and the aquifers?

And what about the damage to the endangered grassland species that the government was oh so worried about the kangaroos 'threatening' when they scoop out 900 square metres of soil?

What about the remaining experimental 100 kangaroos at Belconnen? Will they be secretly disposed of while this 'clean-up' happens?

What’s more important – human health, endangered species, native wildlife, future generations, a clean environment, integrity or making money off yet another housing estate?

There's a lot being covered up in Canberra these days ...