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Canberra Kangaroo Killing Capital
Over the past seven years the ACT government, often in collusion with the Australian Defence Department has killed close to 20,000 kangaroos and their joeys in the ACT. Here’s a quick chronology of the horrible events.
5000 kangaroos and joeys to be wiped out from Canberra Nature Parks in 2015
The ACT government is not being completely honest with the Australian public. They plan to kill 5000 eastern grey kangaroos and their joeys under this current permit, not 2400 like quoted in the media. Also the research they quote does not show in any way shape or form that kangaroos have any impact on other native species, or threatened species, and they were forced to admit this in the 2013 court hearing where they admitted that: "Our claim that we are killing kangaroos to protect threatened species is no more than a public relations exercise".
This has been recorded in the court transcript as evidence.
The ACT kangaroos have endured almost a decade of annual slaughter in their so called 'nature parks' and on ACT defence land in the name of science,
but the truth is that they have no robust science to support these annual kills and nor have they conducted any studies in the parks
to show the effects of their killing programs, nor are kangaroos listed as a major threat to the threatened Lower Temperate Grasslands or any of their threatened species.
As gentle, affectionate family orientated animals, the ACT kangaroo mobs are being repeatedly terrorised and traumatised, year after year. Their family mobs and social structures are being repeatedly destroyed and the little joeys separated from their mothers, orphaned and bludgeoned to death or decapitated year after year, for no apparent reason other than to cleanse the environment of kangaroos to make way for housing, roadways and profits for the ACT government.
Shame on the ACT government and shame on Greens Minister Rattenbury for misleading the public in one of the most controversial, unscientific government authorised and brutal wildlife massacres in the world. You have no grounds to condemn the Japanese for their whale slaughter or their dolphin slaughter, or the Canadians for their baby harp seal slaughter or any other brutal wildlife slaughter in the world Mr Rattenbury, because right here under your authority you are slaughtering thousands and thousands of unique and iconic Australian native animals and their babies under the guise of science, when you know damn well you have none at all.
ASK is calling on ACT Greens Environment Minister Shane Rattenbury to follow through with his decision to shoot and kill 5000 kangaroos and their joeys by personally attending and witnessing the killing programs including the clubbing and decapitation of the little orphaned joeys. ASK believes that if he is going to authorise this unnecessary unscientific slaughter of our protected native wildlife, that he should have the guts to witness it first hand.
Please contact Shane and ask if he will be personally attending the atrocities.
E: Rattenbury@act.gov.au
PH: (02) 6205 0005
F: https://www.facebook.com/shanerattenburymla
T: https://twitter.com/ShaneRattenbury
Sign the petition calling on Shane Rattenbury to end this annual massacre:
Read the latest news report from the Canberra Times:
CANBERRA KANGAROO COURT BATTLE 2013
As many of you may already be aware, ASK was in the ACT Administrative Civil Appeals Tribunal in June and July, fighting to save the lives of 1455 kangaroos and their joeys set to be killed by the ACT government in seven nature parks across Canberra. The killing was due to begin in June but thanks to the amazing efforts of the Barristers Animal Welfare Panel, DLA Piper and counsel Geoffrey Kennett,ASK was successful in gaining an injunction to stop the killing for three weeks until a full hearing was heard on July 8th.. During the hearing, which went for two and a half days, the ACT tribunal heard evidence from ASK's expert witness ecologist Ray Mjadwesch as well as ACT government expert Dr Don Fletcher. While one of the panel tried in vain to discredit him, Ray Mjadwesch went on to present a compelling case against the ACT government killing program and completely exposed the unscientific and unnecessary nature of these brutal killings. He provided evidence that kangaroos benefit biodiversity not destroy it, that the so called science presented by the government did not justify the killing, that the ACT government kangaroo counts were grossly overestimated, and with his detailed knowledge of grassland and woodland threatened species, he forced the ACT government to admit that their claims about kangaroos being a threat to threatened species were false and no more than a “public relations exercise” deliberately designed to gain public support for the annual killing programs. One of the tribunal members also seriously challenged Fletcher's independence as the ACT government's expert witness, stating that he was not independent in any way, but an employee of the ACT government, defending his job, defending his science and defending his own decisions in kangaroo management rather than presenting an independent objective view of the science.
In their final ruling the tribunal panel stated that they had based their decision on the upper limit of 1.5 kangaroos per hectare, which if they had followed through with this in their final calculations, would have reduced the kill quota by 600 kangaroos this year. However their final calculations did not match their ruling and ASK's legal counsel challenged the calculations in a review in the tribunal again on Friday 12th July. However the panel refused to admit to any error or miscalculations, contradicted their own ruling, and said that the final order would stay, saving just 211 kangaroos and their joeys.
Please continue to pressure the ACT government to reconsider this brutal unscientific annual killing program by writing to the people listed below.
We thank you all for your support for this case
CANBERRA KANGAROO MASSACRE 2012 UPDATE
As the annual Canberra kangaroo massacre comes to a close, activists have been successful in halting at least ten attempted ACT government culls across nine targeted nature parks in Canberra during the three week killing period . Night after night, day after day, courageous activists from Australian Society for Kangaroos, Animal Liberation ACT, WRES, and a large number of independent Canberra and interstate activists patrolled the ACT nature parks and intervened at the first sign of shooting acting as human shields to protect kangaroos from the bullets. ASK believes that more than a thousand kangaroos have been spared from this years kill in what appears to be a cruel and barbaric killing spree by the ACT government.
On Sunday 3rd June activists exhumed the bodies of joeys and adult kangaroos from the death pits at Kama Nature Reserve and Mulligans Flat Nature Reserve in Canberra. Most bodies exhumed had not been killed by one shot to the brain as required by the Code of Practice but had multiple face and neck shots and incomplete severed heads and head injuries from illegal clubbing. A large joey had its head partially severed and an adult female had had its head bashed in. A large buck had a shot to the front of its face and a small adult had its jaw blown off. The large joey exhumed from Mulligans Flat death pits on Sunday was removed from the site by activists.An autopsy report revealed that this joey had sustained a gun shot to the neck and jaw, was stabbed in the neck and then bludgeoned over the head, dying a slow death in agony from choking on it's own blood.
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Activists also found evidence that kangaroos had been herded into a fence at the back of Kama Nature reserve where multiple parallel 4WD tracks appeared to repeatedly drive towards the fence. The fences were damaged in a way that was consistent with kangaroos colliding with the fence while trying to escape. It appears the vehicles were acting in unison while herding the kangaroos to the fence where they were shot.
The ACT public has been lied to about these "culls". There is no evidence that kangaroos are impacting on any native species and we challenge the ACT government to provide this evidence. In fact the grass is so long in the reserves due to high rainfall and the decimation of the kangaroo population that the parks are now also now a serious wildfire risk to the Canberra public.
PLEASE WRITE TO THE PEOPLE BELOW AND URGE THEM TO STOP THIS CRUEL AND UNNECESSARY KILLING OF KANGAROOS IN CANBERRA NATURE PARKS AND TO COMMENCE AN IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION INTO THE CRUELTY BEING COMMITTED ON THESE SENTIENT NATIVE ANIMALS
IS IT THE END FOR CANBERRA'S KANGAROOS
On Thursday 2nd June 2011 the ACT government announced that it will be shooting 3427 kangaroos and their joeys in seven Canberra Nature Reserves including Mulligan Flat, Goorooyarroo, Mount Painter, Callum Brae, Jerrabomberra West and Kama Nature Reserve.
3427 kangaroos represents 75% of the total estimated kangaroo population in the Canberra Nature Reserves and will total around 5000 kangaroos being slaughtered including pouch and at-foot young.
The reasons for the massacre according to ACT government representative Daniel Iglesias are:
"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,",(ABC 666 Radio,2/6/11)
This years kill adds to a total of approximately 13,000 kangaroos and their joeys destroyed by the ACT government on public and defence land in the ACT in just three years.
However despite the publication of a 182 page Kangaroo Management Plan by the ACT government, they have failed to produce any credible science or data to support this killing.
With 75% of the total estimated population now destroyed in Canberra's parks and reserves, Australian Society for Kangaroos along with other wildlife groups and experts have grave concerns for the future conservation of kangaroos in these reserves.
According to kangaroo behaviorist Professor Steve Garlick, the kangaroo is headed for complete eradication in the ACT as a result of the government's annual killing programs:
“Using the ACT Government’s own data, and applying our intelligence about kangaroo fertility, development and morbidity, as well as the likely myopathy impact of the shooting, accidents and attacks, the residual 0.534 kangaroos per hectare the Government is aiming for in its current program of killing will mean kangaroo numbers in the six ACT reserves will never recover and will dwindle away to nothing over a surprisingly short time. In ten years I estimate there will be barely a few hundred kangaroos in total remaining in the ACT, assuming no more killing programs. As numbers continue to fall, other kangaroos will not migrate to the reserves from elsewhere, as poor planning has meant these reserves are fenced in, or bounded by major roads and suburbs”, said Professor Garlick.
Belconnen Naval Transmission Station, May 2008
In 2008 the Defence Department in conjunction with the ACT government killed 519 kangaroos and their joeys in a barbaric and horrific manner at Belconnen Naval Transmission Station (BNTS) in the suburbs of Canberra. These gentle creatures were herded into the funnel-shaped killing pens in searing heat and killed by lethal injection. Scenes of this brutal act were shown all around the world bringing condemnation and despair from the local national and international public. They claimed the kangaroos were threatening endangered species and that their relocation would be cruel and expensive. It was later discovered that Australia Zoo and Wildcare offered to relocate the kangaroos at cost for around $300,000. The cost of killing was $1,000,000. In 2010 the ACT government excavated the BNTS site in preparation for a housing development.
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| Kangaroos panicking as they're being herded into killing pens at BNTS (left), while another attempts to jump the high fence to avoid death in the pen (right), May 2008
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Majura Military Base, June 2009
In May 2009 a court found that the native grasslands alleged to be under threat by kangaroos at the Majura Defence Base were in fact behind a kangaroo proof fence. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal carried out an injunction and suspended the killing of between 7,000 and 9,000 kangaroos for four weeks, until a full hearing allowed the slaughter to continue. Despite claims made about starvation, overgrazing and kangaroos being a threat to grassland native species, to this day no evidence has ever been provided to support these claims. It is believed that almost the entire population of kangaroos were destroyed at the Majura Military Base.
Canberra Nature Parks, June 2010
In June 2010 the ACT government closed several nature parks in Canberra and killed nearly 2000 kangaroos and their joeys. The reasons given were that they were a threat to native grasslands and endangered species. Despite the publication of a Kangaroo Management Plan by the ACT government to support their ongoing killing spree, no evidence or research has been provided that supports claims that kangaroos are a threat to native grasslands or their threatened species.
Please find all media reports related to this issue in the MEDIA REPORTS section of this website.
You can lodge your protest against the ACT government and Defence Department's ongoing unnecessary destruction of kangaroos and their joeys at:
Shane Rattenbury MP
ACT Minister for Municipal Services
E: RATTENBURY@act.gov.au
PH: (02) 6205 0005
ACT Chief Minister- Katy Gallagher
Phone:(02) 6205 0840
Email: gallagher@act.gov.au
PM Julia Gillard
http://www.pm.gov.au/contact-your-pm
Tony Burke- Federal Minister Environment
Tel: (02) 6277 7640
Email: Tony.Burke.MP@aph.gov.au
ACT GREENS
Phone: (02) 6140 3220
office@act.greens.org.au
FEDERAL GREENS
Ph: 02 6140-3217
greens@greens.org.au
RSPCA ACT
rspca@rspca-act.org.au
RSPCA Australia- 02 6287 8100
rspca@rspca.org.au
LETTERS TO the EDITOR
letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au
news@chronicle.com.au
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR INTEREST IN THIS ISSUE
THE ASK TEAM
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