PUCKAPUNYAL MILITARY MASSACRE
Since 2002, the Australian Defence department has slaughtered approximately 100,000 kangaroos and their joeys at the Puckapunyal army base in Victoria. They state this is to protect the environment and the welfare of the kangaroos at PuckapunyaL, however according to the defence department’s own Puckapunyal Kangaroo Management Plan, shooting kangaroos does not change animal welfare outcomes nor improve the biodiversity of the base. Scientific vegetation monitoring at the base clearly shows that low rainfall and the impacts of sheep and cattle were to blame for environmental degradation, not the kangaroos.
On December 9th 2013, ASK received a tip off from an inside source that 6000 kangaroos and their joeys were being killed at the defence base. The informant stated that they were being killed inhumanely, without following animal welfare protocols, that joeys were being left to die, and that the defence department had set a bounty on the tail for all kangaroos shot. However the Victorian government sanctioned slaughter of 6000 kangaroos and their joeys that summer was unfounded and without evidence and we feared it will result in the complete eradication of the remaining kangaroo population at Puckapunyal Military Base. The RSPCA was opposed to this slaughter, and along with the Victorian Government animal advisory committee, was not consulted or informed of this cull. It was kept secret from the local community, the RSPCA and the Victorian public who have a right to know that their native wildlife are being slaughtered in this way.
On the evening of the 12th December 2013 Australian Society for Kangaroos frontline activists kept kangaroo shooters on the move in a desperate attempt to distract them and save thousands of kangaroos and joeys now under fire at the Puckapunyal army base near Seymour Victoria. Between 12am and 5am activists were in pursuit of shooters forcing them to abort shooting in some areas as they attempted to fulfll their quotas.
For more than a decade ASK tried to stop the annual kangaroo massacre by the Defence Department at the Puckapunyal Military Base in Victoria where tens of thousands of kangaroos and their joeys have been gunned down by our defence department. Despite desperate attempts to fight on the front line, in the media, and attempting to obtain crucial government information through freedom of information, all attempts to gain traction on this issue have failed. All documents obtained under freedom of information in the past however have exposed that there is no scientific evidence whatsoever to support the annual killing programs by Defence on animal welfare or environmental grounds.
You can download the full press release here.
You can read all about ASK’s attempts to stop this massacre at the news links below:
• ABC News Australia – Army personnel accused of shooting kangaroos. 11th December 2013
• The Age – Puckapunyal kangaroo cull our dirty little secret activists. 22nd December 2002
• Herald Sun, Victoria – Puckapunyal kangaroo cull sparks protest action. 22nd December 2013
• The Sydney Morning Herald – Roo cull gets underway. 21st May 2002
You can write to the Department of Environment and Primary Industries and the Defence department calling for an end to this cruel and unnecessary slaughter of protected native wildlife on public land on the grounds that there is no animal welfare or environmental evidence within their management plan nor the Puckapunyal vegetation assessment to support it.
MINISTER FOR DEFENCE
https://www.directory.gov.au/commonwealth-parliament/cabinet/minister-defence
MINISTER ENVIRONMENT – Lily DAmbrosia
https://new.parliament.vic.gov.au – members – lily-dambrosio
You can also write to the RSPCA and urge them to intervene and suspend this unsupervised, unmonitored, unfounded and cruel slaughter of native wildlife until a full animal welfare assessment is made.
http://www.rspcavic.org/contact-us
You can also write to the Victorian Greens who have repeatedly voiced their opposition to kangaroo culls in Victoria, asking for their assistance to put an end to this brutal annihilation of our unique macropods who are an integral and key part of the native environment at Puckapunyal. http://vic.greens.org.au/contacts
You can read just some of the media reports at the links below;
• ABC Radio – https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-11/army-personnel-accused-of-shooting-kangaroos/5148816
• Radio 3CR – https://www.3cr.org.au/freedomofspecies/podcast/freedom-species-22122013
