12th January 2014:

The Australian Society for Kangaroos is calling for the prosecution of the Bundaberg Council after an (RTI) Right to Information investigation by ASK revealed they were unauthorised to shoot and kill a kangaroo at Bundaberg Airport on the 16th October last year.

ASK contacted the Bundaberg council on the morning of the 16th October immediately after a news article reported that a lone kangaroo would be shot dead at the airport by Bundaberg Council. The council advised ASK that the kangaroo had been there for several weeks, but that attempts to catch it had failed. In the phone conversation with the council that morning, ASK offered a wildlife expert to tranquilise and relocate the kangaroo but this offer was ignored, and around 4pm that day the kangaroo was shot dead.

The shooting of the kangaroo at Bundaberg airport caused public outrage as on the very same day a kangaroo at Melbourne airport was swiftly sedated with a tranquilser dart and successfully relocated. ASK Vice president Fiona Corke said “ASK and the public were told by the council that numerous attempts over the past few weeks by airport staf and the dog catcher to relocate the kangaroo had failed, leaving the kangaroo unnecessarily and hastily killed in the absence of any form of advice from wildlife experts or authorisation from the Department Environment and Heritage Protection.”

“The RTI documents we received from the Qld government clearly shows some scrambling went on to obtain a damage mitigation permit just hours before the kangaroo was shot. However the last email between council personnel and DEHP (attached) clearly states that the application could not be processed until the following day, but according to the documents, no authorisation was ever given.” said Ms Corke.

In defense of their action in killing the kangaroo Cr Barnes was quoted in the Bundaberg News Mail saying “Council is bound by federal legislation to ensure the safety of all users of its airport including some 130,000 travellers who fy in and out of the region and it cannot permit such a risk to remain without taking decisive action.”

But Ms Corke responded saying “ASK would like to remind Cr Barnes and the Bundaberg council that they didn’t need to kill the kangaroo, that there were simple, non lethal alternatives available, and that in doing so without authorisation, the council has breached state and federal legislation”.

Ms Corke said “The RTI documents have also revealed that despite their public announcements to the contrary, the council failed to include their attempts of any non lethal methods to manage the situation in their permit application which is also in breach of state legislation relating to the destruction of native wildlife, the only attempts mentioned of non lethal management was in relation to birds.”

Please see permit application attache.

ASK is calling on the DEHP to prosecute the Bundaberg council for these breaches under the Nature Conservation Act over the illegal killing of a protected animal at their regional airport.

Download the Press Release pdf file here.