13 February 2018:

The Australian Society for Kangaroos is calling on the RSPCA to intervene and halt the expansion of the kangaroo meat and skins industry in Victoria before the Victorian Pet Food Trial expires in March. 

The research is clear, the kangaroo meat and skins industry is the largest and one of the cruellest wildlife slaughters in the world, and as Australia’s most powerful animal protection body the RSPCA needs to step up and speak out against the ongoing suffering of hundreds of thousands of orphaned kangaroo joeys falling victim to this barbaric industry every year.

Nikki Sutterby, President of the Australian Society for Kangaroos said in a statement today: 

“Research by the Rural Industries Research Development Corporation published in 2014 (Sharp and McLeod) revealed that professional shooters for the kangaroo meat and skins industry are routinely killing pouch young using practices that breach their code of practice, leading to prolonged pain and suffering for the orphans. It reveals that 99% of dependent at-foot orphans are abandoned by professional shooters after their shoot their mother, leaving thousands of baby kangaroos to die every year from starvation, stress and predation. The research also confirms that dependent at-foot young who become separated from their mother suffer severely, mentally and physically. The researchers also observed shooters swinging pouch joeys by their hind legs while bashing them with an iron bar, bashing them against utility racks, stomping on their heads, and decapitating them without stunning, with shooters rarely checking if the joey was dead. These practices are all in breach of the Code of Practice and have the potential the cause prolonged pain and suffering”.

“The RSPCA is aware of this research and has done their own research with similar findings, and as a powerful legislative body that claims to be ‘the leading authority in animal care and protection’ we urge them to take action and prevent any further cruelty being inflicted on orphaned baby joeys who are falling victim to this industry in Victoria”, said Ms Sutterby.

Statistics also show Victoria’s pet food trial has dramatically increased the number of kangaroos being slaughtered in Victoria since it began in 2014, despite the Department Environment Land Water and Planning telling the media in 2016 that: ‘the trial does not aim to increase the number of kangaroos controlled’ and ‘the trial had not led to more kangaroos being killed’ (The Age, March 10,2016).

“According to documents obtained under Freedom of Information, the number of kangaroos being killed in trial zones has increased up to 700% since the trial began in 2014 and government reports exposed a three-fold increase in the number of kangaroos being killed and the number being turned into pet food has tripled since the trial began. These statistics clearly shows that the trial is not about utilising the kangaroos already being killed under damage mitigation permits,  but an advancing commercial profit driven industry in Victoria’s iconic kangaroos”, said Nikki Sutterby.