19th February 2015.

The Australian Society for Kangaroos is urging the Loddon Shire council to consider the horrific realities of the kangaroo meat and skins industry before approving a kangaroo abattoir in Inglewood, Victoria, which is currently before council.

 The Campaspe Meat Company plans to process up to 2000 kangaroos per week for pet food, which will directly result in the cruel death of up to 1000 orphaned joeys every week, for just 10 jobs.

This is despite a damning report into the Victorian Kangaroo Pet Food Trial that the Andrew’s government didn’t want released, exposing  fraud, corruption, illegal activity, over shooting, and a totally unregulated, unsupervised profit driven kangaroo meat and skins industry that has contributed to the loss of nearly half of Victoria’s kangaroos.

Another government research report by the Rural Industries Research Development Corporation published in 2014, revealed 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. The researchers 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 before throwing them in the dirt.

It also revealed that 99% of dependent at-foot orphans are abandoned by professional shooters after they shoot their mother, leaving thousands of baby kangaroos to die every year from starvation, stress and predation. These practices are all in breach of the Code of Practice and have the potential to cause prolonged pain and suffering.

Victorian residents who live in kangaroo shooting areas now have their peaceful lives destroyed. Countless residents in regional Victoria are suffering horrific trauma from this industry operating in their area at night as this industry slaughters their  local mobs. Residents are reporting the sound of gunfire all through the night, spotlights beaming into their house, and finding bloodied kangaroo parts the following day.

They were never asked for their permission by council or the state government to allow this industry in their town, but continue to suffer the horrific consequences, night after night after night.

We are pleading with the Loddon community and council to consider the realities behind this barbaric and corrupt industry before giving the go ahead to this cruel slaughterhouse.

You can also view the various petitions circulating calling for the plans to be rejected.
https://www.facebook.com/100004964101504/posts/1965099283665523/
https://www.facebook.com/100045747161789/posts/392274612307441/