November 2017: 

In their submission to the ACT government’s Draft Controlled Native Species Management Plan- Eastern Grey Kangaroos, the Australian Society for Kangaroos has slammed the ACT government for failing to provide adequate evidence to support the annual slaughter of kangaroos in the ACT. The ASK has also criticised the research being used by the government to justify the plan, stating in their submission that:

“The ACT government has killed tens of thousands of kangaroos in the ACT on public land since 2008 claiming they need to protect native and threatened species, however more than a decade later they have failed to provide any rigorous or credible data or monitoring to support these claims. There is no data whatsover proving that the large scale slaughter of kangaroos on public reserves and defence land has increased the survival of threatened or native species in the ACT, and if it did wouldn’t we would expect to see these threatened species taken off the threatened species register? “, said Nikki Sutterby President Australian Society for Kangaroos.

“If these threatened species remain on the threatened species list and fail to recover as as result of the slaughter of thousands of native kangaroos on public land in the ACT, shouldn’t the validity of the program be in question, if it is not achieving the objectives of recovering threatened species?”.

“It is highly immoral and negligent that the ACT government has been unable to justify the cruel and unnecessary annual slaughter of tens of thousands of native kangaroos and their young in the name of “conservation” if there are no obvious benefits to the grassland species, and if they are de-classified to a controlled species, the government will never be accountable to the public for their ongoing kangaroo extermination programs”, said Ms Sutterby.

The ACT government in attempting to justify their draft “Controlled Native Species Managent Plan (EGK) claims that: Population control policies and actions are based on scientific knowledge supported by ongoing research, appropriate regulation and monitoring, and codes of practice. Yet according to the ASK:

“The ACT government has provided ZERO ‘ongoing research’ or monitoring data from past kangaroo killing programs on ACT reserves to prove the necessity of this cruel and unnecessary practice. Nor does the research referred to by the ACT government in their draft Controlled Native Species Management Plan prove conclusively that kangaroos have any impact on other native species. None of these studies are rigorous or balanced in regard to their findings on kangaroos and have multiple confounding factors that have potentially influenced the results but which were not acknowledged by the authors. Some of the research found there was no impact from kangaroos, while others were heavily biased and had multiple confounding factors that were not adequately acknowledged by the authors. Some of the studies were not even relevant to kangaroos. Also one of the studies was funded by the ACT government which is of significant concern if it’s ‘findings’ supported their policies on kangaroo management”.

As a result of the ACT government’s policy on kangaroo management and their unfounded and unscientific annual kangaroo killing program, kangaroos have nowhere to hide or to find sanctuary in the ACT. Year after year they are hunted, terrorised and slaughtered as families, joeys and survivors watch in terror and wait for their turn to be shot. They live in constant fear and grief from what they witness year after year. Their pouch young are bludgeoned to death in the most barbaric and brutal way and their dependent at foot joeys are abandoned after their mother’s are shot, left to die alone from starvation, exposure, predation and stress. According to government research this is the harsh reality behind the legal slaughter of kangaroos by professional shooters (Sharp and McLeod, 2014).

Submissions to the ACT Draft Controlled Native Species Management Plan- EGK closed on Friday 24 March.

Please find attached the Australian Society for Kangaroos 8 page submission to the ACT government’s Draft Controlled Species Management Plan for Eastern Grey Kangaroos.