Community | April 23, 2009 | 51 comments

1000's of baby kangaroos to be clubbed to death in new Australian government ruling |

source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1172964/Thousands-baby-kangaroos-clubbed-d...

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julesrs007
An Australian government ruling that will permit thousands of baby kangaroos to be clubbed to death has caused outrage among animal rights activists.

The state of New South Wales is permitting culling for the first time after a drought forced kangaroos into residential areas. Up to 150,000 a year are to be killed by hunters.

Animal welfare groups have been horrified over official guidelines which legitimise barbaric killing methods for orphaned marsupials - or joeys - found in their mothers' pouches.

They say tens of thousands will now be decapitated, shot or clubbed to death with official blessing.

Nikki Sutterby from the Australian Society for Kangaroos said the public has no idea how many joeys were killed in the commercial shooting industry.

'If we estimate that 1/3 of the 150,000 kangaroos to be killed are females and 1/2 of them have a joey, that works out to 25,000 joeys to be decapitated, bashed to death or shot each year,' she said.

'There are already almost 4 million kangaroos commercially killed in Australia annually. Do the same sums and you realise hundreds of thousands of joeys are being killed horribly each year.

Official guidelines for hunters say that hairless joeys should be decapitated or bludgeoned to death while older joeys should be beaten to death or shot.

Miss Sutterby added: 'They don't want to allow joeys to be rescued because it would expose the dirty secrets of the industry.'

The Australian arm of the Human Society International said: 'Clubbing and decapitation of joeys is one of the forgotten cruelties of kangaroo hunting.'

But the RSPCA said it reluctantly accepted the decapitation and clubbing of joeys after two thorough investigations of the commercial kangaroo industry.
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51 comments // 1000's of baby kangaroos to be clubbed to death in new Australian government ruling |

  • tome_erau
    • 0
      tome_erau  

    • You guys are all missing the point. They have to kill some of the kangaroos because there is a major draught in Australia, and if they don't ALL the kangaroos will die.

      The Australian people are incredible compassionate about the environment, and the wouldn't just beat a bunch of animals to death for fun. They're not Americans.

    • 3 years ago
  • bizworld
  • princesslammy1977
  • lordsbassman
  • Wegg
    • 0
      Wegg  
    • princesslammy1977:

      I have! Its. . . ok. Bit like beef only with a strong liver/wild taste to it. And 0 fat. So it was a little dry. But I'm sure you could figure out how to cook it better than we did. :-)

    • 3 years ago
  • lordsbassman
  • BaggyBagBaggy
  • DeliaTheArtist
  • princesslammy1977
  • princesslammy1977
  • chackoccino
  • FrankyZemo
    • 0
      FrankyZemo  

    • Can we just please stop caring so much about animals. I mean, there are actually *people* dieing in the world.

      "By the time the plague was contained, man was without pets. Of course, for man this was intolerable. I mean, he might kill his brother, but he could not kill his dog!"
      -Cornelius, "Escape from the Planet of the Apes."

    • 3 years ago
  • numinant
    • 0
      numinant  
    • FrankyZemo:

      People don't take kindly to genocide. The Australian government finally apologized for the extermination of aborigines. I wonder if they'll ever apologize for this.

      I'm not really sure how you make the distinction between the wanton slaughter of humans and other mammals though. Have you ever scrutinized your value system? It might not be as rational as you think.

      If everyone had the reverence and compassion for life as those that oppose needless animal sacrifice, I don't think humanity would be in the predicament its in.

    • 3 years ago
  • FrankyZemo
    • 0
      FrankyZemo  
    • FrankyZemo:

      Actually, it is all kind of funny. We whine about the genocide of both animal, and human, but noones going to do anything about it. I mean, are you going to fly over to Australia, and yell at them? no? well...me neither.

    • 3 years ago
  • numinant
  • Raveway
    • 0
      Raveway  

    • I love animals, but i am realistic about it. I read a little about this and if they killed all the predators, the roo population would understandably skyrocket. Push the fluffy cuddly image of animals aside when you have to deal with real environmental and animal control issues. Difficult but necessary.

    • 3 years ago
  • naty_forty
  • numinant
    • 0
      numinant  

    • Anyone here give any consideration as to how we kill our own animals? It's far less "humane."

      But if we're going to give serious consideration to overpopulation, let's start with ourselves. A kangaroo isn't going to have 1/1000th the ecological impact of a human.

    • 3 years ago
  • fun_size
  • numinant
    • 0
      numinant  
    • numinant:

      Well, my point is that killing anyone is an extreme and poor solution. But we should really stop scapegoating other species and focus on our own behavior before we decide to try to engineer entire ecosystems.

    • 3 years ago
  • SPECIALIST
  • keviar
    • 0
      keviar  

    • i have this gut wrenching image in my head of the mother kangaroo getting shot in the face falling on its side and in its pouch is a poor helpless thing that later then gets decapitated and thrown away.

    • 3 years ago
  • ashcatash
    • 0
      ashcatash  

    • This is horrible, but have you heard of HR 669? That's the new bill that's being passed in congress to ban non-native species, like parakeets, hamsters, gerbils, ferrets, snakes, etc. All animals in pet stores will be euthenized and stores will be forbidden to sell pet supplies.

    • 3 years ago
  • SPECIALIST
  • J_Jammer
  • Wegg
  • slarabee
  • jfill
  • jfill
    • 0
      jfill  
    • slarabee:

      the fact that there are too many of the little guys so they have to kill a few off is sad yeah but what do you want them to do?

      i guess my question for you and everyone else boo hooing is how can you humainly kill something?

      if you understand overpopulation then whats the problem?

    • 3 years ago
  • wirehedd
    • 0
      wirehedd  
    • slarabee:

      not to be the voice of the asshole side of this but there is no faster more humane way to end the life of any creature than instantaneous massive brain trauma.

      There is no sensation of pain and there is no prolonged suffering.

      Starvation, predation and slow painful death do not a humane end make.

    • 3 years ago
  • ron_pual_2008
    • ron_pual_2008  
    • This comment was removed as a violation of community guidelines.
  • Raveway
  • Wegg
    • 0
      Wegg  

    • When I was younger I used to go out and help my Uncle who was a Roo Shooter. The skins were used for leather, the meat for pet foods and what we did helped the land owners maintain enough growing food for their livestock. There is no quicker way to kill a small animal without causing major distress than to hit them squarely on the head with a thick heavy pipe. No one there is having "fun" doing this. . . its just a part of living in Australia.

      I personally think Kangaroos should be eaten as a replacement to mutton and beef. Apparently they make little to no methane, are already great at living in Australia's harsh climate and . . . well the ones I ate didn't taste that great but. . . I'm sure that could be improved on. ;-)

    • 3 years ago
  • sgwhites
  • jfill
    • 0
      jfill  

    • what better solution is there for an over-population problem?

      what are the animal rights activists suggesting?

      hug them to death?

    • 3 years ago
  • Wegg
  • jh64487
  • jfill
  • kennymotown
  • krush_productions
  • DeliaTheArtist
    • 0
      DeliaTheArtist  

    • Holy shit & thanks for the buzzkill!

      I'm a little confused; why do they have to kill the kangaroos? Overpopulation or something? They are killing too many moms leaving the babies, so kill the babies too?

    • 3 years ago
  • bombastinator
    • 0
      bombastinator  
    • DeliaTheArtist:

      Unlike most wild animal populations these days the kangaroo population is gigantic. Ever since Australian farmers had the bad judgment to wipe out their natural predators They've actually become a serious agricultural pest. Wild kangaroos make great leather and pet food though so the role has been taken by a regulated hunting industry not unlike commercial fishing. I suspect the industry prefers clubbing whenever possible because it doesn't damage the valuable hide.

      An animal rights activist with a sadistic streak might want to agitate for clubbing to be the only legal method of killing as a man who goes after an adult kangaroo with nothing but a club is probably going to lose.

    • 3 years ago
  • fun_size
  • IMMININT
  • wirehedd
  • pakazak
  • idealist
    • 0
      idealist  

    • it took alot of strenght to even click this article. thats pretty messed but but then again so is the clubbing of baby seals and old laidys for the purses and fur, but it happens all the time.

    • 3 years ago
  • Numbz
    • 0
      Numbz  

    • What the hell?
      It's horrible that animals are still treated so cruely. There's totally a better way to go about this.

    • 3 years ago
  • NeverNude
    • 0
      NeverNude  
    • Numbz:

      oh come on, yea it sucks and its violent, but if the population goes unchecked they could exhaust their food sources and go extinct. yea it sucks, but I would be more pissed about irresponsible agricultural development, not animal cruelty-cause thats not the case here

    • 3 years ago
  • J_Jammer
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