Australian Wildlife Protection Council

Author: AWPC

Jane and John couple on land in rural NSW
Stories

Couple Move for Shared Life with Native Animals

Share this page COUPLE MOVE FOR SHARED LIFE WITH NATIVE ANIMALS We couldn’t have had a more auspicious start to our new life on a bush block in regional NSW near the national capital. Standing in front of our new house, facing us, was a small female kangaroo, as if to determine whether we were friend or foe. Perhaps she would communicate her impressions with her mob. We could hardly blame her if she was suspicious. Mistrust of humans is learned behaviour born of the worst of experiences. The reality is, she was one of the main reasons we bought this place, almost sight unseen. The other reasons included the predominantly forested 100 acres, the creek lined with wombat burrows, the marsupials, birds and reptiles that we were certain to discover. We are grateful to the previous human occupiers for not grazing livestock for at least 15 years or more, allowing the land to return as much as possible to its natural state for its original inhabitants – Australian wildlife. Having been caught up in the angst of wildlife advocacy for some years, we have found that this place has become our haven where we can co-exist with these unique and wonderful creatures. Only five months in, we are still unsure where this journey will lead us. For now, we know that sharing the Australian bush with the charming and benign native animals this continent has sustained for millions of years, has given us a sense of deep satisfaction. There is sweet joy in observing a kangaroo joey trying out his big feet perhaps for the first time – a little uncoordinated but going as fast as he can, returning to mum before dashing off again. …And waiting patiently on our driveway while a wombat decides whether to cross or not. And quietly watching as another keeps our lawn neatly mown. …And watching a myriad of birds – from wedge tailed eagles to weebills going about their business. We are thrilled by a wallaby coming close to the house to nibble on a bush in the garden, untroubled by our sticky-beaking…and enchanted by echidnas waddling along until they see us and instantly curl into a spiky ball. The kangaroos are getting used to us and seem to have concluded that we will not harm them. Harming them would be almost the last thing we could ever do. The plight of our wildlife can bring despair to those of us who love and appreciate how precious and unique our native animals are. Governments invariably fail them. Politicians side with the enemies of habitat, the enemies of wildlife. Money talks. Same old story. Our little patch of land, fortuitously surrounded by other people who seem to think like we do, is our sincere attempt to preserve safe space for our most endearing neighbours.

Read More »
Emus with an old river gum on dry river bed
Campaigns

RESPECT, Reconciliation, Sharing the Land with ALL our Wildlife, Living with the Nature of Australia

Share this page RESPECT, Reconciliation, Sharing the Land with ALL our Wildlife, Living with the Nature of Australia From the AWPC managing committee. We are excited to talk about our new AWPC campaign for 2023 and beyond: Respect, Reconciliation, Sharing the land with ALL our wildlife, Living with the nature of Australia — and versions of that theme. At this first stage we build on some stories that tell how some Australians are practicing respect and sharing with native wildlife, every day on their property, and why that is a good thing, not only for nature but for their businesses and themselves. You’ll find these stories here. The Respect campaign encourages us all to think about sharing our environment, whether on a small or large property, on a boat or on the balcony of a high-rise apartment. To reconcile with Australian nature, we urgently need to leave behind exploitation, persecution and killing of our unique wildlife for profit or prejudice, (see for example Australia’s shameful, world-beating wildlife trade). Similarly we must end habitat destruction for economic gain that since colonial times has overrun the natural environment and its inhabitants. We can’t rest at saving the injured victims of bad Australian practices, our general take-over-the-country lifestyle, or from increasingly challenging weather. Everyone can restore respect and reconciliation, and the pluses of extending our circle of care and compassion far outweigh the pain of letting go of tradition and old ideas.  A major plus whether in town or country is to know that remaining native animals have important roles to fill in retaining what remains of our ecosystems and biodiversity. So, starting out we want to gather more stories, either text and photos or video. Australian Wildlife Protection Council has a Youtube channel (best spell out the AWPC name in searching), where you will find a few initial pieces like this below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkD3w7o7x2Y AWPC committee, Frankie, Joanna, Maria. Do you have a story – either text or video? …to share about how you in your backyard and/or in your community are respecting and reconciling with the wildlife while retaining or adding to their habitat – that also includes our native plants – please send a short summary of your story to us via our contact form and we’ll talk about ways and means of grabbing that. Get in touch “It doesn’t matter if an animal can reason. It matters only that it is capable of suffering and that is why I consider it my neighbour.” “Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace.” Dr Albert Schweitzer (Dr Schweitzer, early 20th century missionary doctor, philosopher and theological thinker, is a well-known name in western society. An appraisal in a Christian journal said that in Africa his thinking came to revolve around: “The concept of ‘reverence for life’ …. In his day, his refusal to kill unnecessarily any form of life, no matter how minute, was regarded as a quaint eccentricity [by European culture]. Today we are finally beginning to see how our callous disregard of the biosphere may have already caused irreversible damage to the environment…aided by the colossal naivete of the western illusion of ‘conquering Nature’.) “ –– from Reconsidering Albert Schweitzer, by David L. Dungan, The Christian Century 8/10/75 pp 874-877 “The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man [and woman].” Charles Darwin

Read More »
Stories

Us And Them — The End Game?

Share this page ABOVE: from a hunting website in Queensland a year ago. As in Queensland, the NSW government is actively calling for ‘volunteers’  to shoot the wildlife – “to help the farmers” they say. Apart from basic ethical and usefulness issues, in both states there is no evidence of oversight on capacity to shoot accurately; take care of joeys; or manage any welfare questions. by Maria Taylor – 27/06/2018 Taken from: https://districtbulletin.com.au/us-end-game/ THE FOLLOWING IS an excerpted chapter from book Injustice, the War on Australian Wildlife by Maria Taylor. The subject is Australia’s fraught relationship with much of its wildlife since colonial times and how certain values and beliefs have stuck with many of us in this country. The kangaroo species that are hunted and unjustly treated as pests is the standout case study. The mainstream version of our relationship to this unique marsupial is told every day as with one voice by graziers and some farmers, major political parties, some applied ecologists, mass media and in most cases, the kangaroo ‘harvesting’ industry. Together they support the world’s biggest terrestrial wildlife slaughter. The countless millions of kangaroos people believe are bounding across the landscape are in large part a mathematical figment that has received well-deserved deconstruction. In this chapter Taylor talks to two former ‘roo shooters who tell a different story – not from a desktop, but from ground-level. They reveal the horrors that are going on right now in south west Queensland in the name of drought relief and to prop up hopes for revival of a sheep industry there. And the same ideas and proposed solution to blame kangaroos are seeping into NSW. “I rang the federal member for Roma the other day and said: have you been into parliament to tell them to change the coat of arms for Australia? She says why? I said because you’ve shot the kangaroo and emu out. She slammed the phone down on me. “Between the drought and the cluster fencing; the poisoning (of waterholes) and the shooting; the kangaroo is wiped out in western Queensland.” — Tom King Snr, Cunnamulla “We’ve been driving through (Central Queensland) for seven years. Except for one very wet year we have seen (and smelt) lots of dead animals. One year we saw the bodies of kangaroos and other wildlife every five metres around Longreach. We’ve seen dingoes killed and scalped and hung from posts and large poison bait (1080) signs. The region has an all-out assault on wildlife. These ways of treating wildlife are very traditional; but what about the desire in these areas to increase tourism?” — Dr Arian Wallach, University of Technology Sydney,conducting dingo research in Central Queensland LYN GYNTHER TELLS me that she lives next door to an abattoir. She recounts a recent experience with a load of cattle. They had been left there by the owner over the weekend with no feed and as much water as a dog would drink in a day. She got on the phone to the owner and told him that if he didn’t come around with some feed and water, she’d do it and bill him. He came. I had gone to Central Queensland to interview Lyn Gynther and Tom King about their first-hand experiences. Lyn, from around Warwick, is a fighter for animals but she was also a killer of animals as a former roo shooter. Tom King from Cunnamulla is also outspoken for wildlife these days while still a licensed and sometimes practicing roo shooter. To be accurate, he’d like to be a roo shooter who can still make some income in an arena the kangaroo industry and state and national governments insist is sustainable wildlife management. Given his unusual outspokenness he’s also been pushed off properties and called crazy; or lying for breaking the tradition that demands conformity and silence towards outsiders – characteristic of many communities, particularly rural communities, in Australia as elsewhere. But with an intractable drought pitting domestic stock graziers against the commercial kangaroo ‘harvesting’ business, let alone wildlife welfare advocates, things have been breaking out into the news. From the kangaroo industry’s perspective the wildlife ‘resource’ is being wiped out.  Tom in particular has interested local journalists by fingering as a major culprit the kilometres of cluster fencing nominally aimed at stopping wild dogs that maul sheep. But the fences also cut across remaining wildlife corridors to water and to opportunistic forage. Both Lyn and Tom told me about the destruction being rained down on kangaroos and wallabies and, more quietly, emus, by a state government mitigation program to help the graziers. This entails generous open season permits to shoot macropods for three years being issued for 2017–2020. ‘Mitigation’ has in some places opened the door for recreational shooters being invited onto grazing properties to blast away at any wild-living animal unfortunate enough to be caught up by the fencing maze. This is happening on Mitchell Grass plains interspersed with mulga and Gidgee native tree belts where there has been conversion since the mid-1990s from sheep to frequently opportunistic cattle grazing – a situation that local and state politicians in 2018 herald as starting to reverse itself thanks to the fencing. They have hailed the move back to sheep as the newest saviour for outback communities like Cunnamulla. Back to tradition is a time-honoured Australian response to a challenging environment. Drought and now climate change WHAT SHOULD BE predictable drought, (it’s happened since colonial days), has been intensified and made less predictable by present-day climate change. Six-, seven-year or longer drought now frames a renewed war on wildlife as paddocks lie bare of forage. It reads like a 21st century replay of the colonial annihilation of the native inhabitants from ‘private property’ that new settlers claimed across the landscape. Talking to the current settlers, long-standing myths, demonization, and false facts soon emerge regarding remaining kangaroo mobs, complicated again by the activities of the commercial harvesters. For example, recent policies to target only male animals (to get around the bad public relations

Read More »
Uncategorized

Critical State Of Biodiversity Health

Share this page 2021 AWPC President’s Report to membership I WOULD LIKE to start by thanking the dedicated AWPC committee and members for their contribution in what has been a very difficult two years since my presidency commenced and for all Australian species, in seas and oceans, in the sky and on the land. In the two years I have been privileged to be President of the AWPC in Australia, three billion native animals are estimated to have died in catastrophic fires, ten million Kangaroos and their young have been killed in the most cruel and disgraceful circumstances and authorities to kill wildlife have been issued by state and territory governments in vast numbers and for a staggering array of species. Hardly a success story, but I take comfort from a knowledgeable colleague in Canberra who says “the very worst thing would be to stop trying”. And tried we have, each and every one. The AWPC committee and AWPC members have engaged in the following activities in support of Australian wildlife: education and advocacy including submissions to politicians, particularly in Victoria and in the ACT and federally in regard to the escalating killing of kangaroos, biodiversity loss and policy, the plight of Australian birdlife, particularly duck shooting; highlighting the plight of wildlife carers; campaigns from NSW focusing on the use of native wildlife as petfood and co-existing with wildlife; supporting state-based wildlife groups whether on behalf of kangaroo species including support with content for Kangaroos Alive on World Kangaroo Day; providing information to community wildlife groups; and liaison and support for international wildlife campaigns and organisations such as the Centre for Humane Economy in the United States. We also thank our numerous partner organisations and are particularly proud of our part in the development of the International Kangaroo Protection Alliance, a grouping of international experts connecting Europe, the Middle East, the United States and the Asia Pacific to inform governments about the consequences of the exploitation, cruelty and loss of Australian wildlife, in this case the growing number of species of Kangaroo and Wallaby now exploited for commercial gain. Over the last two years I have done numerous media interviews, a majority on radio and many overseas. Solutions to the serious nature of extreme biodiversity loss in Australia There is no sugar-coating of what is occurring in Australia and things have become continually worst, regardless of our efforts to slow the destruction of biodiversity. Conduct in relation to climate change is an exact parallel. The best things we can do are: to inform the public of what is occurring and what the consequences of the loss of biodiversity are, including directly to the people who live in this country; to properly inform Indigenous people in Australia — who are subject to black-washing in Australia by governments and industry who are exploiting biodiversity in Australia — about the scope and scale of the destruction to their lands and species; to motivate young people to take biodiversity loss as seriously as they now take climate change, the two are one in terms of their impacts on human futures; to encourage those individuals with large land holdings in Australia, particularly farmers, to use modern methods of farming which include biodiversity in the landscape; to finally put an end to the disgraceful and commercial exploitation of land-based Australian wildlife; to think carefully about land clearing practices in Australia, which remain at scale and are intensely damaging to biodiversity and do little for economic development; to look closely at increasingly silly fire mitigation practices in Australia which include burning-off at vast scale, leaving fires to burn which eventually become fire storms, to stop burning tropical wet forests (driven by financial gain and silly carbon mitigation practices) that destroy the wet tropics and create environments that are now at extreme risk of catastrophic fires; to engage and inform the general public to respect those things that are Australian and have evolved here, it is beginning to happen for the plant kingdom so it can happen for fauna as well; to protect the integrity of research at Australian Universities to ensure it is independent and free from influence (sadly the most important courses in major Australian Universities are being closed, this is no accident); to make governments accountable for their actions; and to internationalise the fight to protect Australia’s precious species. If we don’t do these things, and fast, there will be nothing. In the end it can only be up to us, and that is everyone, and everywhere. The AWPC and government submissions The AWPC has had an intensive period of advocating for wildlife including submission, meetings and sometimes appearances at government inquiries, work taking hundreds of hours of research and authorship as well as sharing of knowledge to politicians and their staff and moral support of witnesses. This work remains an important part of AWPC’s contribution to wildlife conservation and survival in Australia. We have contributed to the following inquiries during my time as President: Inquiry into the health and wellbeing of kangaroos and other macropods in New South Wales. Victoria’s Wildlife Act Review. Victoria’s biodiversity loss inquiry. Victorian Auditor’s Ramsar inquiry. Inquiry into the operation of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (joint submission). AgriFutures: National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies for Commercial Purposes (the way the AWPC and its committee and members were treated by this organisation can only be described as disgraceful). The role of Governments in Australia in enabling and promoting the mass killing of Australian native species for commercial gain, sport and recreation and ‘mitigation’. Australian mammal and bird species are in the front line of government-enabled killing activities. Australian fauna has few friends in government, all major parties are engaged in enabling its destruction. Typically governments apply the same tactics as each other to enable the mass killing of wildlife involving misleading and inaccurate information. This is a general rule, with a few exceptions, the individuals defending and caring for Australia’s wildlife

Read More »
Uncategorized

Lidl Ends Bloody Kangaroo Meat Trade

Share this page Animal welfare charity Viva! scores another victory in long-standing kangaroo campaign as budget supermarket chain Lidl finally caves to public pressure and ends trade in kangaroo meat. With frozen food giants Iceland dropping sales earlier this year, Lidl had remained the only UK supermarket carrying the meat on occasion as part of their weekly promotional deals. Marketing the ‘deluxe kangaroo steaks’ as nutritious and inexpensive Lidl consumers were unwittingly buying into the largest slaughter of land based wildlife in history. Hunted at night in the vast outback, with powerful four-track vehicles and mesmerising search lights, the startled animals are shot, supposedly in the head but many are in fact mis-shot and die a slow, agonising death. Although no statistics are currently available on the number of wounded animals the Australian RSPCA estimates that 100,000 adults are inhumanely killed with some temporarily surviving with horrific wounds, such as shot off jaws [1]. Latest ‘harvest figures’ from the Department of the Environment and Energy have 6.9 million kangaroos earmarked for slaughter in 2018 [2] but this does not include the millions of baby kangaroos (joeys) that are simply thrown away. The Australian Government’s own guidelines [3] insist on clubbing or decapitating joeys, as they cannot survive without their mothers. Many will and do escape but later die from predation. It is a common misconception that kangaroos are farmed. They are completely wild, which means populations fluctuate massively – and can be especially impacted by factors difficult to predict, such as drought and disease. Since kangaroos are a slow-breeding marsupial with low reproductive rates wildlife experts are concerned that turning them into just another commodity is not only cruel but also unsustainable. In addition to the barbaric nature of kangaroo hunts are the human health implications. Independent testing has found dangerously high levels of salmonella and E.coli [4], as contamination of the meat is logistically unavoidable due to the setting in which the animals are slaughtered and transported. Contamination is that much of a threat that the industry is advising its shooters to spray kangaroo carcasses with acetic acid in the field. However, Food Standards Australia New Zealand are not monitoring the extent of its use and have not prescribed a maximum limit [5]. Animal welfare organisation Viva! have campaigned against the sale of kangaroo meat since its inception in the early 90s and achieved numerous successes in removing sales from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Iceland and now Lidl. “Having campaigned on the issue of kangaroo meat for the best part of two and a half decades I couldn’t be happier to finally say – we did it! The novelty value of so-called ‘exotic meat’ has been masking the true horror of a brutal business for too many years. As always, Viva! remain committed to supporting Australian wildlife groups to end the bloody trade and celebrate the kangaroo for its unique and iconic status in Australia.” – Viva! founder and director, Juliet Gellatley [1] http://www.environment.gov.au/node/16662 [2] http://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/pages/d3f58a89-4fdf-43ca-8763-bbfd6048c303/files/kangaroo-statistics-2018.pdf [3] https://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/wildlife-trade/publications/national-code-practice-humane-shooting-kangaroos-and-wallabies-commercial [4] https://www.smh.com.au/environment/hygiene-threatens-kangaroo-meat-industry-20091117-ikf6.html [5] http://www.aph.gov.au/~/media/Committees/clac_ctte/estimates/bud_1516/Health/Answers/SQ15-000406.pdf Notes to editor Lidl quote obtained from Amali Bunter on behalf of Lidl UK CEO Christian Härtnagel: “Following recent customer feedback, we have taken the decision to no longer sell kangaroo meat at Lidl UK. This commitment will come into effect from June 2018.” Viva!’s kangaroo campaign website: savethekangaroo.com Viva!’s previous campaigns against this industry have achieved wide media coverage including: The Sunday Mirror, The Metro, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Grocer andThe Sun. For details of the human health implications of eating kangaroo meat please see Viva!’s updated fact sheet: https://www.savethekangaroo.com/factsheet (it includes details of a brand new kangaroo butchering facility closed down because of health concerns) Image of joeys: Ray Drew / Image of dead kangaroos: Viva! *This article was written by Viva!

Read More »
Australian Lorikeet
Stories

Committee Report 2023

Share this page What has AWPC been up to? Committee Report Hello friends and members of AWPC, Here’s what we’ve been doing in the past six months. Late in 2022 AWPC, partnering with Animals Australia, commissioned a national media advertising campaign on the theme ‘STOP the horror trade’, ‘World’s biggest land-based wildlife slaughter’ (what Australia does with kangaroos). In Canberra, in consultation with AWPC, Save Canberra’s Kangaroos are also using direct advertising messages in print and electronic media against the ACT government’s shameful kangaroo ‘cull’, while continuing to observe and record the activities of officials and shooters on the killing fields. The 2023 killing started again on the 12 June. Lend your voice via #savecanberraskangaroos on Facebook. We met with an adviser to federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek regarding their woeful management of Australian biodiversity in regard to the kangaroo species and indeed on the theme of protecting all not yet-endangered Australia wildlife. We hand-delivered some copies of our dossier on the kangaroo hunt: ‘Can you keep looking away?’, plus copies of Maria Taylor’s book ‘Injustice: hidden in plain sight, the war on Australian nature’. We think they heard us? The AWPC committee, with expertise from president Frankie Seymour, wrote submissions to federal and state authorities regarding the biodiversity tragedy, asking that the government use the EPBC act to protect ALL our native species. The submission to Minister Plibersek, in response to her call-out for solutions to assist conservation of Australian biodiversity, outlines paths to action for biodiversity that are available to the federal Environment Minister. Australia has signed international treaties to conserve nature and biodiversity that are not being acted upon. Send your message of care for all wildlife and the critical role they play in biodiversity to the environment ministers, federal and state. AWPC is supporting protection of wildlife efforts at state level – ACT, NSW and Victoria – including in the Sydney metro area where koalas and threatened ecological communities are facing the bulldozer for housing developments. Here on this new site AWPC has made a helpful resource guide which you will find at the top of the page. Please use and share for questions of where you can tie in to conserve our native wildlife and its habitats. Best Wishes,The AWPC Committee, Frankie, Joanna, Maria We are interested in your stories of co-existence and sharing with wildlife. Do you have something you wish to share? Please let us know by sending a summary of your story to our contact page and we’ll work with you to post it.

Read More »
Asiatic black bear standing
Stories

Compassion, Healing and Hope

Share this page The Healing Power of Animals: Moon Bear Has a Place Source:  https://marcbekoff.com/ This guest essay was written by Kyle Warner, an accomplished artist, writer, and former student of Marc Bekoff in the Transitions program at the Boulder County Jail (Colorado).  My personal hero, teacher, and dear friend, Marc Bekoff, comes to the jail faithfully every Friday to facilitate just one of Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots groups. We engage in a lot of profound, meaningful discussions and he helps us to really understand just why animals matter. He also helps us to take part in many causes and worldwide issues between nonhuman animals and humans. With Marc’s help, we have had our voices heard within many discussions, court battles, online debates, and protests. Some of these include whether we should reintroduce wild wolves here in Colorado, how to stop the potential trophy hunting of grizzly bears in Wyoming, what to do about the mass killing of elephants, the injustice of rich people hunting majestic lions for sport, and other similar topics.2 One issue that stands out for me is the moon bear. Since learning about this beautiful crescent-stamped animal, I have felt drawn to them on a deep level. There is an industry in China where people keep them in small cages to harvest bile out of their gall bladders for Traditional Chinese Medicine. With the help of an organization called Animals Asia, these bears have hope. Animals Asia rescues these bears from coffin-like cages, attends to their medical and psychological needs, and provides them sanctuary in their very own paradise. In 2017, I drew a few of these beautiful animals. In one was Jasper, who passed away not long after I took on this project. Also in that drawing was Oscar and BeaRtrice, whom Marc named after his parents. He was happy to share my art with Animals Asia and many throughout the world. Since then, I have had an opportunity to share my art with Jane Goodall, probably one of the most fulfilling moments of the last three years for me. Recently, in one of the other amazing groups I get to attend here at Boulder County Jail, I embarked on a brief vision quest during a guided meditation. The gentle, soft-spoken instructions began with an ascent. Meeting my spirit animal I imagined my conscious awareness being granted liberty from the limitations and confinement of my body I first hovered above myself before floating up to the ceiling, above the jail, higher and higher, hoping to come back with an animal name. I was instructed to fly west toward the Rocky Mountains and to proceed past the foothills, deep into the jagged, snowcapped Rockies. I landed in a clearing, perhaps some sort of valley surrounded by mighty aspens on high mountains. It was an almost-familiar place, but nowhere I’ve been before. Everything was much bigger and the colors more vibrant. Most of the mountain peaks were hiding in the heavens, camouflaged by clouds. Read the full story here

Read More »
Stories

Feeding Kangaroo to your Pets? Here are Some Thoughts

Share this page Why do people expect to feed their dogs or cats on Australian wildlife, specifically kangaroo? Are they informed consumers? … aware of the unavoidable cruelty that goes with this trade and of the possible health risks to humans or pets that comes with eating bushmeat? Here are some realities that consumers might want to weigh up. KANGAROO, IS THE only Australian native animal hunted specifically for the petfood trade. Most meat in petfood comes from offcuts of domesticated animals bred and killed for human consumption. (Remember the shock and revulsion on hearing of racehorses taken to the knackery.) Australia’s national icon is hunted down in most cases by poorly-paid shooters with few employment choices, who slaughter dozens or hundreds a night at pennies-a-carcass on country properties and increasingly in the wildlife’s last refuges, national parks and reserves. To call this trade or it’s non-commercial version “humane” — as those who enable it like to tell the city folk — is just a self-serving fraud. No independent observers monitor the hunt, the motorised pursuit of terrified kangaroo families, the mis-shots and injuries, with animals at times lingering injured for days; no one helps the totally lost mother-dependent joeys. No one watches what happens next either. Partly butchered carcasses are hung in the trays of utes in all temperatures for a short or long trip to a chiller in a paddock, where basic sanitation has been questioned in some instances. Eventually the bodies are processed in a town — minced and stuffed into petfood cans, or sometimes butchered for overseas human consumption while the skins are exported as shoe leather. Victoria and South Australia returning to petfood trade Victoria, where kangaroo species were recovering after a moratorium on the commercial hunt starting in the 1980s, is now back in business with the kangaroo petfood trade enjoying the state government’s blessing along with applause from some farmers. The advantage of petfood is that any species, size, age or condition animal may do. RELATED ARTICLE: Victoria’s petfood plans grow and draw more protest, AWPC. The kangaroo ‘industry’ has switched focus to southern Australia from Queensland and NSW whose killing fields — after decades of commercial slaughter, drought, fire, flood, disease and landholder killing — have population counts flashing red warning signs underscored by poor “harvests” for years now. The South Australian government, where the iconic Red kangaroo has recovered to an extent, is working on a new removal/ ‘management’ plan. Reports are coming through of wallabies going into the mix too. Half-burned Kangaroo Island is not exempt from these plans we hear. Quite apart from the field hygiene conditions, kangaroos, being wild animals, harbour pathogens. Country people don’t often eat kangaroo, citing ‘worms’. The question of what consumers know arose with a recent ABC Rural story reporting on Victorian pet-owners, grief-stricken at the death of their dogs who were fed contaminated petfood linked to a Gippsland knackery.  A quoted pet-owner thought they were feeding ‘pure kangaroo.’ These are not the first dogs to die in a widening petfood scandal. The trail has led to outback supplies. Reportedly the toxic content came via cattle and horse carcasses allegedly mixed with kangaroo. Regulate the petfood industry Pet owners are calling for any kind of regulation of the petfood industry. That is long overdue on health and welfare grounds. At the Bulletin we are animal lovers and dog companions and our hearts go out to the bereaved dog owners caught up in this disaster. Nevertheless, the question remains: how did we and our governments come to consider as ‘normal’ slaughtering our national emblem for petfood, and export sausages and leather? How is this different from the extensive slaughter of koalas (and other marsupials) for skins to export up until the early 20th century? The fate of the koala is now plain to see. The disrespect shown to Australia’s national symbol and some other wildlife confuses overseas visitors. Their tourist list is often topped by a wish to see ‘Skippy’ in the flesh. What they don’t know is that all species of kangaroo, that includes wallabies, have (since colonial settlement) been removed from their habitat, killed on behalf of a European model of stock grazing that was to be grafted onto a misunderstood land. A bounty era of removal was followed by the commercial trade in body parts, starting with skins for export. It grew profitable and developed its own momentum. As readers of the Bulletin know the same attitude of disrespect and killing is a baffling annual event on the nature reserves of Canberra the national capital. City politicians and bureaucrats cite ‘scientific research’. This version of science now gives cover to national park killings elsewhere. Politician and media narratives describe the carnage as an essential Australian on- farm and export business. Australian pet owners and meat eaters therefore have had little encouragement to become informed consumers of their national icon. Time indeed for review of bushmeat sold for human and pet consumption, for regulation as needed, and, most important, a call for renewed respect and co-existence extended to our natural world and to our unique wildlife. More of the factual background to this editorial can be found and fully explored in Maria Taylor’s new documentary book Injustice, hidden in plain sight the war on Australian nature… > More at www.mariataylor.com.au TWO DOG FOODS GUARANTEED NOT TO CONTAIN KANGAROO While preparing this September issue of The District Bulletin, two dog food sources crossed our horizon guaranteed not to contain kangaroo and promising good nutrition too. We have made no independent examination of these food products and are not therefore directly recommending them. But they sound very promising as alternatives or additions in the marketplace so we leave it to you to check out if you want to. And the doggie yogurt press release came with not one but two cute photos that we couldn’t resist sharing below. Gully Road Australian-grown products for dogs. Small business mail order dog-food purveyor based in Victoria with an ethical value frame. See it here. Chobani Daily Dollop lactose-free and digestion boosting yogurt

Read More »
Stories

Australia Poisons Dingo, the Native Dog: It’s what we do for Sheep

Share this page FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHRUG: IS THIS DOG A ‘NATIVE’ YET? A NOTICE WARNING of fox and wild dog baiting in local forests appeared in the Public Notice section of Narooma News, on Wednesday May 26. Animals to be targeted under this program are foxes and wild dogs. Dingoes have been classed as “wild dogs” for the purpose of the scheme, even though as a native animal with an important role to play as an apex predator in the eco-system they should be entitled to protection. EDITORIAL COMMENT: This ABC article (linked here) comes around to recognise the dingo as apex predator but still peppers the report with pastoralist ideas of what is a ‘pest’ to be removed, including the native kangaroos, and what might be allowed to live. Tragically for the already disrupted balance of nature other native animals will also die a hideous, painful death as a result of ingesting 1080 poison. This poison is so damaging to people, birds and animals it has been banned in most other countries of the world. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) reports that: “1080 is toxic to all living species, including microbes, plants, insects, birds and humans. There are reports that Nazis considered using the poison on Jewish prisoners in concentration camps but decided against it because of danger to the guards.” Fire and drought: let’s follow it with poisoning Hasn’t our wildlife suffered enough death and dislocation as a result of flood, fire and famine over the last few years without being subjected to further pain and loss from such an indiscriminate and dangerous scheme? RELATED ARTICLE:  Poisoned pills showered on burned parks and reserves.  By The Bulletin, and Susan Cruttenden. Are we so little concerned with environmental issues and the fact that Australia already has one of the highest wildlife extinction rates in the world that we allow our state forests to become killing fields for the next four months? So why is this plan being condoned by the state government and accepted by local councils? Presumably it is in response to some farmers complaints about threats to their livestock in areas adjoining state forests, but what exactly is this threat? And aren’t there more humane ways of livestock protection, even if will mean less income for manufacturers of 1080? Domestic dog owners know If you are the owner of a dog that has eaten part of poisoned carrion dropped into your backyard, or of a maremma guardian dog protecting sheep that died in agony you will certainly have an opinion! Animal Rights lawyer, Marilyn Nuske is even challenging the legality of using 1080 poison. As a controversial issue among the relatively few people who know of this scheme, why haven’t the views of animal rights groups, humanitarians, ecologists, scientists and biologists been discussed, debated and publicised before this war on wildlife was  been declared as a fait accompli? Indigenous people for whom the dingo is a totem animal believe we must learn to live in harmony with Nature. In the words of David Attenborough — “It’s surely our responsibility to do everything within our power to provide a planet that provides a home — not just for us — but for all life on earth”.

Read More »
kookaburra-cr-matthew-willimott-unsplash
State by state

Esperance (WA) Kookaburra Sighting Raises Questions About Native Wildlife Management

Share this page THE NATION’S LARGEST bird organisation has logged its first ever record of a kookaburra in the West Australian south coast town of Esperance. But given it is the “king of the bush”, one expert has suggested a kookaburra cull could be an idea worth exploring. Sean Dooley, the national public affairs manager for BirdLife Australia, said kookaburras were introduced to WA from the east coast back in 1896 and records show they had reached Albany by the 1960s. But BirdLife had no record of a kookaburra ever being in Esperance before, until local resident Barbara Jones took a drive with her husband this week. “Out the corner of my eye I saw a bird and I thought, ‘That’s a kookaburra!’ ” she told the ABC. “[But my husband’s] comment to me was, ‘Well, in the 22 years that I’ve been here I’ve never seen a kookaburra.’ ” … CONTINUE READING By Emily Smith, ABC News

Read More »