KANGAROOS AT RISK
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Welfare

Body shots

Kangaroo shooting occurs away from scrutiny in darkness when brain shots are difficult. ​
  • Field inspections by RSPCA Australia of kangaroo processors in 1985 and in 2000-2002 found 248,815 and 112,578  kangaroos had suffered body shots through non-compliance of the Code of Practice which requires immediate death by a shot to the brain.  This was considered a conservative number. [1]
Picture
The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia (1988) "Kangaroos - Report by the Senate Select Committee on Animal Welfare". Introduction 8.2 pg 149.
  • ​The RSPCA (2002) notes "sampling at the processor does not take into account the number of kangaroos shot in the field that were not taken to the chiller or processor", and that "accurate surveying of shooters is extremely difficult because of observer influence affecting the results." It is recognised that most kangaroo shooting is not able to be observed given "in most circumstances where kangaroos are shot this is not feasible". There has been no large scale independent study done since.  
    ​
  • NSW Agriculture data has found that kangaroo shooters "fully intending to shoot in the head" under agency observation will injure but fail to kill and retrieve 1-2 kangaroos each shoot.[2]  This can be extrapolated to hundreds of thousands of kangaroos suffering horrific gunshot injuries over the decades, with shooting occurring every night across Australia. 

  • Buckshot kangaroos  are also finding their way into kangaroo meat processors  “causing huge problems for meat processors”.[3] This raises serious questions about the lack of regulatory oversight, where kangaroos are increasingly being shot and wounded before being commercially shot  and supplied by shooters to processors.

Joeys

  • The Code of Practice[4] stipulates that  young-at-foot dependent joeys must be shot.  The Code also requires pouch joeys pulled from their mother's pouches to be killed by blunt head trauma or decapitated.  However recent research has found shooters generally leave young-at-foot dependent joeys to die in the field from starvation, predation or exposure.  

  • The same research also found most shooters swing pouch joeys' heads against their truck to kill them. However the likelihood no joeys are killed outright through such blunt-force is raised by the research's bolt-gun experimental findings where under controlled laboratory conditions not one out of 23 bolt-gunned joeys was killed outright; 13 were not rendered completely insensible; and all had to be consequently killed by other means.[5] 

  • Between  ~800,000 [6] to ~855,000 [7]  dependent joeys per year have been calculated to die as a consequence of commercial shooting alone. This does not include the joeys killed as a consequence of non-commercial shooting.  Numbers of joeys killed or left to die are not recorded.
Banner image: Ray Drew Photography
Eastern Grey Kangaroo doe & her joey: Macropus 
giganteus

REFERENCES
The authors of this website aim to provide cited and concise summaries of the research, science, data and history of kangaroos, condensed into accessible language to build knowledge capacity about kangaroos. Substantial research and expertise underwrites the content on this site so that you can use it with confidence that it is scientifically robust, carefully written, and that it stands up to scrutiny.
When you use, copy or paraphrase any content on this website please acknowledge our work, which we provide for your use, by referencing this source:  Kangaroos at Risk (2015) www.kangaroosatrisk.org. See footer for citation options, and disclaimers.

Body Shots
[1] RSPCA Australia A Survey of the Extent of Compliance with the Requirements of the Code of Practice for the  Humane Shooting of Kangaroos (2002). S.4.4.1(b), Environment Australia, Australian Government  http://www.environment.gov.au/node/16659 
​NOTE: This document has been removed from Environment Australia's website. Access the document here: 
[2] ibid, citing NSW Agriculture unpublished data.
[3] Ray Borda of Macro Meats in NSW Kangaroo Management Advisory Panel Meeting #22 Minutes, 20 March 2014 
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/nature/kmp/KMAPMinutes22.pdf 

Joeys
[4] Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, 2008. National codes of practice (commercial and non-commercial) for the humane shooting of kangaroos and wallabies http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/wildlife-trade/publications/national-codes-practice-humane-shooting-kangaroos-and-wallabies 
[5] McLeod, S and Sharp, T Improving the humaneness of commercial kangaroo harvesting 2014 Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. https://rirdc.infoservices.com.au/items/13-116
[6] Ben‐Ami D, Boom K, Boronyak L, Townend C, Ramp D, Croft D,  Bekoff M (2014) The welfare ethics of the commercial killing of free-ranging kangaroos: an evaluation of the benefits and costs of the industry Animal Welfare 2014, 23:1-10
[7] Ben‐Ami D, Boom K, Boronyak L, Croft D, Ramp D, Townend C (2011). The ends and means of the commercial kangaroo industry: an ecological, legal and comparative analysis. THINKK, the Think Tank for Kangaroos, University of Technology Sydney, Revised December 2011. Available from <http://s3.amazonaws.com/thinkk_production/resources/24/THINK_Kangaroo_Welfare_Report_December_2011_Final.pdf > [3 Sept 2015]  pg 20: "The number of females killed is variable for reasons of demand and industry imposed carcass size limits (see Department of Environment and Natural Resources 2010; Payne 2010; Department of Environment and Resource Management 2011). The model assumes that 30% of kangaroos are females (Payne 2010); 75% of females have pouch young; and 25% of females have young at foot (Witte 2005)".


About

Kangaroos at Risk is an independent research project about the history, science and management of kangaroos.  We are scientists, researchers and academics committed to providing unbiased analysis and critique of the evidence shaping the kangaroo space. Our work is unaligned to any political, commercial or institutional interests.

Cosignatories to the open letter are professional practitioners in the critical analysis of information, who share our concern that kangaroos are in trouble. 

This website aims to provide concise summaries of our work, and of the science that informs our concern about the status and management of kangaroos.
We share our research with others seeking a scientifically robust counterpoint to the status quo to inform their own work, and/or who are increasingly concerned about the status of kangaroos and the rigour of the science used to support kangaroo shooting & the commercial kangaroo industry in Australia.

Please acknowledge our work where you source information or references from this site.

Copyright

The authors of this website aim to provide cited and concise summaries of the research, science, data and history of kangaroos, condensed into accessible language to build knowledge capacity about kangaroos. 

Substantial research and expertise underwrites the content on this site so that you can use it with confidence that it is scientifically robust, carefully written, and that it stands up to scrutiny.
​
When you use, copy or paraphrase any content on this website please  acknowledge our work, which we provide for your use, by referencing this source: Kangaroos at Risk (2015) www.kangaroosatrisk.org
  • If you have not read/understood the source science, please ensure any paraphrasing retains factually correct information. Changing words or adding information can sometimes render information incorrect
  • ​Where you source information and references from a particular page, please hyperlink that content back to our page (or reference, and include the url), eg:  Kangaroos at Risk (2015) www.kangaroosatrisk.org/biology
  • Where paraphrasing content from individual references you have sourced from this site, please cite as per following example: Dawson 2012  as cited in Kangaroos at Risk (2015) www.kangaroosatrisk.org/biology
  • Please do not misrepresent the independence, authorship or content of this site
  • Images on this site may not be reproduced without those photographers' permission

CONTACT

Development of this website is ongoing.  We aim to further summarise our ongoing research into the history, science, and politics of shooting kangaroos - as our volunteered capacity permits.  Our work includes analysis of survey methodology and actual count data, ecology, and the 'management' of the kangaroo space.

If you would like to speak with the authors of this work please
contact us.
DISCLAIMER
All effort has been made to provide accurate, unbiased and referenced information that is current at the time of writing or editing this website.  We accept no responsibility for what others do with this information and urge users to check the cited sources for themselves. ​
© COPYRIGHT 2015 KANGAROOS AT RISK,  
​ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Open Letter
  • Biology
  • Welfare
  • Contamination
  • California
    • California Open Letter