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.  
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  • 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 by (non-commercial) shooters 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.
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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)".