Hundreds of kangaroos across the region shot by incompetent hunters issued state government permits to kill, need to be euthanised by wildlife rescuers to put them out of their misery.
Manfred Zabinskas, who runs a wildlife shelter in East Trentham, said rescuers were regularly finding kangaroos that hadn’t been “killed cleanly”.
“They’ve been shot horribly. We’re finding they may have had their noses shot off and they’re dying slowly, unable to eat or drink, ears blown off, massive numbers of kangaroos with shots to their abdomen, their shoulder or back, and have gone off to die slowly,” Mr Zabinskas said.
“In Victoria there’s no requirement for competency so you don’t have to know how to shoot a gun accurately before being issued with an Authority to Control Wildlife.”
Mr Zabinskas said wildlife rescuers had called for a review of the permit system and had made a number of recommendations about what they believed were the problems with the system.
“The problem we have is that we have no policing and there is no requirement to verify competency, so an 18-year-old buying their first gun can be issued with a permit to shoot kangaroos even though they’ve never shot a gun in their life.
“It’s like giving someone a licence to drive a car even though they’ve never sat in one.”
Mr Zabinskas said the situation was also exacerbated by the state government’s pet food trial that aimed to make culling kangaroos a commercial venture.
“The number of kangaroos approved for control rose sharply in trial areas and shooters were offering assistance to landowners to apply for cull permits, but the department couldn’t police the shooting due to the high risks associated with enforcement involving the use of firearms and the lack of real-time information to be acted upon when breaches occurred,” Mr Zabinskas said.
“The recommendation was to abandon the commercial harvesting of kangaroos but the government ignored the advice of their own department.”
DELWP is considering feedback from the community on ways the ATCW system could be improved.
The current trial to allow the use of kangaroo meat resulting from authorised shooting to be processed into pet food has been extended until September 30 to allow DELWP to establish a regulatory framework and management plan.
From October 1, kangaroos in Victoria will be able to be harvested and processed in accordance with the plan.
DELWP has been contacted for further comment.
