Wildlife activists are calling on Mount Alexander Shire Council to advocate against the state government’s Kangaroo Harvest Management Program.
The council recently received a petition with 2450 signatures requesting immediate action and calling the practice cruel and dangerous. Signatories say it has a negative impact on residents and undermines the environmental and tourism values of the shire.
Senior Victorian wildlife rescuer and Maldon resident, Ian Slattery, is one of the wildlife activists calling for a ban on the program.
A former executive in telecommunications, Ian first began volunteering with Wildlife Victoria after witnessing the carnage the 2009 bushfires caused to our native animals.
“I was watching the footage on TV – koalas with burnt feet walking down the road,” Ian said.
“When I first started volunteering I thought that given my lack of knowledge and the challenging nature of the work I would only work as a transporter. But within a few months I was rescuing my first possum in Malvern.
“When we moved to Maldon in 2013, I needed to do a lot of additional training, because the types of animals are so different to those we worked with in the city. There were a lot of kangaroos, koalas, wombats and wallabies and nine out of 10 need to be euthanised.
“Initially, I had I had to rely on the police to put the animals down, but I trained to operate a captive bolt gun and a rifle, so I was able to euthanise them humanly. I also trained to use a tranquiliser gun which enabled me to transport injured animals to nearby shelters.
“Most people don’t know how the kangaroo harvesting program really operates.
“It’s all about money. Selling meat for human food, pet food and leather for football boots.
“We are not overrun by kangaroos. That is a popular myth spread by the meat industry.”
Mr Slattery said wildlife advocates estimated that the numbers taken by government surveys were vastly inflated – by at least four times.
“Kangaroos are light-footed creatures. They eat different grasses to livestock and are tip feeders, which mean they only eat the tips of the grass,” he said.
“They don’t do damage to crops and they are not a pest. In fact, they help reduce bush fire risks by keeping the undergrowth down.
“The commercial harvesting of kangaroo’s is an immense form of cruelty. It occurs in the middle of the night and the shooters, using high powered rifles, sit on the back of a Ute, in all weather conditions, shooting kangaroos from a distance of 200 metres
“I get called out the morning after to the carnage that is left. Kangaroo’s with their limbs shot off, hits in their stomach and back, and quite often their jaw shot off. The animals are often still alive and I am called to euthanise them.
“Their joeys, called collateral damage, are left crying for their mothers and I have to dart them and take them to a shelter.”
If anyone is interested in becoming a Wildlife Victoria volunteer or donating essential funds, visit www.wildlifevictoria.org.au
