A contingent of passionate wildlife advocates recently made a presentation to Mount Alexander Shire Council on the harmful impacts of commercial kangaroo killing.
The delegation included local wildlife rescuer Ian Slattery, documentary film maker Peter Hylands, regional tourism operator Jane Gibb, and wildlife carer and director of Kangaroos Alive Greg Keightley.
The group compiled a detailed document on the subject to present to council, along with several other pertinent documents on the issue including a study commissioned by the Animal Justice Party on the Human Harms of Kangaroo Killing.
Mr Slattery said the presentation was a first for the group which are calling on Mount Alexander Shire Council to play a leadership role and seek a ban on commercial kangaroo killing in the shire and put pressure on the state government to review the practice as a whole.
The group says targets set by the state government are unsustainable and will decimate kangaroo populations across the state.
“Kangaroos are being killed faster than they can reproduce,” Mr Slattery said.
The group outlined that for the period January to end June 2022 the quota was 63,925 Greg Kangaroos, the commercial kill against was 39,919 Grey Kangaroos, of which 13,652 were female. Only 62 per cent of the kill quota could be met. The group says this illustrates that so many kangaroos have been killed in Victoria that there simply isn’t enough kangaroos left to kill. They say is also evidence that the government’s claimed population numbers are over-inflated.
The group say the industry has wiped out kangaroo populations in New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland and it now has a foothold in Victoria. They say numbers in the north of the state have also been severely impacted and now shooters have set their sights on the Central Shooting Zone of which Mount Alexander Shire is part.
There are currently 65 registered commercial shooters in our region, many from interstate, whilst the vast Mallee Shooting Zone has just five shooters.
Jane Gibb shared the devastating impacts the industry has had on her yoga retreat and other tourism businesses in the Dunkeld region.
Local wildlife rescuer Ian Slattery detailed the carnage he has dealt with first hand.
“When I tell people these injuries are the result of the commercial kangaroo killing industry they don’t believe me. It happens under the cover of darkness and many people aren’t aware of it,” he said.
“It is not just about the cruelty, but also the impact on residential amenity. People have been woken to high powered rifles being fired at night, spotlights shining in their windows and waking to the carnage left behind.
“The revenue from the industry is minuscule in comparison to the millions of dollars generated by the tourism industry. We should be showcasing our wildlife not killing it,” he said.
The group is urging council to act to protect our wildlife.
“Let’s not wait until we are the brink of a catastrophe like we did with our koala population before we do something about the problem,” Slattery said.