2015 Kangaroo Kill Outrage

Outrage at planned killing of 5,000 kangaroos
by ACT Government

ALACT is deeply saddened by the ACT Government’s decision to kill 5,000 healthy wild animals over the next 2 years. As well as sanctioning brutal and cruel treatment of the region’s native wildlife, the decision shows the Government has learnt nothing from last year’s hearing in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal. For the first time in a hearing about the kills the Tribunal accepted that huge numbers of young orphaned kangaroos escape the shooters only to die slow painful deaths due to starvation or predation.

This ‘ghost population’ of young animals is not included in the 5,000 kangaroos the Government has been licensed to kill. Also for the first time the Tribunal accepted that the administrative processes in ‘proving’ the case for the cull by the relevant government department were sub-standard and flawed. Presumably these same processes were repeated in the lead up to this year’s kill. And once again the government has failed to provide any evidence at all to show that these annual kills have led to tangible conservation benefits.

It is shameful that in the 21^st century the government of the nation’s capital resorts to such barbaric treatment of our urban wildlife rather than deal with the real problem affecting the environment: urban growth.