Animal activists call for roo culling pause due to floods

The Animal Justice Party wants a moratorium on roo culling until the flooding damage and impact on population has been established.

Estimates have Australia's kangaroo population at around 40 million. The state governments have set a collective harvest quota of roughly 5 million roos, but the quota has not been met for the past decade, with only around 2 million roos shot commercially.

AJP member Greg Keightley said kangaroo deaths from the recent floods were higher in some areas than the Black Summer Bushfires, but state governments had refused to halt roo harvesting to keep the leather and pet food industries' "big mincing machines churning over".

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"Influenced by the interests of graziers, the Government often speaks of kangaroos as a pest - but kangaroos are a keystone species in the Australian landscape," Mr Keightley said.

"The survivors have been forced out of natural bushlands, protected areas and national parks. They've managed to escape floodwaters and navigate fencing, but then find themselves in areas where they're not wanted - on sheep or cattle farms and commercial killing zones.

"The reward for kangaroos who escape the floodwaters is to be shot. The reward for native wildlife fighting for their lives in this climate emergency is to be minced for petfood."

However, the kangaroo industry says calls to stop culling are ruled by emotion rather than logic, pointing out only a fraction of the population is harvested each year and numbers are quickly able to rebound.

Over the past 200 years their numbers have increased steadily due to greater availability of pasture, increased watering points, dingo control and less Indigenous hunting.

Reducing kangaroo culling could also have a negative effect on animal welfare, agricultural groups say, as it prompts more amateur landholder culling - which is unregulated - and risks mass kangaroo starvation in the next drought.

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The NSW Department of Primary Industries and the RSPCA both recognise professional marksmen, operating within a commercial industry are the most humane way to manage kangaroo populations.

The APJ call to pause culling comes in the wake of another attempt to ban kangaroo products in the United States, due to animal welfare concerns.

Kangaroos Industry Association of Australia chief executive Dennis King said the Americans had been the victims of an animal activist misinformation campaign.

"They're driven by false information coming out of Australia, there's a number of organisations here that continually put out false information on this issue," Mr King said.