Kangaroos: From Australian icon to luxury meat and leather for the EU.

Kangaroo hunting. | Posted on 2021-10-26 16:43

On October 15, the Parliament of New South Wales, one of Australia's leading kangaroo hunting states, released a report on the investigation into its commercial kangaroo industry. In light of the appalling findings of the report, the Eurogroup for Animals calls on the European Commission to ban the placing on the EU market of products derived from kangaroo hunting.

Brussels, on October 22, the Eurogroup for Animals, together with its members and other NGOs, sent a joint letter to Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, and Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice - Executive Chairman of the European Commission, presenting the main findings of the New South Wales (NSW) Parliamentary Inquiry into the health and welfare of kangaroos and other macropolises in New South Wales , and reiterated the call for the EU to ban the import of kangaroo products.

The recent investigation has provided ample evidence of the cruel treatment of animals resulting from kangaroo hunting. Kangaroos are slaughtered at night, in remote areas without scrutiny or law enforcement, resulting in non-lethal shots that cause horrific injuries and slow death. If females are killed, dependent joeys endure cruel and violent death, or are left in the field to suffer exposure to starvation or predation.

“The governments of Australia and New South Wales admitted to the inquiry that there are no records kept on the number of baby joeys killed each year by commercial kangaroo killing. They are the forgotten part of this wildlife trade, ” said Dr. Dror Ben-Ami, biologist and kangaroo expert.

“The investigation report also clearly recognizes that the prescribed killing method in this industry - one whimper - is not feasible in a real-life scenario, and that there is no oversight mechanism for it. 'ensure that the animals were killed in the least harmful way , ' added Reineke Hameleers, CEO of the Eurogroup for Animals.

The organizations have also jointly written to Australian Environment Minister Sussan Ley, urging her not to endorse the New South Wales Kangaroo Harvest Commercial Management Plan 2022-2026. This plan defines the number of kangaroos that can be killed for commercial purposes. Yet the document does not take into account the results of the parliamentary inquiry, which found that the NSW government's kangaroo counting methods were not transparent and that the population estimates used to establish the annual commercial mortality quota are likely to be overestimated.

“Between 2016 and 2019, imports of kangaroo meat and skins from the EU increased. The EU therefore remains the number one destination for Australian kangaroo meat exports, and European citizens are deeply concerned about the cruelty of kangaroo hunting. It is time for the EU to act on its values and for Australia to listen and move beyond this horrible industry , ”Hameleers concluded.