Posted on 05/20/2002 3:54:51 PM PDT by jedi150
!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> Shooters hired to kill up to 15,000 kangaroos on Australian army base
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP): Shooters gathered Monday to begin killing up to 15,000 kangaroos on grasslands within an army base in southern Australia, after
the animals' population surged and they were beginning to starve.
The Defense Department hired nine shooters to reduce the kangaroo population on the 44,000-hectare (110,000-acre) Puckapunayl army base in the southern state
of Victoria, department spokesman Brian Humphreys said.
"Shooting will start in another day or so,'' he said.
Inspectors from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will have access to the base to make sure the cull is conducted humanely. The animals
will be shot in the head, and their carcasses buried in mass graves on the base.
The killing will take an estimated three months and cost about 700,000 Australian dollars (dlrs 385,000).
The base's kangaroo population exploded to more than 80,000 -- from about 45,000 in 1999 -- after the removal of sheep flocks from the area allowed grass to
grow unchecked, providing fodder for hordes of kangaroos.
Ecologists recommended the cull after hundreds of kangaroos began starving and tangling themselves in wire fences in a bid to find new pastures.
Animal welfare activists have said they were prepared to stand between shooters and kangaroos if they deem that the animals are being unnecessarily killed.
Spokeswoman Rheya Linden of the group Animal Active said that only sick kangaroos should be shot, while healthy ones should be fed and released.
Several protesters were evicted from the base Sunday when they broke through a fence and attempted to feed bales of hay to some of the kangaroos.
There are over 60 different species of kangaroo in Australia. While it is impossible to determine the exact number in Australia, the population of the four most
common species is thought to be more than 50 million.
I second the motion. Bury 'em with the Roos.
I would offer the tanners and meat processors a chance to bid on the harvest to help pay for the extermination costs. (Just the Roos. The activists should be left to rot in the sun as an abject lesson to liberals of all stripes.)
ABC Newsonline
Victoria denies kangaroos culled for commercial reasons The Victorian Government has given assurances that kangaroos culled at the Puckapunyal Army Base in central Victoria will not be used to initiate a commercial harvesting industry in that State.
The Defence Department has a permit to destroy 15,000 roos - part of an 80,000 herd overrunning the base.
Environment Minister Sherryl Garbutt says Victoria is not interested in culling kangaroos for commercial reasons.
However she concedes that does not prevent the cull from being sent to other states for commercial processing.
"If they could make all the arrangements, they could, I suppose take it to New South Wales or other states, but we certainly won't be seeing kangaroo meat industries set up here in Victoria, it's not desirable nor is it feasible," she said.
The Defence Department says it would like to see a commercial operation as part of the kangaroo management plan in the long term future.
What a waste! If they have to be killed, at least make use of their skins. Kangaroo rugs are very nice. I used to own a couple.
,,, with a statement like that from the Defence Dept, it seems they might be in line for slimming down and they're looking to diversify!
,,, sounding more and more like venison. Yum!
Maybe there are too many Aussies?
If you drive any distance through rural Oz, they pop up all over the place -- as do Six Mile creeks, Seven Mile Creeks and Nine Mile Creeks.
If the early settlers didn't borrow aboriginal place names or import their proper nouns from England, they just went with the most obvious. Thus Oz boasts the Great Sandy Desert, Great Australian Bight etc. In fact, your wife's home state is a perfect example. In the U.S., they managed to come up with 50 original names. In Oz, they settled for, er, South Australia and West Australia. When the Northern territory gets statehood, they'll no doubt call it North Australia (although Capricornia would be a better choice).
Tell your missus they also serve Coopers at the Eight Mile Creek restaurant.
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