ACT/ Protest Australia's Mass Kangaroo Kill

[Guest guest]

ACT/ Protest Australia's Mass Kangaroo Kill KINSHIP CIRCLE PRIMARY - PERMISSION TO CROSS-POST AS WRITTEN 2/11/08: Protest Australia's Mass Kangaroo Kill http://www.KinshipCircle.org "The commercial kangaroo kill quota for 2007 is just over 3.6 million kangaroos. Some skins and meat products are used domestically (60 to 70% of kangaroo meat goes into the Australian pet food market), and the rest is exported to 55 countries as leather or meat

for human consumption. Kangaroo leather is widely used in the manufacture of sporting shoes and gloves as well as in dress shoes and accessory manufacture." SOURCE: http://www.animalsaustralia.org/issues/kangaroo_shooting.php EMAIL kinshipcircle FOR WORD DOC OF A FORMATTED LETTER. Easily modify letter and copy/paste it into an email or print out to fax or mail. =========================================================== FULL CONTACT INFORMATION. Sample letter follows. =========================================================== AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS The Hon. Kevin Rudd MP, Prime Minister Parliament House, CANBERRA ACT 2600 web mail: http://www.pm.gov.au/contact/index.cfm The Hon. Peter Garrett AM MP Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts PO Box 6022, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600 ph: 02-6277-7640; fax: 02-6273 6101 email: Peter.Garrett.MP general web mail: http://www.environment.gov.au/about/comments.html Mr. Peter Cochrane, Director of National Parks GPO Box 787, Canberra ACT 2601 ph: 02-6274 2221; fax 02-6274 2349 email: peter.cochrane Ms. Kerry Smith, Assistant Secretary, Wildlife Division Department

of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts GPO Box 787, Canberra ACT 2601 ph: 02-6274 1224; fax: 02-6274 1600 email: Kerry.Smith Department of Environment and Climate Change NSW PO Box A290, Sydney South NSW 1232, Australia ph: 02-9995-5000; fax: 02-9995 5999 email: info NSW National Parks And Wildlife Services NPWS Kangaroo Management Unit PO Box 2111, Dubbo NSW 2830 ph: 02-6883-5343, 02-6883-5375; fax: 02-6884-8675 email: kangaroo.management Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia

email: info Australian Embassy, United States of America Mr. Dennis J Richardson AO, Ambassador to United States of America 1601 Massachusetts Ave., Washington DC NW 20036-2273 ph: +1-202-797-3000; fax: +1-202-797-3168, +1-202-797-3331 email: public.affairsus LOOK UP AUSTRALIAN EMBASSIES IN OTHER COUNTRIES: http://www.dfat.gov.au/missions/ =========================================================== EMAIL BLOCK: All emails found for this alert. =========================================================== Peter.Garrett.MP, peter.cochrane, Kerry.Smith,

info, kangaroo.management, info, public.affairsus *Kinship Circle cannot guarantee validity of email addresses. During campaigns, recipients may change or disable their email addresses. Emails from government or corporate websites may be incorrect. =========================================================== SAMPLE LETTER -- This letter is prepared to inform you about the issue. Try to shorten and personalize your letter before sending. =========================================================== Honorable Officials of Australia: The commercial slaughter of kangaroos for meat, fur and leather demeans Australia's global image. I call upon politicians to phase out kangaroo shooting altogether. In the meantime, please rein in mass kill quotas

that endanger future populations. The killing methods sanctioned in the National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies sicken me. Kangaroos are Australia's national icon and beloved worldwide. They deserve enforceable protections. Instead, animal welfare oversight is virtually nonexistent. Hunters spotlight kangaroos in the outback at night. Though they aim for the head, they often miss the brain -- leaving kangaroos with gaping head and mouth wounds. An estimated hundreds of thousands of maimed animals suffer prolonged death every year. Orphaned joeys, considered worthless, are yanked from their slain mother's pouch for a grisly death. The Code recommends they be decapitated with a sharp blade; shot at point blank range; clubbed with a metal pipe; or slammed against a tow bar or other firm object. Older joeys (who live in and out of the pouch) succumb to

exposure, starvation or predation. Some 300,000 "at foot" joeys die each year. I oppose the mass slaughter of Australian wildlife for both ethical and ecological reasons. A two-year investigation shows kangaroo numbers in shooting ranges -- areas also imperiled by drought -- have dropped about 59%, from over 57 million in 2001, to roughly 23.6 million in 2006. The government claims some of the annual cull is "damage mitigation" because kangaroos degrade grazing grounds. But there is not enough impartial scientific data to justify slaughter. Destructive agricultural practices, on the other hand, are proving unsustainable. Australia's kangaroo kill is the largest known slaughter of land wildlife. I respectfully ask the government to work toward the non-consumptive "use" of kangaroos for tourism. Please maximize eco-tourism instead of killing. Thank you, =========================================================== SOURCE OF INFORMATION FOR THIS LETTER CAMPAIGN =========================================================== * Kangaroo Shooting http://www.animalsaustralia.org/issues/kangaroo_shooting.php * Kangaroo Protection Coalition http://www.kangaroo-protection-coalition.com/kangaroos-in-europe.html * New Kangaroo Code Sanctions Animal Cruelty http://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/kangaroo_code_sanctions_cruelty.php * NSW Kangaroo Management Plan 2007 - 2011

http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/npws.nsf/Content/kmp_2007_2011_draft Action Campaigns I Literature I Animal Disaster Aid Networking info or kinshipcircle http://www.KinshipCircle.org * http://www.kinshipcircle.org/disasters/ PLEASE MAKE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION TO KINSHIP CIRCLE: http://www.kinshipcircle.org/donation/ ********************* *************************************************************************************************** SUBSCRIBE: Kinship Circle Primary: Action campaigns on animal cruelty issues worldwide Kinship Circle Animal Disaster Relief: kinshipcircle Animal rescue coordination/news in disasters + companion animal alerts *************************************************************************************************** *