760,000 kangaroos face cull in SA

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760,000 kangaroos face cull in SA

By Environment Reporter CATHERINE HOCKLEY

Adelaide Advertiser (South Australia)

28dec00

 

ABOUT 760,000 kangaroos could be culled in South Australia next year.

 

The marsupials are breeding out of control in some pastoral areas – making

it necessary to increase the state's cull quota, Department of Environment

and Heritage ecologist Peter Last said yesterday.

" In some areas there's been a lot of rainfall this year and kangaroo

numbers – particularly red kangaroos – have increased, " he said.

 

But Animal Liberation SA says the culling of kangaroos is inhumane.

 

" We're certainly opposed to the commercial utilisation of wildlife, " Animal

Liberation SA's Ralph Hahnheuser said yesterday.

 

" We believe there are more humane alternatives to the cull – for example,

fertility control. "

 

The department has proposed that a commercial harvesting quota of 763,000

kangaroos be set for South Australia next year.

 

This is 13 per cent higher than the 2000 quota and more than double the

actual number of kangaroos culled this year.

 

The quota, which must be approved by the state and federal governments, is

divided into two parts – sustainable use and land management.

 

Under sustainable use 380,000 kangaroos can be culled next year. Landholders

must seek permission to cull the remainder of the quota under the land

management criteria.

 

Only 292,000 kangaroos will have been culled by the end of 2000. Mr Last

said the quota proposed for 2001 was determined after aerial and ground

surveys of pastoral areas.

 

" For red kangaroos there was an increase of 25 per cent, " he said. The

cull – conducted by professional shooters licensed by the department – was

necessary to avoid masses of kangaroos starving to death.

 

" They are in greater abundance since European settlement with access to

water and the exclusion of dingoes – their natural predator – through the

dingo fence, " Mr Last said.

 

" (Without the cull) you would see the population grow unchecked . . . We do

feel in large numbers they (kangaroos) can prevent regeneration of native

grasses and shrubs. "

 

But Mr Hahnheuser said the fate of joeys whose mothers were culled was

inhumane.

 

" They are clubbed to death, or left to starve, " he said.

 

Mr Last said that joeys were culled under a code of practice.

 

" A bullet to the brain can be unsafe because generally it's at close range, "

he said.

 

A " quick blow to the brain with a blunt object " was the correct procedure,

he said.

 

Mr Last said fertility control of kangaroos was a " fairly expensive " option

and would be stressful to the animals.