Abolitionist-Online - A Voice for Animal Rights

Greek Animal Cruelty - The Street ANimals of Greece

Anti-Vivisection - The Andre Menache Interview

Ken Setter's Book Review:

Implicating Empire: Globalization & Resistance in the 21st Century World Order

Margaret Setter's Review:

Freedom Next Time - By John Pilger, Book Review Pt. 1
and Book Review Pt. 2

Article:
America - On A Fast Track To Fascism
by Ken Setter

Interview:
The Primate Freedom Project: Co-founder Rick Bogle Interviewed

Interview:
In The Struggle: Peter Tatchell Speaks with the Abolitionist

Article:
Why Animal Research is Bad Science
by Peter Tatchell

Interview:
The Australian Association for Humane Research Interview

Article:
In Memoriam to Steve Irwin
By Maryland Wilson

Interview:
BiteBack’s Interview with Rik Scarce, Author of ECO-WARRIORS

Interview:
Queer Rights/Animal Rights: Alejandro Rodriguez Correale

Article:
Transparency and Animal Research Regulation: An Australian Case Study
By Siobhan O'Sullivan

The Kangaroo Betrayed: Maryland Wilson Interviewed

By Claudette Vaughan, October 30, 2005

CV. The recent launch of your new book at Parliament House - 'Kangaroos Myths and Realities' - was a huge success attracting much media attention. The day brought out some of Australia's finest voices in defence of the kangaroo. How would you yourself sum up the launch?

MW. The launch of Kangaroos Myths and Realities, after all the years of research, persistence, hard work and making much loved friends along the way ~~ was one of the most rewarding times of my professional life. I knew it would be so. As we all mingled prior to the start of proceedings, the lovely Ondine Sherman (VOICELESS) thrust a beautiful bouquet of flowers in my hands, to wish me luck. A magnificent gesture, but such is the passion and deep connection we feel towards one another. There are so many people to appreciate and thank.

Hosting the event was well known actor Tony Bonner who invoked memories of SKIPPY the Bush Kangaroo and the beautiful Lynda Stoner who relived and shared with the 80+ people there, treasured memories of past campaigns.

Some highlights and words of wisdom from a stunning array of scientists and animal activists:

Macropod expert Dr David Croft UNSW my co-editor set the stage:

"Believe this if you will but the reality is that the industry is captive to the farmers and graziers as they hold the means of production - the land on which the kangaroos are killed. The industry needs first to satisfy this constituency to turn a profit and the government of the day colludes to greater or lesser degrees out of its own political interests in this same constituency. Part of this collusion is to foster and promulgate the belief that kangaroos have never had it so good than since the advent of farming and pastoralism and so these industries 'own the problem' and should have a major say in the solution. The propaganda goes something like this

there are more kangaroos in Australia than before European colonisation

they are now in some places they never were before

high numbers of kangaroos are maintained by the water pastoralists and farmers provide and the perennial

kangaroos are in plague proportions"

Croft has examined the veracity of these statements in the book under a suitably catchy headline. Under the title "A Miracle - European Farmers Create Kangaroos In Antipodes", he begins by writing:

"The contention that there have never been so many kangaroos in Australia until the advent of farming and pastoralism in an absurdity. Firstly, in several million years of occupancy of the Australian continent by the modern kangaroo fauna who has the time machine to know? Secondly, the kangaroo family as a whole has hardly prospered."

Croft summarises the current situation as:

"Meanwhile the commercial kangaroo industry rolls on governed by an inadequate, unacceptable and unenforceable code of practice. It harvests meat and hides from native wildlife owned by the Crown (and thus all Australians) at minimal cost and profit for a few. It sells the meat largely for pet food with a minor proportion going to human consumption as predominantly cheap red meat. This industry is firmly and necessarily embedded in the pastoral industry which some naively believe it will replace. The regulators model on."

Croft suggests we should change old attitudes propped up by industry propaganda and writes:

"We need to redeem our most potent symbol turn away from persecution, celebrate our faunal heritage, and all stand up and say, " I am a kangaroo" The lesson we can learn from the Aboriginal Peoples is that we are part of the land and, if we are lost in the urban jungle, then we should follow the Kangaroo mob and re-establish our relationship with it."

Dr Dan Ramp UNSW- says in 'A New Frontier; The Road Environment and its Impact on Kangaroos':

" It has been well documented that road-based fatalities of native wildlife in Australia are of great concern, as carcasses of kangaroos, wallabies, wombats and possums dominate the road environment. .we have only sparse and poorly kept information on the prevalence of animal-vehicle collisions, yet there can be no doubt that many hundreds of thousands, if not millions of animals are killed each year. "

" Amelioration of the impact of roads on the environment is a responsibility that lies squarely on our shoulders. We choose how fast we drive, when we drive and where our roads go. We also choose how we design our roads. Kangaroos and other wildlife cannot avoid getting in the way. "

Dan Ramps writes in "Is 'Control' of Kangaroo populations Really Necessary?"

"With proper planning, 'control' methods like culling and fertility programs should be relegated to our unflattering past."

Ramp has stressed the need for the following answers:

1) if all of the quota was taken in any given year, how many livestock could be taken off the land? and

2) how does the kangaroo industry remain sustainable in light of the unpredictability of the harvest given annual variation in populations?

The brilliant psychologist, Eleonora Gullone, an Associate Professor Monash University, formally launched our book and gave scientific evidence opposing the commercial kangaroo killing industry and asked the question:

"Are we as a society unintentionally promoting criminal behaviours through the continued legal status of industries such as the kangaroo industry and hunting as a source of recreation?"

ABC journalist Sarah Clarke interviewed both David and myself and the Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell for an excellent story, which aired on ABC TV news the next night. The following week a 7/8 page article appeared in the SMH by Dan Lewis and many talkback radio interviews with Halina Thompson and Pat O'Brien were given. October 10^th the day of the launch the Canberra Times ran a three page article by Rosslyn Beeby, "The Truth About Kangaroos" with a glorious head of a kangaroo and the caption ROO VIEW 'It's time Australia started to Value the Kangaroo'.

CV. The highly charged atmosphere of the day culminated when the Aborigine Elder known as Uncle Max stood up to speak. He said both the kangaroo and the Aboriginal people of this country suffer from an identical ailment - finding credibility in the white fellas' eyes.

MK. I met Uncle Max, a fair dinkum Aboriginal Elder, through Dr Dror Ben-Ami, a research associate at UNSW and the husband of Ondine Sherman. Dror had been talking about this kind Aboriginal man who not only cared very much about kangaroos but agreed to join us on stage and speak about them at our book launch. Uncle Max and I met just prior to the start of proceedings and I felt an instinctive kinship with him. There are two Chapters in our book about the kangaroo Totem connection and the betrayal of the aboriginal peoples by white fellas, just as the white fellas betrayed the kangaroos. Dror suggested that I ask Uncle Max if he would be prepared to say "Welcome to Country' which Dror said was necessary. So when we spoke I simply asked him if he was prepared to say his cultural words and indeed he did say 'Welcome to country" in his beautiful moving talk. But Uncle Max said so much more and you could have heard a pin drop in the silence as he spoke about how kangaroos are our teachers. If you are in the bush they can show you the direction to water and the position of east and west.

We were all mesmerised by this quiet, gentle man as he related the importance of the kangaroo to Aboriginal peoples and how if they killed a single kangaroo for sustenance they would take into account the size of the kangaroo for their needs and nothing would be wasted. He spoke about their connection with kangaroos and how utterly disillusioned and heartbroken he was about the present killing; he kept shaking his head saying "it is wrong, it is wrong, it is wrong " ~ heartrending stuff as we felt his pain, and the audience hung on his every word!

At the end of his speech we were all so emotionally connected, that when he turned to me and said my name, I almost fainted, and rushed to meet him halfway across the stage where we embraced for several seconds in a gesture of friendship, mutual respect and shared love for kangaroos ~ the spirit of our country ~ and the need to stop the brutal killing of these magnificent animals, for they are the symbol of Australia. It was an emotionally charged time and for all of us, a defining moment. Uncle Max and David Croft will continue this mutually respectful association in the future.

CV. Who else contributed to the book?

MW. All of the contributors in our book have had a close connection to the kangaroo; hence they wrote from their knowledge and experiences. David and I diligently edited the book which includes opinions for those concerned about the plight of kangaroos and often recent local issues that have deeply affected them. Wildlife management is about peoples' interaction with wildlife and often invokes robust debate where a conflict with themselves or their business is perceived. Thus it is important to canvass and allow expression of a wide range of viewpoints which is known as 'Human Dimensions' in the wildlife management research literature.

I began researching the kangaroo issue in 1981 and over these years I developed many close and meaningful friendships based on our common love of kangaroos. In late 1981 I met zoologist Peter Rawlinson, from whom I learned so much over a nine year association. We became firm friends so when he died in 1991 in a tragic accident at Krakatoa, I was at a loss for the next few years, continuing my research but struggling and missing the void without Peter to guide and teach me. Thus our AWPC Patron Professor Peter Singer provides much valued input. Peter provided the titles for both AWPC books "The Kangaroo BETRAYED!" and "Kangaroos Myths and Realities". He will be in Melbourne Xmas 2005 and a book signing is planned for early 2006. Then there is the knowledgeable Richard Jones who is also an AWPC Patron and whose input I value, along with the most incredibly wonderful people all of whom work together to do their utmost to change the unfolding tragedy that is the cruel slaughter of our misunderstood and maligned kangaroos in Australia. I also must not forget the marvellous zoologist Juliet Gellatley and all at VIVA! I am privileged to call them friends, and I appreciate the very fine scientists who write with compassion for kangaroos, which has strengthened our scientific base, making a powerful coalition of science and community.

Thus Dr Ingrid Witte talks about kangaroos as misunderstood and maligned miracle workers:

"Kangaroos are so unique on this planet in so many ways! For one, their amazing reproductive system and devoted care for their young should make us stare at them in wonder and not stare at them with greed in our eyes. The kangaroo mother's miraculous ability to rear, to us, a highly premature infant through milk and skin to skin contact alone, has seen us emulate this behaviour in paediatric medicine. If you search 'kangaroo care" on the internet you will see thousands of references to "kangaroo care" to premature human babies."

"The kangaroo industry is not alone in killing females who have a young-at-foot and abandoning the latter to a cruel death of starvation and dehydration. There are other licenses to harm kangaroos and further harm may occur through collisions with vehicles [exposed in a chapter by Dan Ramp]. It is one of the saddest experiences of my life to see how these magnificent but defenceless animals are treated by the kangaroo and pastoral industries and more sad still how their dependent young are treated, with such deliberate callousness and thoughtlessness. In all other civilised societies, female mammals accompanied by dependent young cannot be shot - only in Australia we permit that to happen."

Zoologist Juliet Gellatley, Director of VIVA!, writes in ' Killing for Kicks'

" Culling was not curbed but the NSW Government extended commercial killing into new areas previously seen as unproductive simply to keep the number of carcasses flowing. It was condemned even by some who had previously been gung ho about the industry. We can only assume that the intention was to place kangaroos under unsustainably high pressure. So much for scientific models, which are now doing for kangaroos what they have done for fish-encouraging extinction by pretending to have scientific rigour."

Ex-kangaroo shooter David Nicholls observes from a life in the bush that:

" When the mother is killed, the 'young-at-foot' joey is left to fend for itself, and any zoologist with knowledge of kangaroo habits would have to admit that its chances of survival are at best minimal. Panic, fear, starvation, or being preyed upon by the hundreds of foxes that keep tabs on kangaroo shooting, will end its life is a state of terror. This is not acceptable to reasonable, thinking people. Kangaroo shooting is inherently and overtly cruel by all standards that can be applied and would not be acceptable to reasonable thinking people, if they knew."

"The mouth of a kangaroo can be blown off and the kangaroo can escape to die of shock and starvation. Forearms can be blown off, as can ears, eyes and noses. Stomachs can be hit expelling the contents with the kangaroo still alive. Backbones can be pulverised to an unrecognisable state etc. Hind legs can be shattered with the kangaroo desperately trying to get away on the other or without the use of either. To deny that this goes on is just an exercise in attempting to fool the public.".

" Most Australians think that Kangaroo numbers are much higher than they actually are. It is in the interest of Governments, the kangaroo industry and thoughtless landholders to uphold this myth"

" Kangaroos have never been in widespread pest proportions and they are not now. If such a simple outcome as retrieving the Kangaroo from being a wrongly accused enemy in its own country, treated as vermin in a despicably cruel manner with no place to hide, cannot be achieved by such a prosperous, educated and secure civilisation as Australia, then what hope for the planet."

CV. Richard Jones correctly noted that many of the people in the room that day have been fighting for the kangaroo for well over 20 years now. Do you think the kangaroo will ever see justice in this country Maryland?

MW. Yes it is possible. I believe that if we continue to exert community pressure through our knowledge base and a review of advances in the scientific knowledge of kangaroos, and we encourage young scientists to challenge the dogma behind kangaroo industry then we may one day shame those who support it while at the same time they are denying the barbaric cruelty. In the meantime we will promote the value of the multi-billion dollar nature-based tourism industry and thereby turn community attitudes away from exploitation of kangaroos for cheap meat and hide in a cruel use-once industry.

Thus it all boils down to creating awareness. Awareness is the key. Most Australians have absolutely NO idea about what really goes on and Kangaroos Myths and Realities will educate them. We must get our book distributed across Australia and internationally and will promote it accordingly.

We listened carefully to the now thankfully gone Sally Loane, on ABC Radio Sydney, and her many conversations with Michael Archer and his promotion of exploiting native fauna and flora in the FATE program and the keeping of wildlife as companion animals. It is no secret that we disagree with keeping nocturnal native animals as pets. The stories that come from overseas about the cruelty and neglect of our Australian species is tragic. People do not know how to care for them, what to feed them and how to treat them if they become sick, and when they tire of them, or they become too much of a problem, they dump them. Children want to play with them during the day when they want to sleep.

We do agree with Michael Archer's FATE program which sensibly calls for a curtailment of marginal pastoralism with introduced livestock and speculative agriculture at high environmental cost in Australia's heartland. We do not agree that replacement with a meat and hide industry based on the kangaroo fauna is appropriate especially when the commercial industry, regulators and others like the RSPCA fail to address key issues of inhumane practices in this industry.

Furthermore the suggestion that past SUBSISTENCE use of wildlife by indigenous peoples is somehow equivalent to production for a mass market of people, pets and an export trade at an INDUSTRIAL scale is clearly inane and illogical and we are yet to see any scientific proof of this concept. After all if the sheep and wool industry were run at a subsistence scale we would have hundreds not thousands of sheep on Outback stations. We believe and will continue to promote the multi-billion dollar nature-based tourism industry, with kangaroos as flagship fauna, as a sensible and economically sustainable way to GREEN Australia.

When it becomes more widely known that the only appropriate use of our kangaroos and all wildlife is through non-consumptive means such as for tourism and associated spin off cottage industries, then community attitudes will embrace a new and more compassionate deal for kangaroos and the rest of our fauna. It will happen overnight. I am supremely optimistic.

Richard Jones former NSW MLC in his Epilogue says:

"Australia has the unenviable record of having the worst record of recent mammal extinction of any country in the world. For over two hundred years now, we have been conducting what amounts to a war on our wildlife. After all this destruction, which is still continuing at an alarming pace, we still allow the largest land based wildlife slaughter on earth."

Today we are armed with science not dogma, and an amazing network of wonderful dedicated people around the world who are passionate about kangaroos.

CV. Name some ongoing myths and realities about the kangaroo please.

MW. I write in the Prologue, that of the utmost importance is the way we value our kangaroos. If you believe kangaroos have no value except for their commercial use as meat and hides then of course you support the kangaroo industry as does Dr Tony Pople, who flew to the USA recently to give evidence against VIVA and all of us, in support of ADIDAS who brought legal action to remove kangaroos from USA protection in California so they can legally import kangaroo body parts. ADIDAS won and VIVA is considering an Appeal to the California Supreme Court.

COURT ALLOWS SALE OF ADIDAS SHOES MADE WITH KANGAROO LEATHER

SAN FRANCISCO - A lawsuit that sought to stop the maker of Adidas shoes from selling soccer cleats made with kangaroo leather has been dismissed by a state appeals court in San Francisco.

*The Court of Appeal said a state ban on the use of kangaroo leather would interfere with a U.S. policy of working with the Australian government to develop a kangaroo conservation program.

*Justice James Marchiano wrote, ``State prohibition of the import of kangaroo products interferes with the federal objectives of achieving -- and maintaining -- Australian kangaroo management procedures.''

The decision was issued Monday in a lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court in 2003 by Viva! International Voice for Animals, an animal rights group based in Davis, California. The defendants in the lawsuit were Adidas Promotional Retail Operations and sports stores in Sacramento County and Los Angeles.

Viva! Attorney Orly Degani said the group is considering an appeal to the California Supreme Court Degani said, ``We're talking about a very cruel practice that the California Legislature does not want to condone.''

The lawsuit alleged that Adidas manufactures at least eight types of shoes, including seven soccer cleats, made with the skins of the Australian red kangaroo, eastern gray kangaroo and western gray kangaroo. The suit claimed sales of the shoes violated a 1970 state law that bans the commercial importation or sales of products from any of 23 animals including kangaroos.

The three kangaroo species were listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as threatened species from 1974 to 1995, but were taken off the list after the agency concluded the Australian government had developed an effective conservation program. (Maryland's Prologue in Kangaroos Myths and Realities)

The appeals court said California was in general entitled to have a law banning products from a species that was not listed as threatened, but said that in the case of the kangaroos the state law improperly interfered with federal policy.

23 November 2005

Viva!USA
PO Box 4398 Davis, CA 95617
Tel: 530/759-8482
Fax: 530/759-8487

Prof Gordon Grigg from the University of Queensland says kangaroos are undervalued as a 'harvestable resource' and killing them for profit is the panacea to farmers' woes and ills. Grigg, with former student Dr Tony Pople, from the University of Queensland wrote the "Commercial Harvesting of Kangaroos in Australia" in 1992 which is the foundation of the Commonwealth Department of Environment and Heritage's policy. It was revised in 1995 and again in 1999. Together Grigg and Pople shape scientific policy towards management of kangaroos in Australia with the following premise:

"To harvest a sustained yield from a population at steady density, it first must be manipulated in some way to promote the rate of increase. Rates of harvest may be raised to levels at which they can cause the extinction of the population. Arguments will be confounded when there are non-consumptive values attached to the resource such as for tourism."

These scientists saw that it is was in their interests to support and promote the kangaroo industry to gain consultancies and funding from the government.

They ignore and reject the non-consumptive use and intrinsic value of kangaroos because their arguments are confounded when there are non-consumptive values attached to their resource such as tourism.

This total disregard for important stakeholders such as the multi-billion dollar nature-based tourism industry, and breaches of ecological and scientific oversight are indeed very serious.

When I launched the book, I put out a press release based on the Commonwealth's DEH own data that the commercially exploited kangaroos had suffered massive population declines of more than fifty percent over the past few years in three of the four species. These species are promoted as the best adapted mammals to our environment and when we say we should be alarmed at what they might be telling us about this environment we are howled down.

CV. It seems we will not win an argument about numbers.

MW. The supporters of a commercial meat and hide industry for kangaroos will simply trot out the usual fables, bamboozle people with models and percentages, and say there are millions of kangaroos. What you will notice, as was the case with Minister Campbell's response to our ABC interview, is that they will ignore the cruelty issue if you give them something else to rebut, but Sarah Clarke, the ABC journalist opened up the populations issue. It gave Ian Campbell, the Environment Minister a chance to say there was no cause for alarm because the quota was only shot to about 50% of what was allocated. The Federal Environment Minister is either completely ignorant of the issue or very badly briefed!

As there are four commercially exploited species then there are FOUR different quotas, one for each species, and NOT one quota and the full quota is regularly taken in many management zones for red kangaroos and eastern grey kangaroos. If fact since the four States with a commercial industry independently determine populations from which the State's quota is set, one could argue that there are more than FOUR quotas.

The representation of the take of the quota is something of a sham since shooters (or kangaroo trappers as they are called) take little of the quota of wallaroos/euros because they live in rugged country and are smaller than the grey and red kangaroos. Likewise western greys are not called 'scrubbers' for no reason and are more difficult to access than eastern greys or reds.

There was in fact an overkill of western greys in WA by 14,509 in 2003! (This evidence, given at the AAT Court Challenge in Sydney was ignored by the Tribunal, just as they ignored the cruelty issues.)

The number that really matters on the Department of Environment Heritage web site (the quota is somewhat meaningless) is the actual kills will total to millions, so people know the true magnitude of the kill and the cruel consequences to dependent young-at-foot. If the industry fails to take the quota then this either means there is no economic or land management imperative and so claims of wealth generation and environmental benefits are overblown or more scarily is that there are really not as many kangaroos out there to take as the regulators claim!

We strongly recommend that the community avoids the deceptive debate about populations and quotas and focuses on the kill and its brutal consequences.

To summarise some of the myths and realities we explore in the book, we offer:

Overabundance, often synonymous with 'pest', is a word misused with respect to native fauna. It is too conveniently used when perceived impacts on humans take precedence over the rights of animals
Overabundance implies too many individuals, yet this cannot be said of kangaroos as it is dubious that they can cause harm to themselves, cause landscape dysfunction or cause any deliberate harm to people.
We once had a rich and balanced community of mammalian herbivores and omnivores
16 million years of co-evolution with the Australian landscape has established species that are perfectly suited to surviving often harsh temporal fluxes in environmental conditions.
The populations of eastern and western grey kangaroos under optimal conditions can be very dense but they are remarkably stable. The red kangaroos, and euros of the rangelands defy the ecological concept of carrying-capacity because environmental conditions that drive their forage are too stochastic and unpredictable.
The interpretation that numerous artificial water sources are necessary to sustain the kangaroo populations is a falsehood generated by looking at the landscape through the eyes of a livestock manager.
Many graziers falsely believe that red kangaroos are nomadic and turn into plagues, cutting swathes through large tracts of country and rendering it useless for pastoral activity unless populations are reduced.
Kangaroo shooting is inherently and overtly cruel by all standards that can be applied
We believe that the quota process is calculated on several fallacies. These are that kangaroos have increased in numbers since white settlement, that dingoes and Aboriginals were substantial predators of kangaroos. That kangaroos are major competitors for grazing and cropping, and that their commercial killing reduces kangaroo numbers.

The notion that the young of kangaroos, after leaving the pouch, are independent is a very convenient misconception by the kangaroo industry.

CV. Will you be working to get Kangaroos: Myths and Realities into every Australian library in the country?

MW. YES absolutely! At least we will try, because it is a vitally important book combining scientific argument and the human dimensions of the 'kangaroo management debate' which should be read by every secondary and tertiary student in Australia, not to mention every single politician.

I was thrilled to hear from the Canberra Parliamentary Library seeking a copy. It is a must read for the ACT Minister Jon Stanhope, other members of his Government and Federal Parliamentarians. Jon Stanhope, ACT Chief Minister and Minister for the Environment, authorised the culling of kangaroos on the Googong Dam Foreshores, and will be indelibly etched in the minds of Australian for his despicable role, through Mary Lander's chapter 'The Slaughter at Googong Dam' who quotes him as follows:

"We're going to keep killing the kangaroos, and if the commercial shooters are not allowed to do it, we will dig a big hole in the ground and dump all the dead kangaroos in it."

CV. What is the plan of the future for the Australian Wildlife Protection Council?

MW. We will be concentrating on distributing 'Kangaroos: Myths and Realities' We look forward to Peter Singer's visit to Melbourne soon and our book signing in 2006. In the New Year we will be promoting the non-consumptive use of kangaroos for the multi-billion dollar nature-based tourism industry and will seek a well-known Australian to champion this cause. Thus exciting things are on the horizon designed to help and protect our maligned, persecuted and misunderstood kangaroos.

We also need to get more scientists informed of the ecological arguments, and the book does this admirably. From this we hope to garner some more sympathetic voices to challenge the simple mindset of a cheap meat and hide industry.

Whenever the animal cruelty side of things is raised, the kangaroo killing industry and its satraps - accuse us, their opposition, of being emotional, and they always come back with that tired old fallacious argument: If the RSPCA endorses the harvest as humane, then why do we complain? . If RSPCA endorsement were retracted, most people would find it hard to support the industry, including most of the scientists. A retraction by the RSPCA, in light of the review of well-known but ignored facts by Witte about young at- foot joeys, would completely undermine the arguments of those who claim there is no cruelty. This should be and most definitely will be a focus of our efforts.

It is essential that we get our 'realities' to the Australian community as soon as possible by any and all means available to us.

Alarmingly the media now have stories like: "Name Wanted to Sugar-coat Skippy Steaks" (The Australian - by Jonathan Porter). We have recently learned that John Kelly of the KIAA and a group of restaurateurs want to change the name kangaroo to 'sugar-coat' Skippy steaks. 'Marsu fillet' is one of hundreds of new names for kangaroo meat put forward in a competition that could rebadge the paltry $200 million dollar a year industry (still an economic minnow after many years of subsidies and promotion that went on even during drought when kangaroo killing should be stopped)

Further articles on this topic include, November 14^th 2005 "Australia Seeks More Palatable Name for Kangaroo Steaks" Agence France Presse about Australians having been reluctant to eat an animal so closely linked to the national identity. Another appeared in The Guardian London from Sydney-based Bernard O'Riordan on November 15^th: 'Skippy keeps kangaroo meat off the barbie'. He says: When it comes to kangaroos, it seems Australians prefer to see Skippy on television rather than flame-grilled on the barbecue. A deep reluctance by Australians to tuck into the national symbol has forced the A$200m (£85m) industry to find a new name for kangaroo meat that makes it palatable to domestic consumers. One of the names put forward in a national competition is "marsu fillet", an abbreviation of marsupial. Of the 300,000 tonnes of kangaroo meat produced each year, 60% is exported to Europe, 20% goes to Australian consumers and the rest becomes pet food."

Not only is there a call to rename our kangaroos and hide the source animal in order to make eating them more 'palatable' but a $7 million dollar backed kangaroo processing plant in Charleville, Queensland is destined to turn our beautiful kangaroos into sausages. This is an unmitigated disaster for the kangaroo species as a whole. Peter Beattie the Premier of Queensland said that "The Queensland State Government facilitated the original joint-venture discussions between the Charleville company and the Hong Kong-based company," According to a report, the Shire expects to export millions of kangaroo sausages to Russia, supposedly desperately short of meat and protein, and to France, as a table delicacy! They put $7 million into this venture along with capital from local investors.

Our book is thus needed now more than ever to expose the madness of this rampant exploitation and associated cruelty to kangaroos, with joeys ripped from their mothers' pouch, the young-at-foot joeys left to die a lingering cruel death when their mothers are shot with at least 3 million young-at-foot suffering in this way over the past decade.

Why is this small business singled out to receive so much government help and subsidies? How does the KIAA receive the full support of government subsidised marketing and promotion? What other small businesses gets such special treatment of hundreds of thousands of dollars subsidised over the years to promote killing and eating our national symbol? This is scandalous and must be stopped.

It is Australia's hidden shame. Associate Professor Eleonora Gullone from Monash University puts it so well in the following:

I find it astonishing that the Kangaroo Industry continues to push the line that kangaroo numbers are booming and that the only way we can deal with this problem is to eat them. The reality is that the number of kangaroos is no higher now than it was pre-European settlement as is clear from the documentation that has emerged from the records provided by early explorers. If anything, numbers are down. Australia has been in serious drought now for many years. Kangaroos are so finely evolved to the Australian environment that their reproduction simply stops or slows down naturally when the environment does not support it. So, the idea of kangaroo numbers booming is a convenient, and untrue, marketing tool used by the Kangaroo Industry interested only in continuing profits without any regard at all to the damage their killing is doing to the genetic integrity of kangaroo species, not to mention the mass scale suffering that their slaughter is causing, particularly to the thousands of healthy joeys who are abandoned when their mothers are slaughtered or the additional thousands who are barbarically clubbed to death. Thank goodness the Australian spirit will not stoop to the low level of eating our National Emblem. Only an Industry disconnected from its national identity would encourage such a thing.

CV. What is your website and please and how can people buy the book?

MW. Cost of book $30 + postage Website: www.awpc.org.au

ENVIROBOOK
Distributor :	38 Rose Street, Annandale 2038 NSW
Pat Thompson	Email: pat@envirobook.com.au Tel: 02 9518 6154 Fax: 02 9518 6156 Mobile: 0402 361 424

Books can also be purchased through the Publisher:

Australian Wildlife Protection Council Inc.
Address:	247 Flinders Lane Melbourne 3000 Victoria
Tel: Fax: Email: Website:	03 9650 8326 03 9650 3689 kangaroo@peninsula.hotkey.net.au www.awpc.org.au

Neil Williams is re-developing AWPC web site

World League for the Protection of Animals
Address:	PO Box 211 Gladesville 2111 NSW
Tel: Fax: Email: Website:	02 9817 4892 02 9817 4509 admin@wlpa.org www.wlpa.org

The costs for postage are high so a discount is available if needed ~ Each book weighs 750 Grams.

An example of bulk postage is that carton of books to WA was only $40 (14 books to a carton).

Group enquiries welcome/ wholesale is available.

Red Postal Satchels hold 4 books and cost only $8.40 to send.

DISCLAIMER: The information on this website is for the purpose of legal protest and information only. It should not be used to commit any criminal acts or harassment. The Abolitionist-Online does not encourage any illegal activities.

	· Francione Responds to Singer/ Friedrich Defense of Animal Welfare NEW ARTICLE! · A brief Intro To AR: Your Child or Your Dog? · Gary Francione Interview: Part. I · Gary Francione Interview: Part. II

	· Anti-Speciesism: The Appropriation and Misrepresentation of Animal Rights in Joan Dunayer's Speciesism NEW ARTICLE! · Exclusive Non-Violent Action: Its Absolute Necessity for Building a Genuine Animal Rights Movement NEW ARTICLE! · Must Love Dogs...To Death · The Case Against Test Tube Meat · Jeff Perz Interviewed


	!!!WARNING!!! Peter Singer's Latest Proclamation: “HIV research would be more useful if it were carried out on brain-damaged humans rather than chimps"