Pat O'Brien Interviewed

By Claudette Vaughan

Pat O'Brien is President of the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia (WPAA) and co-ordinator of the National Kangaroo Protection Coalition.

After being an environmentalist for several years Pat O'Brien come over the animal rights side because not enough was being done for the kangaroo by mainstream environmentalists he told the Abolitionist. The late Steve Irwin read an article that Pat wrote based on his concern for the future of the kangaroo and Pat was invited to work at Steve's Australian Zoo. This “Zoo” is not an ordinary zoo in the traditional sense of the word. All the animals including the kangaroo and joeys are rescued animals. Pat O'Brien speaks to us about his latest campaigns.

Katrina Fox wearing a "Save The Kangaroo" t-shirt

Abolitionist: How is your campaign against the use of the poison 1080 in the environment progressing? Pat O'Brien: We have been campaigning against the use of 1080 for many years and there's been some success. When people think of 1080 they often associate it with Tasmania as Tasmanian Government has agreed to phase out the use of 1080 in the next 9 years. What a lot of people don't realise is that here in Queensland we use a lot more 1080 than they do in Tasmania. The Queensland Government is dropping 1080 baits everywhere. They are not allowed to drop them over National Parks but they drop them over State forests, over the mountain ranges and over areas that have never been baited before. We have been campaigning hard to have that activity stopped.

Abolitionist: What does 1080 do to the environment?

Pat O'Brien: 1080 is a residual poison. It can break down over a period of time in water. Once 1080 is ingested by an animal it can stay in that animal for quite a period of time. There appears to be a connection between the saliva of the animal and the 1080 baits. If another animal comes along and starts to eat the stomach contents of the dead animal they also tend to get 1080 residue poisoning. There's been very little research about the effects of 1080 on worms and caterpillars. They say that 1080 doesn't kill raptors but nobody knows what it does to their breeding cycle, or their eggshells. There's very little good solid information around. Infact most research has been conducted by the Department of Primary Industry which lobbies hard to use this stuff.

In the doses they use to kill off dingos, goannas, raptors and quolls they say it's not fatal but the people that are saying this are the same people that want to use it.

Abolitionist: Currently the WPAA is in court challenging plans to kill wallabies on the two biggest islands in Bass Strait. How is that coming along?

They looked at pulling the joeys out of the pouch and killing them. There's an issue of ex-pouch joeys because when their mother is shot they just run away into the night and die of exposure. We had expert witnesses at this Tribunal.

There are 3 stages in the life of a joey. There's a joey in the pouch, joey out of the pouch but still sleeping in the pouch and then there's a transitional stage where the joey learns from the mother. He's virtually independent himself but he learns from the mother social skills etc. So the Tribunal was very interested in hearing all about this.

At the moment the government is saying there is 26 million kangaroos in Australia. The problem is nobody can find them. In NSW there is only about 5 or 6 full-time shooters in NSW now. There are 2000 part-timers who shoot only on the weekends and this has occurred because they can't find the kangaroos.

Where we are at now is the kangaroos in most states are of quasi-extinction. There are many areas of NSW and Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia where there are no kangaroos any longer.

The next move from there of course is because they can't breed the way they used to with different mobs, we're looking at genetically impoverished mobs that are just doomed to die. There is no doubt that unless we stop shooting kangaroos right now we are going to see some really serious kangaroo issues in the next couple of years.

Abolitionist: How did things get so out of control for the kangaroo?

Pat O'Brien: Governmental indifference. What's happening is we have little bureaucracies set up in every state and they are paid to manage the kangaroo industry. If they come out and say that there's trouble here and we have to close this industry down it will show that they have been doing it wrong. That's the problem. They are not prepared to admit that they have been doing it wrong. We really are at a crisis point with kangaroos.

Abolitionist: We know that's there's talk in Industry to farm the kangaroo. Is this going to happen?

Pat O'Brien: No. It's impossible to farm kangaroos and the Industry knows it. Most farmers just laugh at that proposition because they want to farm animals where the markets are. Why would farmers set up a huge amount of infrastructure to farm kangaroos when it isn't possible to get big prices for their hides and flesh?

Abolitionist: Isn't most of the demand for kangaroo body parts used overseas for pet food?

Pat O'Brien: No. A lot of the kangaroo products go as steaks for the overseas market. All the scraps, the heads, the four quarter bones, the trimmings, anything that's not wanted, goes into a great big crusher and is ground into a paste that gets sent overseas to Russia and Europe to make salamis out of.

Abolitionist: You've said in the book Kangaroos Myths and Realities , that a gaggle of scientists research papers support the kangaroo industry. How did they support prostituting themselves when no government funding has been taken to oppose the Industry? Pat O'Brien: A lot of the funding comes from the rural industry and the development corporation which is set up to fund industries. With many farmers in parts of the country where there's serious trouble because their agriculture business has been destroyed through droughts and so on this corporation offers other options for farmers like kangaroo meat, emu meat and even farming fresh water turtles. There are some good farmers out there at crisis point just sitting back desperately grasping for another option and it's not going to turn up.

Film Critic Peter Thompson wears a "Save the Kangaroo" T-Shirt

Abolitionist: Is the future of the Big Red finished?

Pat O'Brien: Absolutely. I was saying this 10 years ago that the Big Red in this country is in serious, serious trouble and he really is. I can't say too much at the moment but for the past month we've been doing an undercover covert operation that will come to light shortly in western Queensland and western NSW. We have been out there with private detectives, kangaroo shooters and we have been talking to farmers etc. We have a lot of information but we haven't released it yet. There is no doubt that the Red Kangaroos that are being shot now are very small. I was just appalled recently at one I saw in a chiller. The poor little bugger was only around 18 months old. He hadn't even had a chance to breed and here he was hanging up with his guts cut out. That's how disgraceful this whole industry is.

Abolitionist: What is the way forward?