The Welfare of Adult Kangaroos

About 120,000 animals are body shot each year and 1,200,000 every ten years. These animals may suffer slow and/or painful deaths.

The Code stipulates that kangaroos are to be ‘brain’ shot and provides a diagram to demonstrate where the shooter should aim.¹ The objective is for the kangaroo to have an instantaneous loss of consciousness and rapid death without regaining consciousness. It is generally considered that shooting a kangaroo in the brain will result in a sudden and painless death for the animal. However, although instantaneous death for the kangaroo is the objective, this is certainly not achieved in all circumstances.

The RSPCA undertook two field surveys of skins and carcasses of commercially harvested kangaroos in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia in 1985 and later in 2002.² In 1985, the RSPCA found that the overall proportion of head shot kangaroos was about 86% while in 2000/2002 this was 95.9%. However, the RSPCA noted three significant limitations with these surveys. First, the sample 'was a conservative one as it represents only those kangaroos taken to processors, and many processors will only accept head-shot kangaroos.' Second, the samples do not include 'kangaroos shot and injured but not retrieved by the shooter, and evidence suggests that such injuries are a regular occurrence during a shoot.' Lastly, the RSPCA noted that the results 'do not take into account the effect on the dependent offspring of shot female kangaroos.'³

Animal Liberation NSW carried out an independent assessment of compliance with the Code between 2005 and 2008 and identified that an average of 40% of kangaroos per chiller in 24 chillers throughout Queensland and New South Wales were neck shot.⁴  In this study, neck shot carcasses were identified as those were the heads had been severed below the atlantal-occipital joint as it is much more difficult to cut below this joint and the weight of the carcasses would be less.⁵ The RSPCA argued that there is a 'degree of uncertainty in the industry about whether neck-shot kangaroos should be considered body-shot, despite clear evidence that shots would not cause a humane death.'⁶ Both the RSPCA and the NSW Young Lawyers Animal Rights Committee have recommended that the Code should more clearly state that neck shots are not head shots.⁷

Both the RSPCA and Animal Liberation estimates are limited by the fact that they have only assessed carcasses at meat processors. Kangaroos that are body shot and left in the field are not included in these figures. Therefore, the percentage of body shot kangaroos must be even higher.

Where an instantaneous death is not achieved, the animal may experience a slow and/or painful death. One shooter has reported that:

• '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 pulverized to an unrecognizable 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.'⁸

References

1. Department of the Environment Water Heritage and the Arts, National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies for Commercial Purposes (2008) <http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/trade-use/wild-harvest/kangaroo/pubs/code-of-conduct-commercial.pdf> accessed 8 October 2010, 2.4 (Point of aim) and Schedule 2.

2. RSPCA Australia, The Kangaroo Code Compliance Report: A survey of the extent of compliance with the requirements of the Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos, prepared for Environment Australia, July 2002 <http://www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/trade-use/publications/kangaroo-report/summary.html#71> accessed 8 October 2010; RSPCA Australia (1985) Incidence of Cruelty to Kangaroos. Report to the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service.

3. RSPCA Australia, The Kangaroo Code Compliance Report: A survey of the extent of compliance with the requirements of the Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos, prepared for Environment Australia, July 2002 <http://www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/trade-use/publications/kangaroo-report/summary.html#71> accessed 8 October 2010, Summary.

4. Ben-Ami, Dror, A Shot in the Dark: A Report on Kangaroo Harvesting (Report prepared for Animal Liberation NSW, 2009), 25; Appendix 1, Video: Chapter 7.

5. Ben-Ami, Dror, A Shot in the Dark: A Report on Kangaroo Harvesting (Report prepared for Animal Liberation NSW, 2009), 25.

6. RSPCA Australia, The Kangaroo Code Compliance Report: A survey of the extent of compliance with the requirements of the Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos, prepared for Environment Australia, July 2002 <http://www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/trade-use/publications/kangaroo-report/summary.html#71> accessed 8 October 2010, Summary.

7. RSPCA Australia, The Kangaroo Code Compliance Report: A survey of the extent of compliance with the requirements of the Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos, prepared for Environment Australia, July 2002 <http://www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/trade-use/publications/kangaroo-report/summary.html#71> accessed 8 October 2010, Summary; NSW Young Lawyers Animal Rights Committee, 'A submission to the NRMMC Working Group on the National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos' (prepared by Kristen Dorman, Carolyn Wilson, Angela Radich, Katrina Sharman, Stephanie Abbott and Nigel Myers), October 2004, 15.

8. David Nicholls, ‘The Kangaroo – Falsely Maligned by Tradition’ in Maryland Wilson and David B Croft (eds), Kangaroos - Myths and Realities (2005) 33, 38.