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Comments (46)
25 Feb 2009 05:50 AEST
Sophia
As I was saying, dont think the kangaroos wont perish along with us. Kangaroo meat has many health benefits. And as for those who are opposed to the killing of fluffy creatures and 'our national icon', life is not a Disney film. Stop living in a sentimental fairy tale and get real.
25 Feb 2009 05:46 AEST
Sophia
I fin it ironic that a lot of the anti-roo meat camp seem to think that eating kangaroo is messing with the natural order. What really messes with nature is importing livestock, clearing land for grazing and allowing hard-footed animals to trample habitats and foul waterways. Kangaroos would not be nearly so threatened if we hadn't displaced them to farm cattle and sheep. Kangaroos also dont produce as much greenhouse gas. If global warming causes the damage it has the potential to, dont think
25 Feb 2009 05:13 AEST
Daphina Dixon
My thoughts are that we should eat kangaroo as farmers kill them, so we should farm them, I would think they do not destroy the environment as much as cows, they are native to our country, the meat is better for our cholesterol. All round it makes good sense to eat kangaroo, but under strict regulations so they do not become extinct.
20 Feb 2009 01:15 AEST
Rob
I've just read through the comments and am amazed at the unlikely alliance of vegans and beef eaters. I first ate Kangaroo in the late 1970s when I was growing up in Australia and have eaten it ever since. It is widely available in Australian cities and you can also find it on the menu in restaurants and in stores in London, New York etc. Folks, it's been on the 'menu' for a very long time so whether or not to eat roo is not the point. Please re-read David's posting. He's not the devil.
19 Feb 2009 08:55 AEST
David Shennan
Caring for the wellbeing of animals, native and domesticated, was a key factor in our decision to provide our own food. I am unapologetic about my decision to eat legally obtained kangaroo meat. Having made the philosophical decision to eat meat, I fail to see the logic in distinguishing between species. However, all species have found a safe refuge on ouor land, much of which is kept specifically as bush for this purpose.
19 Feb 2009 08:52 AEST
David Shennan
One of the premises of a blog is that everyone has the right to their opinion and it is great to see such a variety of them expressed in such a forthright manner. I would like to clarify that much of what I wrote was deliberately provocative in order to make a point. I can only blame myself that that point mostly appears to have been missed. I take my role as custodian of part of this land very seriously.
19 Feb 2009 08:13 AEST
Andrew
I invite someone who actually has anything to do with primary food production - rather than going to a supermarket, or getting their Mum to cook for them - to have an opinion here. I am amused that so many people seem to live in an santised Holywood version of the world, where the luxury of moral outrage is possible. The reality is that meat is eaten in great quantities in this and every country on this planet. The sausages that David is making and reporting are not made from lentils.
19 Feb 2009 03:27 AEST
philip
Take revenge on a defenceless animal David? Are you having a laugh?
Man is very clever at KILLING defenceless creatures must be a throw back to prehistoric times to prove he was a man, but just a minute. In those days animals were killed when folk needed to eat, NOT to satisfy some financial greed of mankind. The fact that you got so much pleasure out of having your breakfast with a creature which has been on that land far longer than you have says it all. YOU are the intruder, NOT the Roo!
18 Feb 2009 08:36 AEST
Nigel
All you anti meat eaters - get off your high horse! The last time I checked it wasn't illegal to eat meat including kangaroo meat. Us humans are on the top of the food chain, that's just the way it is so get over it!! You don't have to like it but don't ram your opinions down our throats. You can have your opinion but don't chastise and attack anyone who has a different opinion than yours. May I suggest all you bleeding hearts out there read a fairy story instead of this excellent blog.
18 Feb 2009 05:14 AEST
melissa
hi everyone i was just reading some of the comments on here and i thought i'd add my own comment
i do not justify the killings of innocent kangaroos i am a animal lover and i can't stand animal cruelty and i think hunting our australian wildlife is disgusting yes i am a meat eater but i would never eat kangaroo,rabbit,turkey,deer or any other wildlife its disgusting leave our aussie icons alone hunting should be banned how can any one hunt and kill kangaroos or any other wildlife!
18 Feb 2009 02:27 AEST
Boz
Thea from Sutherland - You argue that due to the fact that the animals and plants on a piece of land prior to human cultivation are not combining forces to retake the land and eat the human inhabitants, in your words 'take revenge', that David is somehow wrong for living a farmers life seen around the world for thousands of years. A quick question to bury your premise - on which land, in what house, driving what car, and eating what food does your existence impact the natural environment?
18 Feb 2009 02:27 AEST
Thea
Also, I do not eat meat. I just can't justify it. Cows,pigs,lambs,chucks are all sentient creatures - as are my dog who I treat like a child and the roos who people from around the world love. How can it be justifiable to eat one and love the other? People do not need to eat meat-its been proven. They cling to this outdated notion, they hide behind this excuse so as to free themselves from the guilt of knowing animals are suffering & dying simply because they like the taste of their dead flesh.
18 Feb 2009 02:14 AEST
Thea
Mr Sheenan,
Your veggie patch, your lawn, your house are no doubt built on land which was once upon a time the home of many native animals and flora all of which have now been displaced by you. Your arrival has probably been a huge inconvenience to them. Despite this do you see them seeking any revenge on you? Have they tried to kill you or any member of your family as retribution for stealing their home and building upon the place where their food grows? I very much doubt it.
18 Feb 2009 01:20 AEST
Robyn
We are a nation/world of meat eaters, but now it's going way too far, Roo's are supposed to be our pride and joy, we happily display them on our Qantas planes, we show them off in marketing adds for tourism, yet we want to start culling them to eat!?
Why does man persist in raping our land of her natural inhabitants who were here long before us, do we not already murder enough for the dinner plate?? I don't agree with any meat eating, the slaughter of animals is already beyond disgusting!!
18 Feb 2009 12:18 AEST
Jan Geren
I am sickened by the thought of eating these magnificant creatures. This surely does not represent the Australia I thought was still alive. I find this behavior barbaric, outdated and shows how far the human's erratic behavior has become.
Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it. Milan Kundra
18 Feb 2009 12:14 AEST
Boz
To not eat meat - of any animal - due to cruelty reasons makes no sense at all. Would you stop a lion from hunting buffalo cause it might hurt it? In any case here is my solution - we should equal the playing field and allow animals - such as the kangaroo - to hunt and eat us! Or at best we could potentially even feed human meat to cows - in a painful way if that helps - to keep things level. Thoughts?
18 Feb 2009 11:12 AEST
Jonathan
... to write such piffle? Please SBS, you are the shining light in Australian media. Get this abomination of a blog off your website. Though I do agree with one point - the discrimination between non-human animal species is absurd. Go vegan.
18 Feb 2009 09:31 AEST
Simon
What's all this "kangaroos are beautiful animals so we shouldn't eat them"? Cows are also beautiful. Do you eat beef and refuse to eat kangaroo, because you find kangaroos prettier?
18 Feb 2009 08:50 AEST
Antje Struthmann
Kangaroos are gentle from Nature unless provoked and chased.
I am sure you get paid nicely to promote the Kangaroo killings.
They are essential for our environment and help reduce the fire hazards as they eat the grasses no livestock can digest.
You should learn to know these animals before you prematurely judge them.
You take away their land, but you complain them helping you to keep your lawn nice.
How hypocritical of you.
Get real. It`s the humans that should be put in the Kangaroos position
18 Feb 2009 07:36 AEST
Tina
Ugh!! just the THOUGHT of eating an Australian native animal makes me want to throw up! Don't we have enough domestically raised meat to eat without starting on our Australian Icons for God's sake!
18 Feb 2009 12:54 AEST
Yu Li
Please stop this cruelty and inhumane behaviour of treating animals. They were not meant to be eaten or treated badly. Let the furry Australian icon live on for future generations.
17 Feb 2009 11:25 AEST
Estelle
Sorry, my computer cut my comment short but basically I a m saying , IF YOU DONT WANT KANGAROOS ON YOUR PROPERTY , THEN FENCE IT OFF!! we can all live in harmony with alittle effort
17 Feb 2009 11:21 AEST
Estelle
The problem is when they give the OK to kill Kangaroos they dont stipulate what breeds. I dont agree with killing any Kangaroos but if you try and understand the legislation and turn a blind eyethen you realise that endangered species are affected. Some roos and Wallabies are listed as protected but all these killers have to do is say they didnt realise what breed they were shooting.Near where I live they have wine crops , they are fenced off and the roos stay in the nearby horse properties .
17 Feb 2009 10:51 AEST
Nikki Sutterby
Thanks for all your comments and opinions but for some state govt data to get a reality check, kangaroos could never replace our consumption of other meats and as we speak kangaroo densities across NSW QLD and SA where they are commercially hunted are at critical minimum densities. Kangaroos cannot sustain their population at current killing levels and if this was to even continue at current levels, we will soon see their disappearance across these commercial hunting states. Enjoy them alive.
17 Feb 2009 08:45 AEST
Marie
David, judjing by all the comments you've received I thought perhaps that you had written that we should start eating our own children! What passion some of these people have. Get real!! I love Kangaroo meat! Thanks for the recipe.
17 Feb 2009 08:38 AEST
Michael
Yes, Mr Shennan is indisputably carnivorous. Beyond that, I look though these comments in vain for any coherent thought from those who claim to be offended or outraged by his opinion, which I find plausible, or his recipe, which I am keen to try.
17 Feb 2009 07:28 AEST
Dominique
They sell plenty of kangaroo meat at my local supermarket. The end product is no different to the cow, sheep, and pig that’s also sitting on the shelf for our consumption. An animal is an animal. I'm with you David. Personally I don’t know what all the fuss is about!
17 Feb 2009 04:40 AEST
Milly Osborne
Kangaroos are beautiful animals. The killing industry does not want "emotional" responses and heart-warming pictures of them! These animals are being denied their job of keeping down native grasses. We have bushfires, due to dry and over-long undergrowth, but not enough kangaroos to eat it. We should be restoring the balance to Nature. The population of aborigines who ate kangaroos was not nearly 21 million. It is not sustainable to have kangaroos meat here, and export it.
17 Feb 2009 03:15 AEST
Belinda
I think that comment was meant to be tongue-in-cheek.
17 Feb 2009 02:47 AEST
MH
Do you wring the necks of everyone you love? I really don't believe you loved your chickens at all.
You want to take revenge on kangaroos for simply eating to survive while their habitat perpetually decreases? No wonder Mother Nature gets so angry at times and 'takes revenge' on us pathetic humans for the cruelty and the damage we inflict upon Her creation.
If we're going to eat our National Emblem then we should change it to something we respect, which seems to be very little apparently.
17 Feb 2009 02:19 AEST
Pat OBrien
For those who eat kangaroo meat, I sincerely hope you have a good health benefit plan. Kangaroos are shot at night in the outback, gutted and hung on a truck, driven around till daylight in heat, dust, and flies. Then they are placed in an old chiller box, and stay there in fluctuating temperatures for sometimes up to two weeks. Eventually they are trucked to processing plant, boned and packed into trays, gassed with preservative, then sent to the supermarket. Good luck with your health!
17 Feb 2009 01:51 AEST
Andrew
The name of this blog is Paddock to Plate, not Magic to Supermarket or Vegetarian Revolution. Presumably if you are reading this then your interest is already in slaughtering cuddly animals and eating them. The question then is not. 'should we eat meat', because we are already interested in this topic. The question is, 'since we eat meat why is the native animal more sacrosanct than the imported animal.'
17 Feb 2009 01:39 AEST
Craig
It's really interesting to see how rightous the Vegie lobby is, but I look at it this way. To eat meat you directly kill one animal. To go vego you desimate the native vegetation and all the animals that depended on it in the process and don't even get me started on Soy - personally I think growing soyabean should be banned in australia - but thats only my opinion and I'm not going to force it down everyone elses neck.
17 Feb 2009 12:30 AEST
Simon
Cattle farming has had a terrible effect on Australia. Kangaroo was a dietary staple of Aboriginal people. Kangaroo should be the Australian meat - it's environmentally appropriate, it's healthier, and it also tastes better.
Kangaroo is a lean, healthy meat to eat. It is also high in iron, so you need less of it than if you were eating beef.
It's ridiculous that so many ignorant Aussies stick to beef, and wrongly think eating kangaroo is the problem. THEY are the problem.
17 Feb 2009 12:28 AEST
sylvia raye
What does David Sherman think will happen when there is no more land for any species except humans.? By then there will only be wall to wall selfish human beings let. Then whom shall we kill / cull?.
Would he go to the butcher and ask for a tender human rump? This may sound extreme howeve that is the direction in which we are heading. Humans have to stop out of control breeding.
17 Feb 2009 12:10 AEST
Andrew
Did the respondants to this actually read David's note? We already farm and eat meat. We already have imported and sustain animals for this purpose. The animals we have imported to this land are not ideally suited to it. If we want to take ecological sensitivity and sustainability seriously rather than just something fashionable to talk about shouldn't we see what the natural environment has to offer rather than continue to impose Northern hemisphere practices?
17 Feb 2009 12:09 AEST
Roz Holme
how could any one eat these great animals?
humans ,need to get to know and love our wildlife
not take there land and eat them humans are a disgrace ==Roz
17 Feb 2009 11:36 AEST
Carol Drew
Mr Shennan, like so many others, is so predictable in his comments regarding kangaroos. The number of kangaroos he quotes as 'living sustainably' is bloated out of all proportion. Such is his ilk that he would rather twist the facts to suit his purpose than honestly discuss the real situation facing our kangaroos and other wildlife. Human encroachment on wildlife land and desperation drives these creatures closer whilst the worst drought in recent history holds fast to this land.
17 Feb 2009 11:34 AEST
Simon
I love eating lightly grilled or barbecued medium-rare kangaroo, especially with a glass of Aussie tempranillo.
17 Feb 2009 11:32 AEST
Mel Tasker
For a brief moment, whilst reading this, I smiled, understanding all too well, the joy of sharing the early morning with our magnificent wildlife. I thought, perhaps this man too, appreciates the unique beauty of natural Australia, which includes our iconic kangas. How sad that this moment was lost on the likes of David Sheenan. As he himself has pointed out, roos are beneficial to the environment and high time to leave them alone. As for his 'ability' to kill those he 'loves',be a vego.
17 Feb 2009 11:32 AEST
Lin Ashton
Of course we shouldn't eat kangaroos. Therse animals are totally disregarded by sectors of Australian society, due to ignorance, sheer stupidity and apathy. We have been constantly fed information which has be proven to be untrue, by government.. We slaughter more land based wildlife (kangaroos), than any other country in the world, and yet one of the main reasons for people visiting this country, is to see our unique wildlife....and now we want to eat them?!!
17 Feb 2009 11:24 AEST
Lincoln
Hey, Sport: that verge of green grass that bordered your stone driveway would have turned to a verge of long dry grass in the summer months; and you want to shoot and then eat these native fire-prevention animals!
You're a bl**dy fool!
17 Feb 2009 06:46 AEST
N Henry
Dear Mr Shennan,
I prefer the view of the kangaroo eating at peace near your front verandah to the bloody and horrific end you would like for him.
16 Feb 2009 09:42 AEST
Leisa
Mr. Shennen,
Perhaps you should get your facts straight before writing your article. Firstly, it is not your land, the Kangaroos have been here millions of years before you. It is their land and home. You have taken it .Secondly, there would be far less than 35 million. Government statistics claim that there would approximately than 20 million. Most of their habitat has been cleared or taken by greedy property owners who fence them out and continually complain about them.
16 Feb 2009 08:55 AEST
Vivienne
Why don't we eat kangaroos? Maybe it is patriotic, that they are our icons, and that they are such proud animals, and so Australian! These animals have existed here from the Dreamtime. Indigenous people ate them, but on a subsistence level. Australians have damaged our environment so much, and when kangaroos are seen they are called a "plague". Their rights to exist are being denied. Besides, these animals are so wonderful, so enchanting, so unique to Australia.
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