Key points
- Animal welfare group Lega Anti Vivisezione has presented a draft bill to the Italian government, proposing a ban on importing kangaroo products.
- The group alleges animal cruelty in the process of killing kangaroos in Australia.
- Federal Department of Agriculture is responsible for approval of state governments' plans on kangaroo harvesting. It maintains kangaroo harvesting in Australia is done sustainably.
Australia exports 4,000 tonnes of kangaroo meat annually to Europe, and other countries, such as Papua New Guinea, Vietnam and South Korea.
Italy is the biggest importer of kangaroo skin which is extremely strong and is used in sports goods – mainly football boots and motorcycle suits – and in the fashion industry for exotic high-end footwear, bags and accessories.
However, the most prominent animal welfare organisation in the country is calling for a ban on kangaroo products from Australia.
“Despite being geographically far from Australia, our country is in fact involved in the largest slaughter of wild animals in the world, with the killing of over two million animals every year,” Simone Pavesi of Lega Anti Vivisezione told SBS Italian.
After the last summer's devastating bushfires, the group lobbied a number of Italian brands to stop using kangaroo skin for manufacturing sports and fashion products. Earlier this month, some well-known labels, including Versace and the Prada group, gave commitments to no longer use kangaroo leather.
Mr Pavesi says kangaroos have lived in ecological balance and coexisted with other species in Australia.
The introduction of sheep flocks and the start of the wool industry in Australia meant [kangaroos] became competitors of farm animals for the consumption of pastures, and now they are considered a pest.
Image
A cherished national icon or a pest?
Australia has a complicated history with kangaroos. On the one hand, the animal is Australia's national symbol, and on the other, it is also considered a pest.
Kangaroos damage rangeland, crops, fences, and according to the Australian government and industry representatives, they are in direct competition with livestock for drinking water during the droughts. More so, Australia’s insurance industry claims kangaroos are responsible for 80 per cent of all vehicle-animal collisions reported each year.
If the kangaroo population is allowed to increase without control, according to the Kangaroo Industries Association of Australia which represents the $174 million industry, it can lead to plant biodiversity loss, destruction of native vegetation and damage to habitat for smaller native species.
“Prior to European settlement [kangaroo population control] was by dingos and Aboriginal peoples. The commercial harvest simply replaces these.”
The industry that harvests kangaroos for meat and skin estimates that kangaroos cost over $90 million to the agriculture industry each year.
Kangaroo harvest is regulated by state governments that determine the annual quota for kangaroo culls, hunting areas and licensing for commercial purposes. These plans have to be approved by the federal government.
But animal welfare groups are concerned that the government's laid down processes aren't always strictly adhered to.
“The methodology for counting these animals, which is fundamental to determine how many of them can be killed, is not credible," says Mr Pavesi.
Some Australian ecologists agree.
“Two of the things that typically characterizes 'pests' (rats, mice, rabbits, cockroaches etc.) are their abundance and a high rate of reproduction, both of which criteria kangaroos actually fail,” says conservation biologist Ray Mjadwesch.
When you look at the data from surveys, you find that kangaroos have been effectively wiped out in most landscapes; the decline since European settlement is probably in the order of 95 per cent.
He says kangaroos have a high juvenile mortality rate while their reproduction rate is the same as that of koalas - one joey per year.
Red Kangaroo - female lying down touching noses with a joey. Source: AAP/Mary Evans/Ardea/Duncan Usher
Kangaroo: A Love-Hate Story
According to the Federal Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Australia’s commercial kangaroo industry, which began in 1959, is one of the best wild harvest operations in the world.
The Department says studies of wild populations have found no long-term impacts resulting from more than 60 years of commercial harvesting of kangaroos.
“This is due to the use of strict and regulated quotas that are based on scientific survey methods."
Only six species of kangaroos can be hunted for commercial purposes and the 'Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies' guides the industry which prescribes the number and species that can be killed. The code also mandates that minimum pain should be caused while killing a kangaroo.
The Department says an audit undertaken by RSPCA Australia in 2002 found that 99.3 per cent of kangaroos killed by commercial shooters in New South Wales were shot in compliance with the Code.
The Kangaroo Industries Association of Australia (KIAA) says animal welfare is a priority for the commercial kangaroo industry.
"Commercial harvesters in Australia have a duty of care to ensure kangaroos are taken in a manner that minimises pain, suffering and distress. They do this by adhering to the National Code of Practice for the humane treatment of kangaroos, which provides strict guidance to the industry based on the latest scientific research into animal welfare and kangaroo behaviour," KIAA executive officer, Dennis King told SBS Italian.
Mr King says there are strict licensing requirements for shooters to operate in the industry.
To get their licence, harvesters must pass a proficiency test every five years to demonstrate their accuracy with a firearm and their understanding of animal welfare and health and safety regulation.
However, animal welfare activists say this code is voluntary and is not always followed.
“According to the code, the kangaroo should be killed with a blow to the brain to prevent it from suffering. But hunting takes place at night, with rifles being fired from a distance of even 100 meters. So it is practically impossible that this rule is always adhered to," Mr Pavesi says.
Illegal/unregulated operators
If a mother kangaroo with a joey at the foot or in the pouch is killed, the code requires the joey to be killed as well.
KIAA's Dennis King insists the commercial kangaroo industry is "the most humane" way of managing kangaroo population.
"It is important to make a distinction between the strictly regulated and monitored commercial harvest and other non-commercial or illegal culls that can result in poorer animal welfare outcomes. Illegal or unregulated culls resulting in the mistreatment of animals is often used by opponents to discredit the industry," he says.
LAV worked with Australian not for profit Kangaroos Alive on a study in this area. Founders Diane Smith and Greg Keightley have been recording data of commercial shooting around their property in country NSW for over 10 years, and say they have collected kangaroo heads left by commercial kangaroo shooters.
"The heads have been all independently checked by a vet and then radiographed," says Mr Keightley.
"What we have discovered is that 40 per cent of the heads show that the braincase is intact. This means the kangaroos did not die instantly from a gunshot wound to the brain but rather a bullet wound to the neck, jaw or body and rendered immobile, resulting in extreme pain, fear and suffering.”
Smith and Keightley featured in documentary 'KANGAROO A Love-Hate Story' by Mick McIntyre and Kate McIntyre Clere. Despite the documentary winning several awards, including the Best Australian Documentary at the Melbourne Documentary Festival in 2018, it attracted harsh criticism from the kangaroo industry representatives. It was labelled as "disgusting" by Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud.
LAV presented a draft bill proposing to ban the importation of kangaroos products in Italy in December 2019. The group's other partner associations in Europe are also asking the governments their own countries to follow suit.
Several animal welfare groups in Europe are asking the European Commission to discuss kangaroo harvesting during the Australia-EU free trade negotiations.
In Australia, Kangaroos Alive is bringing about a petition to call for a moratorium on the commercial killing of kangaroos.
After the last bushfires season that devastated livestock and wildlife in Australia, Queensland decided to stop the 2020 kangaroo harvest.
