RSPCA backs plan to kill 3200 roos at defence sites

By Paul Maley

May 15, 2007 02:00am
Article from: The Australian

* RSPCA support is 'reluctant'
* 3200 kangaroos likely to be culled
* Cull will prevent mass starvation

THE RSPCA has lent reluctant support to a proposed kangaroo cull on one of two ACT defence sites but attacked the Defence Department for failing to control numbers.

In a move that has incensed wildlife activists, the department has applied for a licence to cull about 3200 eastern grey kangaroos, saying the animals were at risk of starvation due to the prolonged drought and posed an ecological hazard.

The cull will target about 2800 kangaroos from the Majura Training Area and about 400 from the Belconnen Naval Transmitter Station.

ACT RSPCA chief executive Michael Linke said an inspection of the Belconnen site by its senior staff yesterday supported the department's contention that the cull was necessary.

"There isn't food on the site to sustain the population," he said. "Our concern is if it's allowed to go on any longer we're going to get a situation where we get mass starvation of around 500 kangaroos."

However, Mr Linke said his organisation was aghast that the department had let the situation get to that point.

"They decommissioned this land 10 years ago so they've had ample time to manage a sustainable population," he said.

He said his staff would assess the situation at the Majura site some time next week.

Mr Linke said the cull was preferable to death by starvation. However, ACT Animal Liberation president Mary Hayes said yesterday there was no evidence kangaroos were likely to starve.

"It is a very cruel, violent way to treat animals, on a par to just treating them as if they were weeds to be mown or pulled out," she told ABC radio. "This is going to produce an enormous reaction."

National Kangaroo Protection Coalition spokesman Pat O'Brien said the department had planned the cull in secret and predicted there would be protest action.

ACT Government Director of Parks, Conservation and Lands Russell Watkinson said, if approved, the aim was to have the cull completed before July, so as to reduce the risk of finding joeys in mothers' pouches.

The department applied for the licence three weeks ago following advice from consultant ecologists who said the kangaroos, which number about 6000 at Majura and 500 at Belconnen, were causing soil erosion and an increase in weed infestation.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Territory and Municipal Services, the body that issues the licence, said discussions about the cull had been taking place since the beginning of last year. A decision on whether to issue the licence is expected by week's end.

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