As president of the Wildlife Protection Society, Paddy has a particular barrow to push. If his assumptions about how kangaroos could be farmed were correct, then the issue would be immediately rejected by most people. However, no one that I'm aware of is accepting his assumptions as being credible: namely, we're not talking about 'farming' kangaroos as if they were just another domesticated farm animal. Instead, kangaroo farming will be a controlled and well managed harvesting of wild populations of kangaroos, just as happens at present to the several million roos that are shot on both pastoral and agricultural land every year. The differences between Paddy's preconceptions and my own are that, if kangaroos were harvested for human consumption and if they replaced cloven-hoofed animals on our farms and stations, then we would have a more sustainable rural industry with economic, social and environmental benefits. On the assumption that Paddy and his group are philosophically opposed to kangaroo harvesting, I look forward to seeing whether his mind-set about 'farming' of this abundant animal is capable of changing.

Currently kanga meat is in demand overseas because its cheap, much cheaper than beef or lamb. And the quotas cant keep up with the demand for cheap processing meat, nor can the numbers of kangas. A farming operation with increased costs would need to recover much higher prices to be viable. Also there is the matter of demand.

Our overseas markets like Japan, the Middle East and Europe mostly want beef or mutton, not kangaroo meat. If we didnt supply beef or mutton to them, some body else would. We can never replace those products with kanga meat, because our major markets (the ones with the dollars) simply dont want it. There are other financial constraints too.

The argument about soft and hard hoofed animals doesnt stack up either. There are many Aussie farmers who do not overgraze, do not clear all their land, and who even replant trees on previously cleared land. They rotate beef and grain crops, set up water contouring, with water troughs away from creeks, and do okay.

Erosion and salinity are caused by too many hardhoofed animals, on too much marginal land. Its very obvious that there are many areas of Australia that should never have been "farmed."

As someone who has sat on the Queensland Kangaroo Management Advisory Committere for 10 years, I also dispute the idea that the Commercial kill Industry is well managed. It's not!

Please keep the comments coming, if you think farming kangas is a good idea, please let us know why! Cheers, Paddy

Dear Paddy,
Point # 1 - my idea of kangaroo farming is totally different than your concept of what the term means. Since roos are incapable of being doemsticated like sheep or cattle, roo farming to me means harvesting wild kangaroos from the 50% of inland Australia that is currently grazed as pastoral properties, i.e., not on sown pastures but on native vegetation.
Point # 2 - let the markets decide whether roo meat can be a sizeable player on the world stage. History has shown how national economies that attempt to control markets have failed, whereas free market economies have prospered. If the rest of the world doesn't want roo meat, fine, the industry will collapse, but we shouldn't put up the barricades to a roo meat industry just because you say that overseas markets don't want roo meat.
Point # 3 - salinity in WA is 99% caused by the clearing of deep-rooted native vegetation, not by too many cloven-hoofed animals which came along later. In many parts of WA, revegetation will reverse the salt problem, but there's only one animal which can eat native vegetation and produce saleable meat and hides: kangaroos.
Point # 4 - I'm a former wildlife officer in WA and the commercial kill industry is very well managed in this state. If you have problems in Queensland, I suggest you fix those problems rather than pretend that roos aren't in plague proportions and causing significant damage for farmers in many parts of Australia.

Man is omnivorous animal.If the meat sells,it also can play an economic role.Ofcourse the animal should not be in extinct list.Biodiversity and attracting zoo animal worldwide should be maintained with care.

Bernie, I am very familiar with the 'management' processes of the WA commercial kill. The WA commercial kangaroo kill is not well-managed. In the Court of Adminstrative Appeals Tribunal in 2004 we discovered under crossexamination that WA overshot their quota by something like 15000 animals in 2003, hardly good management. SA had similar overshoot. It's probably still happening, if its not, its because they cant find the animals, not because its managed any better.
In 2004 permits were issued by CALM to commercially shoot kangaroos on the Yanchep Golf Club. I was asked to assist local residents to stop the shoot, and flew to WA to help them. The shoot was stopped.
It was found that the Permit was issued by a Senior Ranger that had a relationship with the shooter. The same Ranger has since been investigated by the WA CCC and has been found to be heavily involved in wildlife trafficking, and is to be charged.
As an ex-ranger you would surely be aware that there is no funding to adequately manage anything, conservation management goes by the board, as bureaucrat numbers increase, and as ranger numbers are reduced. Those Rangers left are instructed to clean up after tourists.
I doubt that anyone really believes that any government department is capable of managing anything properly, be it health, environment or anything else. There is also the issues of sustainability, and the humane treatment of joeys, which has yet to be adequately addressed by any management Plan.
Cutting the heads off inpouch joeys, or bashing them with an iron bar as recommended in the COP, is hardly an acceptable way to euthanise young animals, and 'wild farming' would not resolve this matter either. Australia is the only country in the world which commercially kills wildlife mothers with young, then kills the young.
Anyway kangaroo farming is simply not going to happen. As we move more towards the billions of dollars of income wildlife tourism is bringing, the commercial values of live kangaroos are far higher than that of dead ones. Cheers, Paddy

To Paddy,
It is very cruelty to animals.Is there no law for prevention of cruelty for wild life?