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The Forum > Article Comments > Let's eat kangaroo > Comments

Let's eat kangaroo : Comments

By Jennifer Marohasy, published 23/9/2005

Jennifer Marohasy argues it makes good economic sense and environmental policy to commercially harvest wild animals.

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As the species of the world abate and humans continue to profilferate out of control, surely it would be more logical to put humans onto dinner plate.
This statement would be funny if it was not for the truth of the matter.
Posted by LivinginLondon, Monday, 26 September 2005 6:12:57 PM
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I was a vegetarian for some years and survived without serious problems, but then I came up against a moral dilemma: I couldn't guarantee that the plants I was eating were not suffering. Perhaps a potato being harvested feels just as much distress as a sheep being slaughtered. Perhaps my desire to not eat things with faces was just a kind of self-centredness based on the fact that I have a face. Then, as luck would have it, my girlfriend went to live in the UK and I went through a bit of a crisis and ended up eating whatever I feel like.

As it happens, I like kangaroo meat, and have never found it to be excessively tough. I have never eaten whale - or dog, for that matter - but I don't think I would have any problem with it, as long as it was harvested in a sustainable manner. You have to draw the line somewhere, of course, and I would probably choose not to eat fellow humans, as long as there is a reasonable alternative.
Posted by Ian, Tuesday, 27 September 2005 5:31:22 AM
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The secret to tender Roo meat is to do it gently and not over done. I have eaten flying fox, dog and python. The blackfellas of the inland particularly like cats. I trust their judgement long before some urban whimsy.

The real issue with the roo harvest and, indeed, any wildlife harvest, is one of appropriate scale and timing. We know from numerous field reports that an 80% decline in roo populations during drought (1 in 4 years)is the norm. A similar scale decline in the population of Gliders was recorded by Sharpe et al, at Bungawalbyn.

Many of our best farmers also advise that an 80% reduction in the stocking rate for sheep or cattle is the best way to conserve both ecological and productive capital in response to a pending drought.

So why do we have these political and departmental boofheads who insist on uniform 10% harvest prescriptions to "protect" a population that is about to die a very slow, miserable and cruelly negligent death?

Ditto for whales. The East Coast whale population is circa 7,000 with a NET annual increase of 10%. I don't know what the annual "natural" death rate is but a management regime that retains breeding aged females and dominant males (just as beef producers do) would pose no threat to the continued expansion of the population.

It is a simple concept, first grasped by mankind over 10,000 years ago as the basis of animal husbandry. But how much longer will it take to seep into the collective wit of the various EPA's and DEH?
Posted by Perseus, Tuesday, 27 September 2005 10:22:54 AM
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I would love to try whale meat. Thats the only reason we need to get whale numbers up, so people like me can eat them. It's also the best incentive for protecting a species.
Posted by wrighta, Tuesday, 27 September 2005 9:06:06 PM
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Dugong is good tucker and stingray (but you gotta know how to prepare it) I've never tried whale, too hard to catch with little dingy. Perseus, you'd be waiting a long time for the DEH and EPA to come to their senses. Bureacrats with diplomas in land management and zoology don't know jack about country. But i sense you know this already...
Posted by Rainier, Tuesday, 27 September 2005 10:28:58 PM
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Tell me, Wrighta & Rainier, don't you think it is about time a bunch of coastal Blackfellas and their pioneer neighbours re-asserted their traditional rights to feast up on a beached whale before the fish molesters and cameras arrive? It is, after all, a part of nature's bounty that used to be shared around. What law has decreed that a newly dead whale belongs to "Parks and Wildlife"? Who gave the local council the right to just bury the thing when it could be stocking up a whole bunch of freezers?
Posted by Perseus, Wednesday, 28 September 2005 10:57:42 AM
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