While everyone is entitled to their opinion I think some of you need to get a serious grasp on reality. With a conservative estimate of 25 million roo's in the country I fail to see how the culling of 400 will have any effect. Trying to compare the culling of these roo's to the killing of whales by Japan in the Great Southern Ocean is not only a flawed argument, it is an absurd one. As for relocating them? Ridiculous!

If you want to be useful and you are truly a conservationist, then how about helping the public in the Kimberleys stop the cane toad invasion of W.A. You could see if you could help with the plight of the Tasmanian Devil that are dying in their thousands due to a facial cancer. These are just two conservation projects you could get involved with that will have more of an impact on Australian wildlife than the deaths of 400 kangaroos.

Where I grew up and farmed there is still plenty of roo's, however the bush turkeys, emus, and various other wildlife are either non-existent or in extremely small numbers. The big picture is the destruction of thousands of acres of land in Australia for the expansion of cities around the coast, the destruction of the rainforest in the Amazon and Indonesia etc, …not the culling of 400 roo’s.

And yes, I am from the bush, born and bred. I have raised roo’s in case any of you would have a crack at that. My advice to some of you is get real, get a life and get onto the real issues. Oh by the way, in case you don’t know because our media is giving some of you so much attention, people in Zimbabwe and Burma are being murdered, raped, tortured, detained and made homeless every day. How about doing something about that, or is it because they’re people in far away countries and not furry cute animals. And yes I do my small bit for those people but I don’t call up the media to tell them.

Hi all

Hey, Belly, I did withdraw from my first stated position, be fair!

Dickie - I'd love to know where those stats came from; it would not surprise me in the least, but perhaps one of our farming contributors could enlighten us about why sheep, cows and horses are wandering the roads (in fact, at a nearby saleyard I have found large mobs of sheep wandering the back roads several times).

Myopinion, my view of this cull is that it is the wrong thing to do, but in the face of the abject cruelty we inflict upon millions of farmed animals day in, day out. year in, year out ... well, do the maths, (or math) as the Americans say. I also said earlier than it's sad that while an animal is cute, pretty and cuddly or is in some other way extraordinary people go to equally extraordinary lengths to protect it (whales, for example). We are an inconsistent lot.

But we continue to rob these animals of their habitats, then complain when they (also drought afflicted) encroach closer to urban areas. If control methods are the only alternative, they must be humane, not some of the horror stuff we use now like 1080, steel-jawed traps and strychnine. Many of the animals now regarded as "pest" animals are only out there as a result of human negligence, neglect, ignorance and indifference.

Cheers
Nicky

Bloody excellent post myopinion. Welcome to OLO.

Nicky

Yes human activity has eaten its way into Australia’s remaining patches of wilderness. Major roads block the paths of wild animals; residential and commercial areas seal off forests and farmland has destroyed habitats. What’s now left is too small for animals to raise their young, hide, graze or hunt and our thirst for development is far from quenched.

Herbert Hoover, who once worked in the Eastern Goldfields of WA would no doubt be turning in his grave. During the ‘20s, millions of koalas were killed and their skins exported. Hoover, during his US presidency, banned the import of koala skins and the trade collapsed. Now, from mismanagement, koalas must be culled.

Despite the irrational exuberance on this thread (normally attributed to animal lovers) few are asking questions (except Foxy) on how we can best manage the culling of our wildlife. There is a strong scent of mob violence mentality to “kill the bastards.”

No-one is asking about cull management or its effectiveness. The RIRDC state that only 60% of quotas are harvested. Animals confined by humans in small areas thus preventing immigration leads people to believe that the nation suffers a kangaroo population explosion. Some shooters have too many licences covering vast tracts of land and are physically unable to cover all the areas which could explain the out-of-control breeding (assuming statistics are accurate.)

Critical thought would allow people here to realize that a parochial view of kangaroo numbers does not portray an overall picture. I have lived for many decades in kangaroo country and have never sighted a wild kangaroo within the town boundaries. The bush, however, is more virginal and though in an arid area, reveals no damage inflicted by animals. Nevertheless, the road kill outside boundaries is prolific.

During 1994, a new viral disease causing blindness swept through kangaroos in the East and spread through to WA. Drivers should spare a thought for their next roadkill which may have been blind.

Here’s a couple of links for your perusal.

Cheers Nicky.

http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache:4mNuR6J8jo4J:www.thylazine.org/gallery/roadkill/+western+australia+kangaroos+road+kill&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=au&lr=lang_en

http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/qld/content/2006/s1896572.htm

Disclaimer: The poster bears no responsibility for the contents of the links provided.

Dickie posted "I have lived for many decades in kangaroo country and have never sighted a wild kangaroo within the town boundaries."

I don't understand what you mean by this comment. Why would the roo's enter the town boundary?

Let me give you a few figures about roo's. In Perth in the Upper Swan Valley there is a suburb that has two golf courses in the suburb boundary. Four years ago the City estimated there were approximately 2,500 roo's inside the suburb which is 32 square kilometres. That’s 78 roo’s per square kilometre. Admittedly about a quarter of the suburb was also bush (which has since been cleared). This suburb is 30 minutes drive from the CBD of Perth. The road kill is approximately 15 roo’s per year, so I think the breeding will out do the road kill, don’t you? How does this area sustain so many roo's? Simple: constant water and food supply with green grass all year round and no culling.

What most of you have failed to take into account is the lack of watering points there would have been decades ago. I would have thought that the lack of watering points would have naturally controlled the numbers of roo’s in a population. How many dams and troughs do you think are in Australia today on stations, farms and hobby farms? One of the main reasons for the roo numbers today would be plentiful feed and water. As for droughts, they have a way of naturally reducing numbers, but all droughts end and the numbers rise again. That’s a natural process.

Here’s something else for you all to protect, that is actually worthwhile.
Banded Hare-Wallaby, the Bridled Nailtail Wallaby, the Prosperine Rock-wallaby, and the Rufous Hare-wallaby. All are on the endangered Wallabies list

myopinion is on the money.

So, why is the Canberra Roo cull such an issue? What makes this particular situation so noteworthy?

The reason has little to do with killing kangaroos. Since Canberra has an airport, 5 star hotels, access to electronic media, vegetarian restaurants and drug dealers the highly dedicated animal libbers have access to the basic life style needs for the professional AL protester. Minimal effort and maximum effect along with maximum expenditure of tax deductible donations. Nirvana.

When wild animals over populate they are highly exposed to the possibility of diseases or starvation. This has resulted in documented cases of a collapse in animal populations.

Recently we were in the Brisbane Ranges and after an estimated 216 man hours moving about quietly, on foot, in the bush, the nine of us noted that we had not sighted one Kangaroo. Dingoes we surmised but later learned from the property owner that the drought and a virus had finished them off. They apparently die frothing at the mouth over a period of days.

Now the dilemma. Is it unethical to manage a wild population by monitoring and culling or is it more ethical to allow them to die a slow agonising death due to starvation or disease. I know what a reasonable person would conclude but unfortunately, an animal libber is not reasonable, by definition.

Peter Singer the founding Father of AL advocates consensual sex with animals. Boston Globe -- April 11, 2001; NO HEAVY PETTING; Author: CATHY YOUNG

AL will not rest until every farm that raises animals for consumption is bankrupt, we have no pets, there are no pet shops and animals are not raced or used for work. So I guess there won't be anything else to do with them except to have sex.

What we did see in Queensland was 10s of thousands of small cane toads due to the recent wet weather. The Greens do not have the collective will, the integrity or the intellect to address the greatest environmental threat to our fauna.