Aussies fight activist attempt to ban Roo meat in EU (Melbourne HS)‏

Sent: July 23, 2010 1:02:41 PM

Melbourne Herald Sun (AUS)
Roo industry hopping mad at EU ban plan
By Ian Woods of Sky News
July 23, 2010 8:43PM
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breakin...o-1225896284311

AUSTRALIA'S kangaroo meat industry is fighting an attempt to have its
products banned from the European Union.

Animal rights campaigners, who have already succeeded in prohibiting
the importation of seal products, have turned their attention to what
they call "the largest land-based wildlife slaughter in the world,"
Sky News reported.

They claim the killing of the animals - up to four million roos are
shot annually for their meat and skins - is cruel and the processing
of meat unhygienic. The industry denies both.

"I think shooting is a very humane business when it comes to the meat
industry," said hunter Greg Davison, who estimated he has shot around
80,000 kangaroos in the past two decades.

"Our animals are standing out in the paddock in their natural
environment, and before they know it they're - for the lack of a
better term - dead, and there's no stress or suffering."

Kangaroo hunting is, by law, only done at night when the animals are
more docile. Hunters aim for clean shots to the head, as roos shot in
the torso cannot be used for meat.

Although the actual death of the kangaroo is quick and - some say -
painless, it is what happens post-kill that sickens animal rights
activists.

If the marsupial is a female with a baby, the hunter will pluck the
joey from its dead mother's pouch and bash it over the head to kill
it. The hunter will then decapitate and gut the mother's body, leaving
the entrails and joey carcass behind for scavengers like foxes and
birds.

"I don't know how you can call bashing a baby’s head in with a blunt
instrument or against the towbar of a car humane," said Bernard
Brennan from Animal Liberation in the capital Canberra, which
estimates around 440,000 joeys die that way every year.

The group commissioned a lengthy report that also criticizes the
industry's standards of hygiene. The carcasses are stored in
refrigerators close to where the animals have been shot, and once a
week a refrigerated truck collects them and transports them for
processing.

While every effort is made to keep the meat clean, "there's always a
dust issue in the bush," according to Davison.

The industry suffered a major blow last year when Russia banned
imports of kangaroo meat because of concerns about hygiene. The threat
to the industry from future bans has led to an online petition being
established.

Supporters of 'roo hunting claim it is the ultimate in healthy, free
range meat and is less stressful to the animals than being herded into
a slaughterhouse.

Curiously, even though the Australian government has been at the
forefront of efforts to stop whale hunting by Japan, most Australians
seem disinterested in efforts to protect their national symbol.

Farmers see kangaroos as pests who feed on grazing land for cattle and
sheep, and it is estimated there are up to 25 million - allowing up to
15 percent to be killed every year without a threat to their long-term
survival.