We Were There

We Know The Truth

Inside The Industry

As Told By

 Ex-Kangaroo Shooters

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Kangaroo Meat is NOT SAFE TO EAT 

Lyn Gynther Ex-Kangaroo Shooter Queensland

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To say Kangaroo meat is healthy and safe for human consumption an absolute joke, as an ex-roo shooter, I would not eat kangaroo if it were the last thing I had to survive on.

Kangaroos are killed INHUMANELY, not all are shot with one clean shot to the head. Any Joeys found in the pouch of a female have their skulls smashed against the bull bar of the Ute

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All the  carcasses of the dead Kangaroos are then put on a hook on the side of the truck and a lot of the time is not gutted until the roo shooter has another 4 or 5 carcasses hanging also, so while the shooter is driving around the paddocks shooting the other 4-5 kangaroos, the already hung carcasses are being covered in dust, flies and cow manure which the vehicle runs over when driving around the property.

Once the carcasses is 'dressed' (gutted, feet cut off, head cut off, arms cut off), it is then hung on the racks over the 'uncovered' tray of the vehicle where it stays for the remainder of the night until it is driven to the chiller box the next morning.

During this entire time, again flies, dust and anything else which is being kicked up in the air by the vehicle, completely covers these carcasses.

It is also not uncommon for roo shooters to accidentally cut through the roos bowel and contaminate the meat with faeces as well. These carcasses which have been crawling with flies, covered in dust and dirt are SOLD FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION.

The entire industry is a cruel, inhumane and 100% unpoliced occupation as the only person who truly knows how the kangaroos die along with their joeys is the shooter and his off-sider. No other person is watching what they are doing at night.

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Roos are shot in the neck, dying a terrible death by choking on their own blood, arms are blown off, joeys have the cold steel blade of a knife run across their tiny throats, often losing arms in the process (particularly if the joey is very tiny) and little care is taken by the shooter when he has already shot 60 or 80 roos for the night.

Joeys which are too large to have their throat cut are grabbed by the legs and bashed up against a hard part of the truck, (a tow ball or wheel, bull bar) and very seldom does the initial hit kill the joey outright. I have known shooters to swing the joey once only and then toss it behind their backs where the joey simply has a fractured skull and is unconscientious, I have also known shooters to not kill the tiny newborn pouch joey and simply toss it over their shoulder into the night to die from exposure.

This is still going on today just as it was in the 1980's. The industry is completely unpoliced and the sooner Australians wake up and see this cruely for what it is the better.

When you have the RSPCA & Government departments approve of the way in which even the adults are killed, what hope does Australia have of being a civilised country.

The Australian culture has come to hate the kangaroo regardless of how little the animal really does eat of their pasture, and for government departments to be pushing that kangaroo meet is hygienic shows just how truly ignorant all of these people really ar

They have never gone shooting a night in their lives. Would you eat a piece of steak which has been seasoned with dust, flies and cow manure before it even gets to the fridge????

It can be 8+hours after the kangaroos have been killed before it even sees a fridge (chiller box) and even then dealers have been given infringement notices for hanging kangaroos alongside pigs which have been also killed.

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Wake up Australia and stop being SHEEP following the lead and believing everything that you are told.

Stand up and see this industry for what it really is. CRUEL, INHUMANE AND UNNECESSARY.

Greed is the only reason our iconic kangaroos are even killed to begin with.

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A Letter From David Nicholls

 

I was a professional kangaroo shooter 38 years ago. Now I spend an inordinate amount of time in the defence of animals that are doing poorly at the hands of humans.You may ask as to what has led me to do a complete turnabout in my thinking, and expect some profound answer explaining that at such and such a moment in time the sky opened up and all of a sudden I saw the light. Sorry to disappoint, but it did not happen this way.If there is any profundity in my “conversion”, it is that I have come to the realization that we are all led down differing paths in life by our genetic make-up and the circumstance that we find ourselves in.In my case, 38 years ago, the whole social, political and animal concern scene was vastly different to todays.

There was a predominate attitude of human matters being at the fore of thought and a mish-mash of ideas when dealing with the other animals on the planet. On the one hand, personal pets were gaining in the welfare stakes, as were wild creatures that had “fluffy” appeal. On the other, domestic stock conditions were degrading rapidly into the factory farm situation that is still rampant to now.

This some decades of time saw European cities and other population centres around the Western World explode into greater awareness of the suffering of our “food”. Unfortunately, socio/economic pressures, had rural climes, to a large extent, excluded from this expansion of a new way in thinking about the rest of nature.In this distant past, the kangaroo was erroneously thought of as a pest that was diminishing the financial returns of those who depended on their income in outback areas.This excuse was reasoning enough for kangaroos to be killed without compassion, for they were the enemy. Even so, I, and I would suggest, many other kangaroo shooters, were and are, very uneasy with the practice of having to kill Joey’s on a never ending basis. It was not understood then, that the Joey-at-foot would also die in a state of terror by psychological deprivation, predation or starvation. Many kangaroo shooters now convince themselves that this Joey escapes and lives happily ever after. Delusions of this sort are

not uncommon in the industry and in governments and their acting agents.

Self-delusion played a big part in my experience as a kangaroo shooter but let me state here in the most unequivocal manner that is possible, to be able to self deceive is part and parcel of being human. There will be those that read this in a most judgmental way, comforting themselves with the thought that they could never had done such a thing as kangaroo shooting. Be very careful of that kind of thinking because it does not accord with the facts about the capacity of humanity to be inhumane to people and animals, given the right set of circumstance. Be very careful that you are not self-deluding yourself on this point, for if you are, you are just the person who could be a kangaroo shooter if the situation dictated it so.I do come across this kind of condemnation but it so insignificant when compared to the mental anguish I put myself through on a daily basis as to be non-existent. This will be carried till the day I die. Thoughts of the terrible woundings and as stated, the slaughter of the innocents and now with greater knowledge, thoughts of the at-foot-Joey’s left to fend for themselves in their thousands.Thoughts of taking the lives of countless numbers of kangaroos for convenient reasons. Thoughts of being a part of the juggernaut that was and is altering the genetic make up of a marvelous animal. Thoughts of my part in vilifying the kangaroo with the end result of it not having the awed respect, as it should, of the Australian people.

Every time there is a wanton act of cruelty to kangaroos, I must bear some of the blame.I stopped being a kangaroo shooter for many reason, with the cruelty only one of the many.The kangaroo is not a pest and it is only the greedy and the foolhardy who believe it is a resource to be used at whim.Australia must re-define its stubbornly inadequate definition of what is compassion and in doing so reap the rewards of not only doing the right thing, but the very tangible benefits of the eco-tourist dollar.

No doubt, other kangaroo shooters will read this, so it seems appropriate to leave a message for them.If you can see past the self-delusion of what you are doing to other sentient and suffering capable creatures, for the sake of your future mind, do not wait for kangaroo shooting to be discarded as a remnant of our brutish past, as it will, but choose to get out now. The rest of your life will thank you for this very wise action.This I guarantee. David Nicholls

 

The Killing of Kangaroos, Australia’s Icon David Nicholls challenges the view that the kangaroo industry is humane:

“The mouth of a kangaroo can be blown off and the kangaroo can escape to die of shock and starvation. Stomachs can be hit expelling the contents with the kangaroo still alive. Backbones can be pulverised to an unrecognisable state.

Hind legs can be shattered with the kangaroo desperately trying to get away on the other or without the use of the other.

To deny that this goes on is just an exercise in attempting to fool the public.”“Kangaroos have a social life not unlike humans, with strong mother and Joey ties, companions’ relatives and the like. When continually shot, kangaroos fret for loved ones, their own lives being forced to live in a state of spasmodic terror.

Kangaroos can be and are horribly wounded, in pouch joeys are bludgeoned to death. The out of pouch joeys all alone for the first time in their short lives, panic stricken after witnessing the brutal death of its mother are left to die from starvation and/or hypothermia.

The survivors live in a state of constant fear with proper social order in constant disarray and upheaval”,