Australia to resume kangaroo cull; activists protest
CANBERRA, July 16
Australian animal activists warned today that
they were willing to risk their lives to stop the culling of upto 1,000
kangaroos in the national capital Canberra.
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government on Sunday began shooting
kangaroos around the Googong Dam to stop them eating surrounding vegetation,
leaving the dusty, parched soil eroding into the dam and tainting dwindling
water supplies.
But government officials suspended the shooting on Wednesday for a two-day
reprieve so that they could meet activists trying to disrupt the cull and
persuade them that the operation was in the best interests of the
drought-stricken animals.
The talks, however, failed to reach an agreement and the ACT government
announced the cull would resume soon.
''We will be resuming our programme. We are not giving details as to when
and where, and we are looking to complete it by the end of July,''
government spokesman David Miles told Reuters.
''(The activists) only objective was to stop the cull and any alternatives
they put to us were either impractical or failed to solve the problems of
soil erosion or any of the other issues we have got.'' The activists said
their actions would continue and they would do everything they could to stop
the cull. They have held protests in the Googong Dam area at night, when the
cull takes place.
''If the ACT government decides to start shooting tonight then we will again
enter Googong Dam and risk our lives to stop kangaroos and joeys from being
killed,'' Pat O'Brien, president of the Wildlife Protection Association,
said in a statement.
Joeys are baby kangaroos.
Commercial shooters, with a government-issued permit, began the cull on
Sunday at night, when kangaroos are most active, and have already killed
around 100 kangaroos with the carcasses likely to be processed for pet food.
The cull at Googong Dam comes a week after the city's 320,000 people were
warned to stay away from aggressive kangaroos, suffering in the nation's
worst drought in a century, after the marsupials attacked one woman and
killed a pet dog.
Eastern Grey kangaroos, which can grow 1.7 metres (5.6 feet) tall and weigh
70 kg (154 lb), have started moving out of the parched bush into inner
Canberra suburbs during the day to look for grass and water.
