From Dror Ben-Ami, THINKK
At the end of her article on eating kangaroos, Wendy Zukerman happily tucks into a kangaroo steak, having assuaged her conscience as to the meat’s origin (9 October, p 42). However, her assertion that kangaroo numbers “have been on the rise ever since Europeans settled in Australia around 200 years ago” is a contentious one. We do not really know if numbers have increased or not, though the range of some species may have increased.
On the subject of ethics, the article misrepresented the stance of the animal welfare group RSPCA Australia. Its official position is that females should not be killed until the welfare of young joeys is resolved.
In a 2004 paper in the journal Australian Mammalogy, David Croft, who was quoted in Zukerman’s article, stated that orphaned young animals are likely to die, as they are strongly dependent on their mothers for nutrition, and for learning to forage and avoiding predation.
Kangaroo shooters are portrayed in the article as good marksmen, but evidence from the Australian animal rights charity Animal Liberation indicates that this is not always the case. It has film showing carcasses in chillers with necks severed below the occipital joint, and suggests that up to 40 per cent of adults are miss-shot and are cut in a way so as to hide the evidence.
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Kangaroo meat cannot be a direct replacement for livestock. To meet a fifth of Australia’s current demand for beef would require there to be kangaroo populations quite considerably greater than they are at present – an impossibility as kangaroos are free ranging and their numbers are regulated by climatic conditions. Nor would removal of sheep from grazing land increase numbers, as findings by Croft and others indicate that there is little competition between them and kangaroos.
Kangatarians should know that they are supporting another meat industry and plundering Australia’s wildlife. Without question they are also significantly damaging the animals’ welfare to an extent that is on par with the harm inflicted on Canadian harp seals.
From Paul Kail
Wendy Zukerman tells us that she suffers from anaemia, and thinks that eating kangaroo meat might improve matters. I do not see this as a reason to support the slaughter of kangaroos, during which the baby joeys are “coshed with a metal pipe” and the older ones are left to die of starvation.
She believes that she is short of iron because her diet doesn’t contain enough of it, but a more likely explanation is that she lacks vitamin B12, which is needed to absorb it. One tablet a day would be a more ethical alternative to supporting the bloodshed in Australia.
Prague, Czech Republic
The editor writes:
• Although low levels of vitamin B12 can cause anaemia, the author knew this was not so in her case as her levels had already been tested.
Broadway, New South Wales, Australia
