Kangaroos in California

[Michaelangelica]

I note that the care2 C2nn forums have been seriously spamed by people wanting Australians not to eat kangaroo. With horrible photos. There is even a group in Russia trying to stop kangaroos being killed

Save Kangaroos From Slaughter--Stop SB 880! visit site
Animals (tags: animal, animals, AnimalCruelty, kangaroos )
Lea
Lea has received 2 new, 13 total stars from Care2 membersLea has been awarded 41 butterflies for taking action at Care2Lea has 2 Golden Notes. - 34 days ago - getactive.peta.org
Kangaroos face imminent danger if a California bill becomes law. Senate Bill 880 would legalize kangaroo skin sales in California, where they have been banned since 1970.

If you have a friend in California who actually votes please send him my reply:-


Kangaroos and Australia
Please note that Australia has a VERY different environment from the rest of the world.
Europeans who have just got here are just finding that out.
Please think about that before you jump feet first into issues like this

A far as petitions to stop Kangaroo meat being exported I have this to say:-

Kangaroos do far less damage to the ecology and GHGs of Australia than sheep cattle and goats.(and feral pigs, horses and Camels)
Any threatened wallaby varieties are protected.
Those used for meat are farmed or in plaque proportions.
Kangaroos have a unique reproductive system.(Developed no doubt in response to Australia's sea-saw climate from drought to plenty)
Kangaroos can carry three fertilised ovum at any one time.
They only let the fetus (S) develop when the season allows.
Thus they can survive long droughts, bush fires and poor seasons.
A decimated population can bounce back practically overnight when good conditions return.
They have evolved to adapt to the vagaries, drought,fire, flood of the Australian Continent.

Kangaroo meat is very lean and much better for you than fatty beef or Lamb.
If it is a little undercooked it is tasty and tender.
It has been eaten in this country by humans for over 40,000 without any danger of extinction.
In fact the people, the land and the kangaroos have evolved in a mutually dependent harmony.

Australian farmers should be growing kangaroos for McDonalds not cattle.
In fact this could be better for the kangaroos. If they were farmed properly more research would be done on them by departments of agriculture and more kangaroos would be assured feed, rather than starving to death. in bad seasons ( At the moment a bail of lucern hay is $27 because of the drought-Pre -drought the cost was $5.) So eating Kangaroo might be the best way to help the species.
More humane slaughtering processes probably should be developed.

At the moment farmers are shooting their Cattle and sheep to prevent a more inhumane starving to death.
This is taking a huge toll on the psyche of farmers.Big male kangaroo with large body mass are the first to starve.
Many farmers have many "wild" areas on their farms for kangaroos. (Many "farms" are much bigger than some American States!) Farmers will shoot kangaroos rather than see them slowly starve to death.They would do this for any animal. many rural properties have semi-wild Roo pets. Many of which they have saved from death. Paying vet bills to tarqualizer dart damaged animals and try to save them ( great skill and special diet and 24 hour dedication is needed) See some country stories stories here
Bush Telegraph
especially the story of "Country Viewpoint: Anne Carson, Melbourne"
"Good" farmers shoot starving kangaroos; "Bad" farmers won't waste the price of the bullets and let them starve to death.
(Some farmers are just surviving on hand-outs at the moment, and they are very proud, independent people who love the land). Big agri-business and corporate money are buying them out for 'a song' at the moment)
OR
Rather than signing petitions send $27 for a bale of hay so they don't starve to death.
There are bones littering the Australian landscape at the moment with our 1in 1,000 year Mother of All Droughts. (Recently, we got a little rain, so this will help every living thing).

I would be much happier signing a petition to ban Cows and sheep (and feral pigs, horses, camels, cattle) in Australia, who do much damage to our soil and environment.

Cooking with Kangaroo:
KIAA - Cooking with Kangaroo
kangaroo meat cuts and recipes
Kangaroo Meat - The Basic Cuts. Click on each cut of meat for Kangaroo Recipes. cuts2.gif (131361 bytes) · back.gif (3567 bytes)
kangaroo meat cuts and recipes - 3k -

Recipes for Kangaroo.
Recipes for kangaroo meat

Michael
In Australia.--
"You can fix all the world's problems in a garden. . . . Most people don't know that"
FROM
http://www.blog.thesietch.org/wp-con...rmaculture.swf

[Boerseun]

Can't agree with you more.

I can't understand why people get all fired up about killing and eating a species, if that species is sustainably farmed. They don't say a word about us killing hundreds of thousands of cows, pigs, goats, chickens, sheep, etc., every single day. Over here, the Next Big Thing is ostrich meat. Apparently much healthier than normal beef or pork, but it's not going down very well with the environmentalists. Meantime, ostrich hens lay many, many eggs - enough for restuarants here to offer ostrich egg omelettes - but only for the very hungry. But because they're cute, people are discouraged from eating them. The hypocricy will be the end of me. I have seen many cute calfs with huge, trusting big black calf eyes, yet they end up in the abbatoir without the environmentalists blinking once.

[Tormod]

I wonder how Californians can eat veal.

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by Boerseun

Can't agree with you more.

I can't understand why people get all fired up about killing and eating a species, if that species is sustainably farmed. They don't say a word about us killing hundreds of thousands of cows, pigs, goats, chickens, sheep, etc., every single day.. . . I have seen many cute calfs with huge, trusting big black calf eyes, yet they end up in the abbatoir without the environmentalists blinking once.

Thanks Boerseun, I am under fire at care2 (they must all be vegetarians).
E.G.,

Your many statements about kangaroos are erroneous, and show a lack of knowledge of the situation. There are many reasons why your assumptions are incorrect, which I will not go into detail now,

I do think Australians can do better than a bullet in the head for kangaroos.

I saw a wonderful program where the famous psychiatrist Marcus Sacks interviewed an autistic woman who designed humane killing systems for cattle.
It had me in tears. The cattle get a cuddle just before they die. (Someone needs to start a Web site for brilliant docos such as this and the Terra preta one).
I will quite happily go vegetarian if someone else will cook for me.

My cats love kangaroo, the crabs in the lake love kangaroo, and I love kangaroo (If my wife cooks it -it HAS to be underdone, mine is Terra preta material).

I am reminded of a family story my very urban relatives from the BIG city of Melbourne ( they think so) went to see their city-bred-white- accountant son who had been working in a far north aboriginal community (The pointy, top, empty bit of Australia).
He picked up his mum and dad from the air-port and started the 6 hour drive to the remote aboriginal community where he was working.
He stopped suddenly, on a rough, bush, dirt track as a echidna was on the road.
They are beautiful,gentle, cute, fascinating, ant-eating, bit rare, monotreme.
They look little like Miss Tiggy Winkle from Beatrix Potter only a bit bigger. ( see pic)
He stopped, got out,
got a piece of 4x2 timber,
and bashed it's brains in.
"Great eating those!" he said as he threw the corpse into the back of the Ute.
(apparently they are tastier than pork)
(Native hunting rights)

This one, the first, of many, cultural shocks that my stunned relatives, received that visit!!

[Boerseun]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

He stopped suddenly, on a rough, bush, dirt track as a echidna was on the road...
"Great eating those!"

...and they come with their own toothpicks!

[Jay-qu]

I have eaten Kangaroo before and they sure do give a nice tender steak when cooked nicely. I think it is odd that they havent made their way into the mainstream diet - the only cabnet at safeway that has roo meat is the pet food fridge!

[freeztar]

Are these people really serious?


You gotta love that holier than thou attitude that some people carry. As if Californians have any clue what is best for Australia and its people. And as has already been pointed out, what about other animals. Why are they picking on roos?

Perhaps these people should turn to a more native example and look at the populations of deer in this country.

In states where deer herds are thriving, officials have lengthened the hunting season and increased the limit on the number of animals hunters can take. Michigan's deer population peaked at 1.7 million in 1989. Since then, longer fall hunting seasons had decreased that number by nearly 10 percent. The goal, according to an official from the Department of Natural Resources, is to cut the herd to 1.3 million by 1992.

Deer-Vehicle Collisions are Numerous and Costly. Do Countermeasures Work?

It would be interesting to know the vehicle-kangaroo collissions in Oz on an annual basis. It would be even more interesting to see an inverse relationship of kangaroo population numbers versus vehicle-kangaroo collisions injury and mortality rates. It probably wouldn't shut them up, but it would be a juicy argument eh?

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by freeztar

It would be interesting to know the vehicle-kangaroo collisions in Oz on an annual basis.

This is our smallest state.
("The ruination of a good sheep farm!" Canberra, ACT) where they want to cull Kangaroos.
"NRMA" is a local motorists help and insurance association

NRMA data for the ACT and surrounding region only show that claims for vehicle-kangaroo collisions range between 20 and 70 per month.
Given the high density of kangaroos within the ACT, accidents with kangaroos within the ACT are responsible for a significant proportion of these claims.

LIVING WITH EASTERN GREY KANGAROOS IN THE A

Some better figures
The Pedestrian Council : Bye-bye bullbar

Bye-bye bullbar
The Age
Thursday 27 November 2003
RACV Insurance found kangaroos accounted for almost 60 per cent of "animal collision" claims it received in the 12 months. . .

Nationwide, the number of kangaroo-vehicle collisions is about 20,000 a year, according to Holden estimates.

Despite the advent of sonic devices such as the Shu Roo and wildlife warning reflectors such as Swareflex, the number of vehicle-kangaroo collisions is increasing, according to a recent report from the University of Melbourne's department of zoology.

I might post that one at care2

[freeztar]

Post a link to the forum over there if you need some backup.

[Buffy]

PETA is mostly behind this one, and the save-the-roo folks just believe that you shouldn't kill anything, even if its overpopulated. The folks arguing the case in the legislature are a tiny bit more realistic, making the argument that "since they are hunted at night, you might not be able to tell 'endangered roos' from the overpopulated species."

I've been to Oz and played with the roos. But in a lot of ways, they're gigantic rats....

Also, as Michaelangelica noted above, law in California about roo *skins* (and is actually a *repeal* of an *existing* law banning sales of roo skin, so being *for* the new law is to be *against* the ban) and because they are aparently considered superior for soccer, there is actually quite a demand for them, to the point that one of the key companies lobbying for the law is Adidas! Today's paper noted that with internet sales, even if the law fails, Californians will still be able to legally buy them by mail. But this is offshoring excelent shoe-sales jobs from California to Iowa, and I for one will not stand ferigners continuing to take our jobs!

Rooburgers with Vegemite! Mmmmm! Nummy!
Buffy