Aussies to shoot 15,000 kangaroos

Australian soldiers are to kill 15,000 kangaroos to stop a rural army base being overgrazed by the marsupials, a spokesman said today.

The Defence Department won approval from the Victoria state government to carry out the killings because the animals were threatening the environment at Puckapunyal training ground.

Brigadier Mike Hannan said the decision was taken after a census in April found 36,000 kangaroos on the base, and environmental consultants advised the area could only sustain 10,000 during the present drought.

“The problem is one of environmental degradation. The land is overgrazed and the kangaroos themselves suffer pretty badly once all the food is gone for them,” he said. ”We don’t want this area to be a dust bowl. It is not a realistic training environment.”

Hannan said licensed shooters would kill an initial 6,500 eastern grey kangaroos. Another count would be made at the end of August before a decision was made to continue the killings.

More than 20,000 eastern grey kangaroos – many of them starving – were killed by professional shooters at the base last year.

Animal activists have reacted angrily, saying poor management practices have led to the kangaroo problem.

Animal Liberation Australia spokeswoman Rheya Linden said more killing could not be justified and vowed to organise protests.

“Kangaroo numbers are severely reduced, not only because of the slaughter last year but because the drought has taken its toll as it has on wildlife everywhere,” she said.

She said the problem was the electric fence, which stopped the kangaroos from roaming freely in and out of the base, about 60 miles north of the state capital Melbourne.