AN independent CSIRO evaluation has revealed that the ACT government’s research could not demonstrate kangaroos have any deleterious impact on biodiversity or the environment, according to the Animal Justice Party.
The Animal Justice Party say the CSIRO report, produced for the ACT government by CSIRO Plant Industry, confirms what ecologists, wildlife experts and animal protection activists have always understood: that there is no evidence that kangaroos in the ACT are at densities high enough to damage the environment, and that the ACT government’s claim that more than one kangaroo per hectare is “too many” has no basis in science.
The Animal Justice Party’s Robyn Soxsmith says it’s astonishing that the ACT government continues with its annual massacre in the face of CSIRO’s 2014 evaluation.
“The Animal Justice Party of the ACT recently asked the Auditor General to review the ACT’s kangaroo management program in relation to whether it was achieving any results that might justify its social, economic and animal welfare costs, but was told such a review was not currently on the Auditor’s program,” she says.
“Meanwhile the government has essentially dismissed fertility control as an alternative to the killing – killing which now appears to have never been remotely useful in the first place.
“The government continues to behave as though it can justify killing kangaroos. How much longer will appointed watchdogs continue to let it?”
The CSIRO evaluation can be found here
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