ON Friday night Animal Liberation ACT held a demonstration to bring to the public’s attention the ‘ghost population’ of young kangaroo victims of the government sanctioned kangaroo cull.

The event was held outside the Pinnacle Nature Reserve entrance

The demonstration included ‘glow in the dark’ kangaroos to increase awareness of the plight of the young animals.

Animal Liberation ACT spokesperson, Carolyn Drew says last year’s hearing in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal revealed that huge numbers of young orphaned kangaroos escape the shooters. These kangaroos are still dependent on their mothers’ milk. Deprived of their main source of food they are left to die slow painful deaths due to starvation or predation. These ghost populations are not included in official ‘cull’ numbers. This means as many as 900 joeys could be killed in addition to the 5,000 kangaroos the Government has been licensed to kill over the next 2 years.

Animal Liberation ACT promises to apply ongoing pressure to the Government and to raise awareness about the significant acts of violence being perpetrated on this gentle native animal and its young.

“Kangaroos have strong family bonds and to break these bonds by slaughtering kangaroos is extremely traumatic and is completely unjustifiable,” Carolyn said.

“Large numbers of ‘at foot’ baby kangaroos, still dependent on their mothers for survival, will flee once their mother has been killed and likely die from exposure or starvation. These baby kangaroos are the invisible young victims of the Government’s kangaroo ‘management’ policy.”