THE Animal Justice Party says the ACT government won’t even find 4000 Eastern Grey Kangaroos after it announced plans to cull more than 4000 kangaroos in more than 10 nature reserves. 

“Not that that will stop them from claiming they have killed the full 4000,” says Animal Justice Party spokesperson Robyn Soxsmith.  

“The ACT government routinely lies about how many kangaroos are killed during its annual slaughter.”

The reason why, according to the Animal Justice Party, is for votes.

“The government claims kangaroo must be culled because their numbers have ‘continued to increase’ during the drought,” says the Animal Justice Party.

“This is, of course, biologically impossible. The real reason for the cull is known to be much more cynical: to purchase votes from farmers and to continue developing wildlife habitat in order to increase government revenues.

“The government [also] claims that research shows that kangaroos numbers have to be ‘culled’ to prevent ‘high densities’ of kangaroos impacting on other biodiversity. 

“[But] in fact, the only independent research since the annual slaughters began (by CSIRO Plant Industries) shows that populations of up to three kangaroos per hectare benefit the biodiversity of ACT reserves. Effects of over three kangaroos per hectare could not be assessed because kangaroos were not found in higher densities on any Canberra reserves.”

Canberra’s biggest kangaroo cull begins