The kangaroo is at risk of annihilation. Since European settlement, six Macropodidae species have already become extinct. The roo is an icon of Australia, emblazoned on our coat of arms, used for team insignias, and is the animal that tourists hope to see when they visit.
Yet despite laws protecting native species, quotas were issued in 2022 for the commercial slaughter of 4.5 million kangaroos, wallabies and wallaroos. Far more were killed, including joeys – who are usually pulled out of their dead mothers’ pouches and beaten to death. Thousands more are shot by landholders who are not bound by the poorly enforced commercial codes of practice. Thousands are injured and left to die in agony.
The annual massacre of these peaceful herbivores is the largest slaughter of land-based wildlife on the planet. They are being killed to stop them eating grass that graziers want for sheep and cattle, and for the profits to be made selling their skins for football boots.
To say kangaroos are damaging the land they’ve lived on for four million years is absurd – the real culprit behind land degradation is overgrazing by introduced sheep and cattle. The best way to protest this disgraceful carnage is to stop buying meat, dairy, leather and wool.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
