Every night across Australia, thousands of kangaroos are being shot and killed.
They have their hands and forelimbs cut off and are loaded onto trucks.
Most of the animals end up as pet food or soccer boots.
Kangaroos are Australia's icon and they are protected native wildlife.
So how is it possible that they end up in a shoe box?
And what's behind the kangaroo industry?
But before we dove into our story, I really want to say thank you
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And now back to our kangaroos.
A few weeks ago, I saw this post on Twitter, the two kangaroos caught my eye,
but it was the poster caption that made me stop.
I clicked on the hashtag and found an endless line of posts about kangaroo culling.
Some users were telling companies like Nike to “just don't do it”.
Others showed disturbing photos of kangaroos having their mouths
shot off while still alive or of choice being clubbed to death.
The protest weren’t just happening on Twitter:
Worldwide people took to the streets to call for a ban on kangaroo products.
To be honest, this topic was totally news to me.
I've never heard or thought about kangaroo meat or kangaroo shoes before.
But my husband told me that he has had a pair of those when he was a kid.
You can easily order them online or you can buy them in the store.
So I'm here in my local sports store and I found shoes
that are made out of kangaroo.
The salesperson told me that most of the leather soccer boots are made of kangaroo.
And I guess he is right.
There are plenty of them.
Shoe companies often use kangaroo leather because of its high strength to weight ratio.
They are preferred by soccer players, hoping to bend it like Beckham.
Although Beckham has switched to a synthetic alternative during his active career.
Some brands advertise the shoes with extra stickers.
Others use the hidden term “K-Leather”,
and many others don't even mention that they use kangaroo leather.
“Nike are driving
the commercial trade in kangaroo leather.
They have up to 40% of the market.”
But the kangaroo industry isn't limited to bags or shoes.
In fact, an entire new industry has risen. A profitable industry.
Kangaroo exports are worth more than 200 million a year.
Europe is the largest market for kangaroo products, followed by the U.S.
Since 1993, kangaroo meat has also been legal for human consumption.
Even here in Vienna you can buy a “Roo” burger.
Russia used to be the biggest importer of kangaroo meat
But it has now banned in parts due to unacceptable standard.
Scientists found dangerous levels of salmonella and E coli bacteria.
Coincidence? Well, not really.
While sheep and cattle are strictly monitored
by veterinarians and butchers, there is nothing similar to kangaroos.
There are no specific regulations.
Kangaroos can be shot at any time and any temperature.
Afterwards they are hung on the back of a truck.
The trucks are open.
There is dust everywhere.
Often the chillers,
these are the mobile containers where the carcasses are stored,
are far away and the transportation doesn't have any cooling.
These conditions would be unacceptable in any other meat industry, I guess.
To understand what's happening in today's kangaroo industry.
We need to see the bigger picture.
Kangaroos are iconic native wildlife and important
to Australia's culture and the functioning of its ecosystems.
The six most common kangaroo species inhabit wet rainforests,
beaches, wide open plains and also the dry center of Australia.
The bounding marsupial is one of Australia's most emblematic symbols.
It appears on the country's coat of arms and its silhouette
adorns the tail wing of the national airline.
The Australian Tourist Board is also a big kangaroo fan.
It just uploaded a new video featuring a kangaroo
named Ruby enjoying “good days” in Australia.
What the add doesn't mention is that if Ruby was an actual kangaroo,
she would probably be shot right after her good day had ended and night fell.
Over the last decade in Australia,
the federal and state governments have approved an annual commercial kill
of some 4 to 6 million kangaroos and wallabies.
On average, 3 million kangaroos actually “harvested”
300,000 young at foot and 800,000 pouch young
are either killed or left to die each year as collateral of commercial industry.
In addition, up to 200,000 kangaroos and wallabies
are killed every year for noncommercial reasons.
And a further unknown number are killed without government authorization.
Sounds like a lot, right?
Well, it doesn't only sound like a high number.
In fact, it's the largest slaughter of land based wildlife on the planet.
But why are they being killed?
To answer this question, we need to take a step back.
Kangaroos were eaten by indigenous people for survival.
Back then, humans and wildlife lived in harmony.
This changed rapidly after European settlers arrived on the continent.
After British colonization in 1788,
the settlers began killing kangaroos in high numbers,
First for food, and later after the colony had raised enough cattle and sheep.
They killed kangaroos, mainly for sport.
In general, settlement had a highly variable impact on local kangaroos and wallaby species.
The settlers brought new predators like the red fox or feral cat,
and they cleared large areas of woodland for sheep and cattle herding.
And so many of the smaller kangaroo species,
which depend on native vegetation, declined.
By contrast, larger species of grass-eating kangaroos
benefited from the mass clearing of bushland.
After the settlers had repressed natural predators like dingoes
and installed plenty of artificial watering points for livestock,
these species flourished.
Kangaroos adapt to the environment they reproduce when there is plenty
of food and slowed down their reproduction rate during droughts.
Many farmers feared that the wildlife would now compete with their sheep
and cattle for grass.
They considered kangaroos a pest.
By the 1880s, all of the state in eastern Australia
had created legislation for the eradication of kangaroos.
Kangaroos and wallabies were declared vermin.
Bounties were offered for “the head of each grass-eating marsupial”.
Today, the perception that kangaroos are pests is still widespread,
even within the government.
And one big reason for this might be sheep.
Australia is the largest lamb exporter in the world.
The country is covered with sheep.
Meat, merino wool and especially live sheep exports a lucrative business.
The industries main argument for why kangaroos killing should continue
are that wildlife is in competition with livestock,
that too many kangaroos destroy the environment
and that sheep are more important than kangaroos
because they are important for the nation's food security.
Let's work through this.
According to scientists, kangaroos and sheep is different
and the only compete during extreme drought.
They've also lived here for millions of years without damaging nature.
Their legs are perfectly adapted to the land,
unlike hard hoofed animals like sheep and cattle,
which contribute to soil convection and erosion.
And talking about the nations food security.
Well, Australia exports 73% of its sheep and lamb meat.
All this shows how complex and divided
the nation's relationship with its kangaroos is.
Legally, kangaroos are protected and it is an offense to harm them.
But there are exceptions to this protection.
Commercial kangaroo harvesters, farmers and landlords can still kill kangaroos.
Commercial kangaroo shooters are required to follow “the code”,
which says, for example,
that they have to kill the animals humanely with a single shot to the head.
Farmers and landlords can also get the license to kill kangaroos.
These shootings are often related to a higher level of cruelty.
To get this kind of shooting permit, it often only takes a single phone call.
Another thing is that
kangaroos are mostly nocturnal, so everything is hidden in the dark.
To really understand what's happening at night, I called Natasha Dolezal.
They shine a spotlight on them
and they're supposed to kill them with a kill shot to the head.
But what happens is up to 40% are miss shot.
They're maimed, and then they run off and either they die a slow,
painful death or they're, you know, they have to be shot multiple times.
It's okay for hunters to shoot a mother kangaroo and she has a joey in her pouch.
The “industry approved” method of dispatch is to bludgeon or decapitate or
stomp on their heads with their boots.
Animal behaviorists and scientists have found that joeys are starting not to play
because they live in this sort of heightened state, anxiety and fear.
They don't relax their families have sort of been traumatized.
And so the play behavior in joeys has decreased.
The one question remains,
how many kangaroos are still left?
I reached out to the head of Agriculture of Australia, the Commercial Kangaroo Management Program
and several officers of the kangaroo harvesting program.
And this is what I got back.
I also checked the IUCN Red List,
and this was the first time not a single number was listed.
It looks like nobody knows exactly.
Conservationists are worried about the number of kangaroos being shot.
Officially, only 15% of the population are “harvested” every year.
But wether the current kangaroo counting system really does represent
the actual population is an open question for me.
And obviously not only me.
“And that data is obviously not being checked.
It is the worst that I have ever seen.
I've worked in military, medical, educational data.
This is the worst ever.”
The current formula, doesn't consider droughts or floods,
nor does it account for non-commercial shooting or illegal shooting.
And the number of kangaroos that they're actually sighted
is always adjusted by a correction factor.
In “The Number Game”,
David Brooks from the University of Sydney gave some examples of why
this is problematic.
In his research, he also points out that the decline in some species,
like the eastern grey, is already alarming.
But there is hope.
People like Natasha are raising awareness for kangaroos.
And the University of Technology Sydney
has also created an innovative kangaroo think tank where biologists,
sustainability experts and Indigenous leaders are collecting independent data.
They are calling for an improved national kangaroo strategy.
For me, this sounds like a good start because the current kangaroo management plan
hasn't been questioned, renewed or challenged for 25 years now.
It`s really time for a change, and it's time
that we try to co-exist with kangaroos.
Hi friends! Thanks for watching.
Have you ever heard about kangaroo leather or “K-Leather” before?
Let me know in the comments below and don't forget to check out the
links in our description.