Date Posted: 20 Dec 2006
2006 was a great year for promoting our factory farmed friends to the front of the headlines. Chickens lead the way, followed closely behind by the little (bloomin huge) oinkers. What we are hoping for in 2007 is for Animal Liberation to outstrip 2006 in a big way. We have an extremely successful and motivated bunch of volunteers willing to donate their time and effort into making the world (at least Sydney) a happier place for animals.
Date Posted: 15 Nov 2006
A PIGGERY part-owned by the Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, is breaching industry guidelines by keeping pigs in cramped conditions, animal welfare activists allege.
Date Posted: 10 Nov 2006
Got off to a flying start, Jodi and Angie set up the outdoor BBQ in the middle of Wynyard Park (permission granted of course!) along with an Animal Liberation stall. A plethora of volunteers turned up one by one which was amazing to see.
Date Posted: 07 Nov 2006
A STREAKING animal liberationist has been ejected from Sydney's Randwick racecourse and will face court for offensive behaviour.
The woman, in her 30s, ran naked across the racecourse at 2pm "in some sort of anti-horse racing protest", Maroubra Police Inspector Eddie Bosch said.
Date Posted: 08 Oct 2006
At the annual Thanksgiving for Creation service held in Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle, on Sunday, 8th October, 2006, the Address was given by the Dean of Newcastle, The Very Rev'd Graeme R. Lawrence OAM.
The position of leadership the Dean holds in the Anglican Church in Australia makes his remarks all the more valuable to those of us fighting the animals' cause.
Date Posted: 16 Sep 2006
Australia is mourning the loss of Peter Brock, the champion racing driver. Not well-known was his vegetarianism/veganism, due to his respect of the lives of other beings as well as his desire for the good health of his body. He preferred to live the "quiet example" vegetarian lifestyle, and it certainly was quite an example.
Date Posted: 13 Aug 2006
The 2006 City to Surf sported a new team this year, amongst all the people from all walks of life who had decided to have a go, there was Team Vegan!!
Date Posted: 6 Jun 2006
Elders is not only involved in the Live Export market, but is clearly proud enough of its involvement to broadcast it to the world through its website.
It was for this reason that Animal Liberation rallied outside Elders Real Estate agency at Neutral Bay on Saturday the 25th March, our aim was to highlight to the Australian public the companies who are profiting from this abhorrent trade. Other animal organisations held their own protests on the same day in a national day of action against Live Exports.
Date Posted: 10 Nov 2005
West Australian Police acting on behalf of the West Australian Government and the Office of the WA State Solicitor have laid animal cruelty charges against a leading WA live export company for breaching the WA Animal Welfare Act.
Date Posted: 25 Oct 2005
Australia Post has just released a selection of collectable stamps entitled "Down on the Farm". There's no two ways about it -- the pictures are absolutely adorable. But is it covered by 'Truth in Advertising' legislation? However adorable, the images are exactly how the agricultural sector want the population to view what goes on: animals having fun!
After being contacted by a whistleblower within the kangaroo industry, Animal protection groups from around Australia rallied together to expose the cruelty, contamination & dwindling numbers of certain kangaroo species who are slaughtered for a niche export market where profits are earnt by a select few. The groups, including Animal Liberation, Wildlife Protection Association of Australia, Australian Wildlife Protection Council Inc., Animals Australia & others have been investigating the industry for the last 2 years and have found damning evidence which will more than likely halt this brutal trade.
Note the whistleblower will remain anonymous for safety reasons.
Investigation
Over 24 chillers around NSW and Southern QLD were inspected and swabs of Kangaroo carcasses taken.
In summary, the findings suggest:
Female Kangaroos hanging in chiller
1. Between 70-80% of all kangaroos shot are currently female.
This means that there is a population imbalance between males and females. Obviously there are more females than males now as most of the big males have already been shot which leaves the females to be shot.
2. Many of the carcasses were only just above the minimum 'human consumption' weight (NSW) of 13kg, some actually weighed less. Females at this weight would be unlikely to even have had their first joey. The kangaroos allowed to be killed in NSW and QLD are Reds, Eastern Greys and Western Greys. Obviously there were male carcasses in the chillers, however none of them were even close to what would be considered a 'big red' which would have a carcass weight of around 45kg.
Carcass contaminated with faecal matter
3. The swab results revealed contamination of carcasses with:
E.coli, Streptococcus & Staphylococcus.
The results showed muscle tissue having an active growth of these microbes from low to heavy growth.
4. The Australian Government approved method of killing a joey at foot is to either bash it over the head with a heavy object, or chop its head off with an axe. This is written into the 'Code of practice for the humane Killing of kangaroos'. This is essentially too brutal to think about, and the image lends itself to that of seal pups being brutally bashed to death on the ice of Canada.
If even half of those females have a joey at foot, then up to 1million joeys will be killed this way in 2007 under the currently approved kill quota of 3.8million kangaroos.
Orphaned joey
5. The other issue which is even more serious is the fact that female kangaroos often have a joey at foot. Which means a joey who no longer lives in the pouch, but needs its mum for milk and protection from predation as well as to learn life skills. When a shooter intrudes on a family unit and shoots the mum, this joey at foot hops away frightened and will die a slow death of predation or starvation as it will not get the necessary nutrients that it still requires for growth. This is a fact of the kangaroo industry, and it is also a thorn in the Governments side as there is currently nothing in the 'Code of Practice for the humane killing of kangaroos' that deals with this issue.
Action
Several Australian wildlife groups have lodged an appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal with regards to several issues listed above. This is a Tribunal which decide on the legitimacy and legality of Government decisions - i.e. the decision to 'cull' kangaroos and what numbers to 'cull'.
If the issues above are not addressed at the Tribunal, the wildlife groups will appeal to the Federal Court of Australia until this issue is looked into seriously and a real decision is made by a real Court of Law.
For more information on the plight of Kangaroos, please go to:
At the end of the investigation in March this year, knowing we needed to move with this information quickly, Animal Liberation and the WPAA sent a delegation overseas to Russia (biggest export country) and Europe to inform not only the public about these concerns, but the relevant health ministers in the various countries as well as EU representatives.
So far there has been significant media attention in Russia and several restaurants have been visited in Berlin, as well as the Consular General, Foreign Affairs and Trade based in the Australian Embassy, Berlin. One of the main Russian TV stations recently visited the offices of Animal Liberation NSW to conduct interviews, this will hopefully be aired soon.
The true outcome of any meetings will not be known for some time, immediately after this meeting took place however, we do know that the leading company which exports Kangaroo meat for human consumption closed all its chiller doors in NSW, which, as far as a discerning eye can tell, is as big an admission of guilt if ever there were one.
What can you do?
If you come across any restaurant selling kangaroo meat, be it in Australia or overseas, please let us know. If you know of somewhere that has stopped selling kangaroo meat because of the cruelty involved, please also let us know.
Below is a sample letter which you could use to contact the following people/companies to let them know what you think about killing of kangaroos.
If you would like a copy of the Kangaroo campaign DVD to view and/or to post with your letter, please contact the office and we will send one out.
National Parks and Wildlife Service, responsible for NSW quotas
German restaurants serving or distributing Kangaroo meat
Corroboree: info@corroboree.info Australian Spirit: info@party-service-noller.de Australian Food and Wine: trendfoods@gmx.net Australia Shop: australia@australiashop.com Las Malvinas: las_malvinas_9@hotmail.com Kangaroo's Land: info@kangaroos-land.de Never Never Land: never-never-berlin@web.de Down Under: info@down-under-hamburg.de Outback-bar Crocodile 71:info@crocodile71.de Yours Australian Bar: maybe info@yours-bars.de Toowoomba's cafe-restaurant: info@toowoombas.de Springtown: info@springtown-wetzlar.de Ned Kelly's Australian Bar: KiliansIrishPub@aol.com Coen River: info@australische-kueche.de
Austrian Restaurants selling or distributing Kangaroo meat
L'Epicerie, 30 rue Montorgueil, 75001 Paris, France.
(No email sorry, however after several conversations with the owner of this restaurant he is refusing to move on the issue, he also believes that Kangaroos are 'farmed'. However we're in the process of dispelling this myth. Please post your letters to this restaurant so they know what we really feel.)
Kiwi Corner: eat@kiwicorner.fr
French Kangaroo meat distributors
chef-henrick@australgourmet.com
contact@australgourmet.com
France - Health ministry contacts:
General email: ministre-santesolidarites@sante.gouv.fr
Didier Houssin : didier.houssin@sante.gouv.fr
Russian restaurant serving Kangaroo meat
Australian Open: aus.open@mtu-net.ru
Russian Customs responsible for the importation and inspection of Kangaroo meat
umts_kudryavtsev@mail.customs.ru
Sample Letter
Dear ......,
Re: Commercial Kangaroo Industry
I am writing to you concerning the plight of Kangaroos in Australia.
It has been brought to my attention that there are at least 5 serious problems with the current legal killing of kangaroos for commercial purposes in Australia.
Killing of joeys after their mothers are shot. The national code of practice allows an acceptable way of killing these baby animals is to chop off their head with an axe, or for them to receive a blow to the head with a heavy blunt instrument.
As per the Canadian seal 'cull', killing of baby animals is an extremely traumatic experience, it is in no way humane, and can in no way be regulated. We are living in the 21st century and still allowing medieval practices to occur in our outback. I feel it is necessary to condemn the killing of kangaroos solely on this point alone.
Contamination of the carcasses has recently been shown to occur quite often due to the way the kangaroos are processed in the field. They are gutted by a shooter who is not trained nor, after a nights shooting, has the ability to cleanly gut the kangaroo. The result is that carcasses are left wide open to contamination. All this happens in such temperatures which promote bacteria and pathogen growth. Even the chillers have been shown to be unreliable when it comes to maintaining temperatures which kill bacteria.
Species decline. NPWS (NSW) issues permits based on aerial surveys of numbers of kangaroos. Only a third of the 'culling/harvesting' area is counted each year on a rotational basis. As we all know, kangaroos are mobile animals which can, as far as an aerial survey cares, be in two places at once, particularly if the count is spread essentially over 3 years. This means the animals can be counted twice, hence potentially overestimating/underestimating the population and therefore any quotas for killing purposes. NPWS each year comes up with new ways of counting kangaroo numbers, this is not reliable, nor is it scientific to continuously change counting methods.
When it comes to our native animals, close enough is not good enough.
4. Kangaroo shooters are paid per kg, therefore they (understandably) shoot the biggest animals first. Over time, this reduces the population structure so much so that a smaller, weaker genetic species remains. This reduces the survival ability and strength of the targeted species. This has not been scientifically proven by any researcher, it is common Darwinian sense.
5. The other issue which is even more serious is the fact that female kangaroos often have a joey at foot. Which means a joey who no longer lives in the pouch, but needs its mum for milk and protection from predation as well as to learn life skills. When a shooter intrudes on a family unit and shoots the mum, this joey at foot hops away frightened and will die a slow death of predation or starvation as it will not get the necessary nutrients that it still requires for growth. This is a fact of the kangaroo industry, and it is also a thorn in the Governments side as there is currently nothing in the 'Code of Practice for the humane killing of kangaroos' that deals with this issue.
I along with many other Australians am calling on you to cease your involvement in the commercial harvesting of kangaroos immediately. This will have virtually no effect on Australia's economy, or that of overseas economies which import kangaroo meat. The Russian National Meat Association spokesperson has already stated that kangaroo meat is not a relevant contributor to their economy.
I have enclosed a 7 minute DVD which outlines the findings of the above investigation.
