Kangeroo Cull in Canberra

While in Canberra last week, there were protests over the culling of several hundred Kangaroos that were over-running defence land in the northern parts of the ACT.

Among the claims the protesters made were:

• Culling the Kangaroos would hurt tourism
• Culling Kangaroos was hypocritical, because of Australia's position on Japanese whaling

Neither of these claims stack up for me. Firstly, the cull was done humanely under the supervision of the RSPCA, and if the government did not reduce numbers then the Kangaroos would devastate the ecologically fragile environment and need to move on to other areas to feed, or starve.

Secondly, while I'm reasonable agnostic about Japanese Whaling, I can see a big difference between culling Kangaroos for valid reasons to control the population and prevent suffering to more Kangaroos in future plus protecting the local environment from destruction by an Kangaroo over population, and killing whales to research if they can be hunted commercially. (If all Japanese science was like that, the Sony Walkman would have needed a wheelbarrow!)

Thirdly, it would be difficult for New Zealanders to argue against the cull, as the same process (for the same reason) is used in the central plateau region to manage wild horses.

While the cull was not ideal and could have been prevented by better management a decade ago, there was little choice but to let it go ahead.