A Global Declaration of the Kangaroo Welfare Crisis

Article 1 – Kangaroos are Sentient

Kangaroos are conscious and sentient beings endowed with the capacity to experience a wide range of emotions and affective states.¹ They can experience both positive affective states, such as joy, and negative affective states, such as fear. Like all sentient beings, kangaroos can feel pain, have the ability to suffer, and strive to avoid suffering where possible. This evidence is supported by Indigenous Australian leaders (as stated in the Yuin Declaration for Kangaroos²) alongside the broader scientific community and Australian public. As sentient beings, kangaroos deserve to be treated with compassion and care, conditions currently not upheld by the Australian Government or the industry.

Article 2 – Inhumane Killing Methods and Non-Compliance

The commercial kangaroo industry engages in the largest slaughter of land-based wildlife worldwide, targeting wild kangaroos for their skins and flesh.³ The industry is managed by Australian state governments, while the federal government oversees the export of kangaroo products. The 2021 parliamentary inquiry into the kangaroo industry revealed that there is no independent monitoring at the point of kill,⁴ and that substantial evidence suggests systemic non-compliance with the Code of Practice for the commercial shooting of kangaroos. Independent studies have shown that up to 40% of kangaroos may not be accurately shot in the brain, inevitably leading to prolonged suffering of many millions of individuals.⁵ This number does not include mis-shot animals that escape shooters mutilated and likely suffer slow and painful deaths. Although the industry claims great accuracy for brain-shots, conditions during accuracy tests differ significantly from real-world scenarios, where shooters encounter moving targets in the dark and at great distances, and do so without any fear of scrutiny over mis-shot individuals. Compliance checks at the point of storage (in remote chillers) do little to prevent shooters from leaving mis-shot individuals in the field or decapitating non-brain shot individuals to avoid detection. Abundant evidence indicates that the prescribed method of killing with a single clear shot to the brain is often unachievable in the field.⁶

Article 3 – Killing of Healthy Joeys

Approximately one-third of kangaroos killed for commercial purposes are females.⁷ Reproductive females typically have dependent young, called a joey, throughout the year. As joeys are deemed economically worthless by the industry, healthy joeys are killed in large numbers as collateral deaths to the commercial slaughter. While the commercial kangaroo industry and the Australian government fail to collect data on the number of joeys killed, conservative estimates indicate that approximately 400,000 dependent joeys may be suffering this fate annually.⁸

The Code of Practice prescribes several methods of killing joeys.⁹ Unfurred pouch young are to be killed by decapitation or cervical dislocation, while furred pouch young are to be bludgeoned to death or shot by the commercial shooter. In practice, bludgeoning involves holding the joey by its hind legs and swinging them with force by the feet and tail against a vehicle or other solid surface.¹⁰ Animal welfare organisations and experts have repeatedly expressed concerns that while a quick, fatal blow to the head may be achievable in controlled, laboratory scenarios, it is unlikely to be achieved in a humane way by a shooter in the field at night, holding a struggling joey.¹¹ This method of separating joeys from their mothers and killing them exposes them to extreme fear in their final moments before death. A government commissioned study into the ‘humaneness’ of the commercial kangaroo industry revealed that the methods used to kill joeys often do not cause instantaneous death, leading to unacceptable prolonged pain and suffering.¹² This study also revealed that, in practice, shooters rarely track down and kill dependent young-at-foot joeys after their mother is shot. Instead, in the vast majority of cases, orphaned joeys are left to endure a slow death of starvation, dehydration, predation, or exposure, which is an unacceptable outcome causing prolonged stress and suffering.¹³ The suffering and killing of joeys as collateral deaths is an issue inherent to the commercial kangaroo industry that neither the industry nor Australian state and federal governments can effectively mitigate.

Article 4 – Disruption of Mob Structure, Knowledge, and Culture

Kangaroos are highly social and family-oriented animals that form strong bonds among members of each mob.¹⁴ They transmit crucial knowledge and culture across generations, enabling their survival in challenging environments.¹⁵ Kangaroos are believed to show complex grief. Witnessing family or mob members being shot is known to cause trauma, increasing threat perception,¹⁶ while significantly decreasing play and other affiliative behaviours in joeys.¹⁷ Dominant males and older females, widely believed to serve as knowledge keepers and social stabilizers, are primarily targeted due to their size and therefore economic value. Fracturing of mob structure, family groups, and cultural knowledge disrupts the formation of stable and healthy social systems.¹⁸

Article 5 – False justifications for cruelty

While the commercial exploitation of kangaroos originated as a means to remove these herbivores from agricultural lands, and as such a by-product of farmer “culling” practices, the industry has grown to become the leading principle for killing kangaroos. This is clearly evidenced in the state of Victoria, where commercialisation of kangaroos was only recently sanctioned in 2019, following a trial that commenced in 2014. This is despite the trial’s conclusion that the industry would 1) lead to an increase, rather than a decrease, in waste of kangaroo carcasses, 2) suffer from a lack of enforcement of regulations, 3) would threaten environmental sustainability, and 4) would provide low-value to tax payers.¹⁹ Since the establishment of the industry in Victoria, kill quotas have increased five-fold²⁰ and there has been a 55% increase in reports of gunshot wounds of kangaroos, as well as a reported 500% increase in orphaned joeys.²¹

Kangaroo populations are known to collapse in response to changes in climatic and environmental conditions, like drought and wildfire, situations that are expected to become more prevalent because of climate change. Population collapses, and subsequent recoveries, exert strong selection pressure on kangaroo species and have shaped their evolutionary histories. Recently, the commercial industry has claimed that the industry has net welfare benefit because it kills kangaroos at times when they are healthy, consequently preventing them from experiencing suffering during drought. This is a flawed and selective assessment because to date there is no universal understanding of kangaroo welfare to base this judgement on. It misrepresents welfare as only pertaining to the manner of death, rather than the accepted view that welfare represents the mental experiences of individuals as it changes throughout their lives. Expediency of death does not negate lived experience.

Furthermore, as shooters are paid per kilogram for each carcass, the industry systemically promotes the targeting of the strongest and healthiest kangaroos, rather than supposedly providing relief to dehydrated and emaciated ones. Hence, the industry is designed to take the most evolutionarily fit individuals with the greatest capacity to survive drought and other disturbances. This not only disrupts natural ecological and evolutionary processes, but also reduces the ability of kangaroo populations to recover after disturbances and weakens their resilience to future perturbation. In conjunction with their slow reproduction rates that limit the ability of populations to recover quickly, kangaroo populations cannot surge and will self-stabilize.²²

Decades of data indicate that the density of kangaroos in the landscape is not dependent on artificial water sources like farm dams,²³ that their grazing patterns promote ecological health through selective herbivory and defecation,²⁴ and that grazing competition with farmed animals is greatly overstated by the agricultural sector. A single bull or a cow with calf eats up to 51 times more than an adult grey kangaroo, a dry cow eats up to 32 times more, a breeding ewe eats up to 5 times more and a dry sheep eats up to 3 times more. Kangaroos contribute between 1 and 8% of total grazing pressure, while farm animals contribute the remaining 92 - 99%.²⁵ Kangaroos have not benefited from the landscape transformation that has seen most of Australia’s woodlands and forest replaced with pasture for animal agriculture, despite assertions to the contrary by the industry. In fact, widespread animal and cropping agriculture has resulted in drastically reduced habitat for kangaroos.²⁶

Given the lack of ecological or farming necessity, the industry’s practices must be viewed in light of their true motive: commercial profit derived from international sales of luxury goods, such as high-end soccer shoes, motorcycle suits, pet food, and exotic game meat.

Article 6 – Australian and EU citizens do not support cruelty

An independent, nationally representative survey conducted among 2000 Australians in 2023 revealed that Australians find it unacceptable that there is no monitoring at the point of kill (69%) and that many kangaroos are mis-shot (71%). They find it unacceptable to kill joeys as part of a commercial industry (76%) and do not support the current prescribed methods to kill joeys as a humane practice (75%). Most Australians think the commercial killing of kangaroos causes unnecessary animal cruelty and suffering (69%), is inhumane (63%), and poses an animal welfare crisis (61%). Two-thirds of Australians want other countries (67%) and commercial companies (64%) to stop trading in kangaroo products and think Australia should take a stance against the commercial killing of kangaroos (64%).²⁷

Similar independent, nationally representative surveys conducted in 2024 among 5000 EU citizens from five countries (Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands; hereafter referred to as ‘EU citizens’) revealed the same public sentiments. EU citizens find it unacceptable that there is no monitoring at the point of kill (87%) and that many kangaroos are mis-shot (80%). EU citizens find it unacceptable to kill joeys as part of a commercial industry (82%) and do not support the prescribed methods to kill joeys as humane (74%). Most EU citizens agree the commercial killing of kangaroos is inhumane (74%), causes unnecessary cruelty and suffering (75%) and poses an animal welfare crisis (70%). The vast majority of EU citizens want the commercial slaughter to stop due to ethical reasons (73%), agree commercial companies should stop trading in kangaroo body parts (76%) and want their country to ban kangaroo products (74%).²⁸

Article 7 – Urgent call for immediate global action

As concerned experts and citizens, we resolutely and unequivocally declare the commercial kangaroo industry to be perpetuating an unacceptable and unjustifiable animal welfare crisis. We urgently call for an immediate moratorium on the commercial killing of kangaroos. The industry and Australian government have consistently demonstrated their inability to prevent industry cruelty over the last few decades, and it is time for a complete cessation of commercial killing. We strongly urge politicians, policymakers, corporations, and consumers worldwide to take a responsible stance against this antiquated form of animal cruelty and cease their contribution to what essentially amounts to an exploitative, extractive, and unjustifiable trade in wildlife body parts with clear disregard for the lives of kangaroos and the Australian public who demand their protection.

+ References

¹ Low, P. The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness. Proceedings of the Francis Crick Memorial Conference, Churchill College, Cambridge University, July 7 2012, pp 1-2.

² Yuin Declaration for Kangaroos (2021) - Available on https://www.kangaroosalive.org/yuin-declaration

³ Data from the Australian Government; Boom, Keely, et al. "'Pest'and resource: A legal history of Australia's kangaroos." Animal Studies Journal 1.1 (2012): 17-40.

⁴ Parliamentary inquiry - Health and wellbeing of kangaroos and other macropods in New South Wales / Portfolio Committee No. 7 - Planning and Environment [Sydney, N.S.W.]: the Committee, 2021. (Report no. 11)

⁵ Submission 404a, Ms Diane Smith and Mr Greg Keightley, Parliamentary inquiry - Health and wellbeing of kangaroos and other macropods in New South Wales / Portfolio Committee No. 7 - Planning and Environment [Sydney, N.S.W.]: the Committee, 2021. (Report no. 11); Dror Ben-Ami, Animal Liberation (NSW), A Shot in the Dark: A Report on Kangaroo Harvesting (2011).

⁶ Parliamentary inquiry - Health and wellbeing of kangaroos and other macropods in New South Wales / Portfolio Committee No. 7 - Planning and Environment [Sydney, N.S.W.]: the Committee, 2021. (Report no. 11); Also see collection of kangaroo shooter behaviour, shared on social media by shooters: . https://www.facebook.com/kangarootruth/photos or see this Dropbox folder

⁷ Government data, see summary on the Nature Knowledge Channel https://www.creativecowboyfilms.tv/earth/how-many-the-commercial-exploitation-of-kangaroos.

⁸ Ben-Ami D, Boom K, Boronyak L, Townend C, Ramp D, Croft D, Bekoff M, ‘The welfare ethics of the commercial killing of free-ranging kangaroos: an evaluation of the benefits and costs of the industry’ (2014) 23 Animal Welfare 1, 5. Estimates have been revised in consultation with the authors after the Russian ban on kangaroo meat imports. This is in line with correspondence with Neal Finch, Manager Macropod Management, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and Partnerships, Department of Environment, Science and Innovation, who confirmed that in his work, he assumes that a joey is killed for every killed female.

⁹ AgriFutures Australia. National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies for Commercial Purposes. 2020, ISBN 978-1-76053-141-6, https://cdn.environment.sa.gov.au/environment/docs/code-of-practice-commercial-kangaroos-2020.pdf.

¹⁰ McLeod, Steven R. Improving the humaneness of commercial kangaroo harvesting. RIRDC, 2014.

¹¹ E.g., see Submission 238 and Evidence, Ms Sutterby, 11 June 2021, p 16 Parliamentary inquiry - Health and wellbeing of kangaroos and other macropods in New South Wales / Portfolio Committee No. 7 - Planning and Environment [Sydney, N.S.W.]: the Committee, 2021. (Report no. 11)

¹² McLeod, Steven R. Improving the humaneness of commercial kangaroo harvesting. RIRDC, 2014.

¹³ Dr Di Evans, Senior Scientific Officer, RSPCA Australia. Evidence 15 June 2021, Parliamentary inquiry - Health and wellbeing of kangaroos and other macropods in New South Wales / Portfolio Committee No. 7 - Planning and Environment [Sydney, N.S.W.]: the Committee, 2021. (Report no. 11); McLeod, Steven R. Improving the humaneness of commercial kangaroo harvesting. RIRDC, 2014; Sharp, Trudy. Commercial kangaroo harvesting: the animal welfare implications for dependent young. Diss. UNSW Sydney, 2015.

¹⁴ Campbell, Nora E., and Terry J. Ord. "Wild kangaroos become more social when caring for young and may maintain long-term affiliations with popular individuals." Animal Behaviour 205 (2023): 183-195.

¹⁵ Parliamentary inquiry - Health and wellbeing of kangaroos and other macropods in New South Wales / Portfolio Committee No. 7 - Planning and Environment [Sydney, N.S.W.]: the Committee, 2021. (Report no. 11)

¹⁶ Austin, Caitlin M., and Daniel Ramp. "Flight responses of eastern gray kangaroos to benign or harmful human behavior." Ecology and Evolution 9.24 (2019): 13824-13834.

¹⁷ Austin, C. M. (2019). Life in the countryside: How human behaviour shapes fear in eastern grey kangaroos (D. Ramp, Supervisor) [PhD]. PhD Thesis, Centre for Compassionate Conservation, University of Technology Sydney.

¹⁸ Dr David Croft, Inquiry evidence, 15 June 2021, p 3. Parliamentary inquiry - Health and wellbeing of kangaroos and other macropods in New South Wales / Portfolio Committee No. 7 - Planning and Environment [Sydney, N.S.W.]: the Committee, 2021. (Report no. 11)

¹⁹ Kangaroo Pet Food Trial Evaluation Report, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), Victoria Government. See report here: https://www.wildlife.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0034/564685/KPFT-Evaluation-Report.pdf and read Guardian article here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/13/kangaroo-pet-food-trial-one-million-animals-killed-and-and-bribery-alleged

²⁰ Government data, summarised in this article https://www.creativecowboyfilms.tv/earth/victorian-kangaroo-harvest-management-plan-2024-2028

²¹ Widllife Victoria, 2023. See https://www.wildlifevictoria.org.au/images/Publications/Media_Releases/Wildlife_Victoria_flags_major_animal_welfare_concerns_with_States_Kangaroo_Harvesting_Program_WEB_VERSION.pdf and https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/24/killing-kangaroos-could-be-banned-in-metro-melbourne-in-plan-hailed-as-step-in-the-right-direction.

²² Parliamentary inquiry - Health and wellbeing of kangaroos and other macropods in New South Wales / Portfolio Committee No. 7 - Planning and Environment [Sydney, N.S.W.]: the Committee, 2021. (Report no. 11)

²³ For an overview, see: Croft, David Benjamin, and Ingrid Witte. "The perils of being populous: Control and conservation of abundant kangaroo species." Animals 11.6 (2021): 1753; Also see Mjadwesch R 2011 Nomination to List the Large Macropods as Threatened Species under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 MESS Bathurst, available on https://www.kangaroosatrisk.net. Also see overview of analysis on https://www.kangaroosatrisk.org/biology.html

²⁴ Croft, David Benjamin, and Ingrid Witte. "The perils of being populous: Control and conservation of abundant kangaroo species." Animals 11.6 (2021): 1753; Montague-Drake, Rebecca, and David B. Croft. "Do kangaroos exhibit water-focused grazing patterns in arid New South Wales? A case study in Sturt National Park." Australian Mammalogy 26.1 (2004): 87-100.

²⁵ For example, see: Guevara-Torres, Diego R., and José M. Facelli. "Choose Local: Dung Addition from Native Herbivores Can Produce Substantial Positive Effects on the Growth of Native Grasses Compared to Livestock Dung." Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition (2023): 1-9.
and: Iles J, Kelleway J, Kobayashi T, Mazumder D, Knowles L, Priddel D, Saintilan N. 2010. Grazing kangaroos act as local recyclers of energy on semiarid floodplains. Australian Journal of Zoology 58:145–149.

²⁶ Croft, David Benjamin, and Ingrid Witte. "The perils of being populous: Control and conservation of abundant kangaroo species." Animals 11.6 (2021): 1753.

²⁷ For example, see Bradshaw, Corey JA. "Little left to lose: deforestation and forest degradation in Australia since European colonization." Journal of Plant Ecology 5.1 (2012): 109-120;

²⁸ Kangaroos Alive. (2023). Spotlight on Kangaroos: National Survey Report. Available on https://www.kangaroosalive.org/surveyreport