More farmers call in kangaroo harvesters with fewer shot and dropped

The latest report into Victoria’s kangaroo culling program shows a big drop in farmers seeking permits to shoot kangaroos.

A quota to cull almost 200,000 Victorian roos has been set for 2021.

Victorian farmers appear to be calling in more professional shooters to harvest excess kangaroos for pet food and human consumption, rather than doing the job themselves.

Just 1674 landholders applied for Authority to Control Wildlife permits in 2020 to shoot 77,442 red, eastern and western grey kangaroos, 43 per cent down on permits to cull 136,502 in 2019.

Professional shooter Glenn Cole said the drop in farmers applying for ATCW permits to shoot roos themselves was most likely due to landholders realising they could call on a professional to do the job for them and remove the carcasses for processing.

“It’s a job the farmer doesn’t have to do and the carcass is not left lying around,” Mr Cole said.

“There’s plenty of market demand, with my buyer doing 4000 a week, 50 per cent of them from interstate.”

Mr Cole said the market was expanding, with Victorian Petfood Processors looking to convert a former Inglewood livestock abattoir to process kangaroos by the end of the year.

A Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning spokeswoman said “2020 marked the first full year of operation for the Kangaroo Harvesting Program”.

“Under this program just over 46,000 eastern grey kangaroos were harvested on private land, providing an alternative to the ATCW system for some landholders.”

While numbers vary from year to year DEWLP reported last week the combined total of eastern grey kangaroos harvested in 2020 through the kangaroo harvesting program and ATCW system was 116,816, representing 8.5 per cent of the estimated statewide population.

Under Victoria’s sustainable harvesting scheme the maximum number of kangaroos that can be harvested is 10 per cent of the population, as estimated by an Arthur Rylah Institute survey.

The Government has signed off on culling about 200,000 roos this year, with half allocated for pet food processing and human consumption, while the remainder can be shot with ATCW permits.

The effectiveness of the current ATCW permit system is under a spotlight as part of the Government’s review into the 1975 Victorian Wildlife Act, which is open to submissions until June 30.

The review, led by a panel of four academics, has raised concerns that the Act:

DOES not define the criteria by which ATCWs a granted, refused or can be appealed.

DOES not require reporting on the number of ATCWs declined and the reasons.

DOES not require reporting on the number of animals actually taken, rather than just what the permit allows.