‘Massacre’ of wildlife

Press, 15 April 1986, Page 14

‘Massacre’ of wildlife

NZPA-AAP Brisbane More than six million kangaroos and wallabies — three times the legal quota — were slaughtered in Australia last year in the greatest wildlife massacre the world had seen, a conservationist group said.

Richard Jones, executive director of the Fund for Animals, said, “Shooters estimate a million roos more than the official cull of 1,080,000 were killed in Queensland alone. “In Tasmania 800,000 wallabies over quota were killed and this means at least four million kangaroos and wallabies were shot last year,” he said. “Add to this 1,500,000 joeys bashed to death, the estimated 250,000 killed

on the roads, plus the estimated half a million illegal killings by landholders for amusement or dog meat, and you have the greatest wildlife massacre the world has ever known,” said Mr Jones.

“I have documentary evidence to show that more than two million skins were exported from Queensland overseas and to New South Wales alone in 1985,” he said. “The heads of two major shooters’ organisations have confirmed that at least two million kangaroos and wallabies were killed last year in Queensland.”

Mr Jones said it was a national tragedy that Australia’s wildlife was being eliminated.