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Tourism boycott over roo cull

3/07/2009 7:58:00 AM
An animal welfare group says it will lead an international tourism boycott of Canberra in response to two kangaroo culls being carried out in the ACT.

The National Kangaroo Protection Coalition says it has 33 animal welfare groups with thousands of members who will boycott Canberra in response to the culls of 7000 kangaroos at the Majura training site and 550 at the Canberra Nature Park.

The group's spokesman, Pat O'Brien, said his group planned to circulate information about the culls to fuel anger.

He said he hoped the tourism ban would pressure Canberra's tourism industry to lobby the ACT Government to change its policy.

''We've been talking about it the last couple of days and we think it's one of the options we've got and probably the strongest option we've got to get the ACT Government to stop killing these kangaroos,'' Mr O'Brien said.

He said he could not provide a list of the members in the group due to some of their relationships with the ACT Government.

He said he believed the Canberra culls were based on unproven science and were motivated by an ACT Government ''hatred with kangaroos''.

Tourism Minister Andrew Barr said the boycott was misguided.

''While I respect the right of those concerned with animal welfare to voice their concerns, it is not fair for them to jeopardise the livelihoods of our hard-working and environmentally sustainable ACT tourism operators and the thousands of Canberrans they employ,'' Mr Barr said.

More in today's Canberra Times

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Far more tourists would come to the ACT if they could see kangaroos living peaceful, natural wild lives, rather than being picked off by killers and having their joeys bashed to death. What example is this setting to our children? If something helpless and vulnerable gets in our way, kill it? Go to nature parks not to appreciate and marvel at animals but to exterminate them? There is very little that is environmentally sustainable about the ACT at the moment. No world-leading and inspiring innovations in urban-nature interactions and coexistence, just a money-fuelled desire to turn the 'bush capital' into a collection of housing estates, office blocks and shopping centres connected by motorways doubling as car parks, with nature confined behind fences. Tourists can see that anywhere. Why bother to come here?
Posted by moon willow, 3/07/2009 8:20:33 AM
only a broadsheet with a ruralpress mentality would keep running with a story that is simply irrelevent. the canberra times is now nothing more than a parochial piece of paper. please you are meant to be the australian capital's broadsheet.
Posted by jimbo, 3/07/2009 8:55:38 AM
moon willow - The tourists can see the starving animals, the dead animals hit by cars and the joey's that have died because there is not enough food on the ground.
Posted by Reality, 3/07/2009 9:06:49 AM
Road travelling tourists,as will anyone else, can & will see large numbers of kangaroos on the way to the capital...feeding in the paddocks or squashed & rotting on the side of the road..shooting is widely accepted by those who know or actually live and work on the land as the only humane or instant death and cost effective method of 'roo population control which by the way is conducted nightly Australia wide for pet & human consumption...The animal libbers destroy any good work they might have done in the past and only further remove themselves from the reality on the ground and expose their lack of knowledge of land management issues and humane control methods by opposing 'roo culling by shooting...
Posted by dusty, 3/07/2009 9:27:07 AM
A bullet would be a more humane end for the many kangaroos hit by cars each night. I hit one last night while driving on Coyne St (Fadden) which bounded back into the bush - probably sporting a couple of broken ribs. Only a soft hit as I had managed to brake in time. But even the activists should admit that the poor roo would be better off with a bullet than an injury.
Posted by reduce roos, 3/07/2009 9:32:42 AM
This is becoming a yawn. Everyone, including te RSPCA agrees that this is the best overall for th kangaroos and the environment. Everyone except a small group of idealogs that is.
Posted by Laird, 3/07/2009 9:37:54 AM
@ Reality Defiantly Moon hasent been out there to see the starving animals ( or just blinded by the nice nature of the beasts)and the unreal amount of road kills hapening every day, the packs are getting so big now there just insent anuff fead for them.
Posted by Open the eye's, 3/07/2009 9:39:50 AM
In the past there were far smaller populations of kangaroos in the region. It is a well known fact that as farmers and others colonized the land, they built dams and provided other sources of water for stock and humans, and kangaroos profited from the more frequent availability of water. A reduction in natural kangaroo predators also took place. I tend to agree with Reality, since we helped create the problem we also need to fix it and letting kangaroos die from collisions with cars and trucks or starve to death through overpopulation is also inhumane.
Posted by Rob, 3/07/2009 9:47:29 AM
wake up idiots! I'm sure tourists would much prefer to see starving, dying animals or maybe they would like to be in a car accident with one off these starving animals looking for food, that would be fun!
Posted by chris, 3/07/2009 10:10:57 AM
this is ridiculous. no one says anythig about all the roos shot all over NSW and other states, why you ask, well it is because they get a permit and shoot them. i bullet immediate death no stress for the kangaroo. why cant canberra just do the same. numbers would decrease half the public wouldnt even know one was shot as when you shoot a roo you clean it up then move on so maybe a single shot every half an hour or so shouldnt attract trouble. sometimes it pays not to advertise. when are you going to learn the greenies care more about animals and trees than people. god help us
Posted by jackie, 3/07/2009 10:35:00 AM
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