Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has hit back at criticism of the Government's kangaroo cull plans, saying it is the only humane option to resolve the problem of over-population.
Mr Stanhope said Canberrans who oppose the plans should heed the advice of an independent panel of scientists that a proposal to truck 500 kangaroos from Belconnen into NSW instead of culling them was cruel and impractical.
The Defence Department is preparing to cull 500 kangaroos which are fenced in on Defence land at Lawson. But animal rights groups want the roos to be trucked interstate instead, and are planning "serious protest action" over the cull.
Scientists, the RSPCA, the ACT Government, the Liberals and the Greens have joined forces to call for the cull to proceed.
Mr Stanhope said criticism of the Government's support for a cull was not based on the evidence.
"[A cull] is the only appropriate humane response to this issue, this most unfortunate issue."
He called for more attention to be paid to the independent panel of scientists, headed by animal ecology expert David Morgan, which investigated the Belconnen roo problem.
Professor Morgan, associate professor of zoology at the University of Melbourne, told The Canberra Times it was "not a humane practice" to translocate kangaroos.
"I wouldn't want to be a part of it, and I've been around animals all my life," Professor Morgan said.
Moving the 500 wild kangaroos would involve herding them together, knocking them out with an anaesthetic dart, transporting them by truck for perhaps one hour, then releasing them into a new location where there might be plenty of kangaroos already.
Eastern grey kangaroos weighed up to 80kg, Professor Morgan said, so transporting 500 of them would be difficult.
Moving the kangaroos would stress them, frighten them, and cause injuries and deaths.
"Kangaroos are wild animals, they're not sheep and cattle that you can simply chase up a ramp into a truck and drive them to a new site," Professor Morgan said.
He said given the overabundance of the species, the most humane option was to cull the kangaroos by lethal injection.
Professor Morgan's taskforce recommended all the Belconnen roos be culled.
Taskforce member Michael Linke, chief executive officer of the RSPCA's ACT branch, said kangaroos were prone to a condition called capture myopathy, meaning they could die of fright, even months after a stressful event.
The taskforce included two CSIRO scientists, veterinarian Dr Andrew Braid and grassland ecologist Dr Sue McIntyre.
Mr Stanhope said the taskforce's findings were blunt and clear and he had accepted them. He said it was most unfortunate that the cull had to take place, but there was no other option if Lawson's threatened species the Ginninderra Peppercress, the Perunga Grasshopper and the Golden Sun Moth were to be saved from overgrazing.
Mr Stanhope also hit back at a "malicious" media report that his Government wanted to cull the roos to build houses on the Lawson site. He pointed out the Lawson site was to be turned into a nature reserve, and the ACT might build houses on an adjoining piece of land, which was fenced off from the Defence land. The ACT Government land was not enclosed and there were no plans to cull there.