4 ms·

Kangaroos don’t have many natural predators anymore. Even if you don’t harvest them for meat, you’d have to cull them to prevent them overpopulating and destroy

Kangaroos don’t have many natural predators anymore. Even if you don’t harvest them for meat, you’d have to cull them to prevent them overpopulating and destroying their environment. The article mentions that the kangaroos harvested for meat are sufficient to meet the current worldwide needs for ACL surgeries. Sometimes killing animals is the ethical thing to do. Reality is complex.

dehrmann 3y ago
What makes the kangaroo problem even worse is they're grazers, and maybe it's just a former British colony thing, but people like to plant grass.
- stubish 3y ago
  Grasses plant themselves and taken over from much of the native vegetation. We do like to cut down trees and clear bushland though. Every new cow paddock is also a kangaroo paddock.
cyrnel 3y ago
> you’d have to cull them to prevent them overpopulating and destroying their environment. We don't do this for cats, why should we have to do it for kangaroos? Trap Neuter Release exists. There have been struggles with implementing it, but it seems largely to do with lack of awareness and funding.
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
  AFAICT, no one around here culls or traps cats, but we don't have a cat overpopulation problem. OTOH, even with hunting seasons, we definitely have a deer population problem, and the rabbits have been going insane this year for some reason. Perhaps it's just a case of different strategies for different regions.
  - bpiche 3y ago
    New Zealand apparently does. Never been there, seems lovely (edit: this opening graf is too good not to share) "Animal welfare protestors at a hunting contest in rural New Zealand have faced off against a group of child attendees, some clutching dead feral cats, who repeatedly chanted the word “meat” at demonstrators." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/28/chaos-at-new-zealand-feral-cat-hunting-contest-as-video-of-children-chanting-with-dead-animals-emerges https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/28/chaos-at-new-z...
- slashdev 3y ago
  Cats are predators, that’s very different from say deer or kangaroo populations, which tend to overboom and then starve after they strip the environment of the plants they eat.
- stubish 3y ago
  We do cull cats. With numbers in the millions killing billions of native animals per year and already contributing to many extinctions, nothing is going to work except for science fiction bioweapons. Discussion and research is more around how to efficiently kill as many feral cats as possible without killing native animals or pets. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-08/federal-inquiry-proposes-plan-to-control-feral-cats/13127092 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-08/federal-inquiry-propo...
- EarthMephit 3y ago
  In Australia we cull feral cats. We don't trap, neuter, release: https://www.agriculture.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/factsheet-tackling-feral-cats-and-their-impacts-faqs.pdf https://www.agriculture.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents... We're not likely to release a neutered cat back into the environment where it will kill more native creatures. Feral cats have already caused the extinction of 20 native species.

dehrmann 3y ago

What makes the kangaroo problem even worse is they're grazers, and maybe it's just a former British colony thing, but people like to plant grass.

stubish 3y ago
Grasses plant themselves and taken over from much of the native vegetation. We do like to cut down trees and clear bushland though. Every new cow paddock is also a kangaroo paddock.

cyrnel 3y ago

> you’d have to cull them to prevent them overpopulating and destroying their environment. We don't do this for cats, why should we have to do it for kangaroos? Trap Neuter Release exists. There have been struggles with implementing it, but it seems largely to do with lack of awareness and funding.

HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
AFAICT, no one around here culls or traps cats, but we don't have a cat overpopulation problem. OTOH, even with hunting seasons, we definitely have a deer population problem, and the rabbits have been going insane this year for some reason. Perhaps it's just a case of different strategies for different regions.
- bpiche 3y ago
  New Zealand apparently does. Never been there, seems lovely (edit: this opening graf is too good not to share) "Animal welfare protestors at a hunting contest in rural New Zealand have faced off against a group of child attendees, some clutching dead feral cats, who repeatedly chanted the word “meat” at demonstrators." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/28/chaos-at-new-zealand-feral-cat-hunting-contest-as-video-of-children-chanting-with-dead-animals-emerges https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/28/chaos-at-new-z...
slashdev 3y ago
Cats are predators, that’s very different from say deer or kangaroo populations, which tend to overboom and then starve after they strip the environment of the plants they eat.
stubish 3y ago
We do cull cats. With numbers in the millions killing billions of native animals per year and already contributing to many extinctions, nothing is going to work except for science fiction bioweapons. Discussion and research is more around how to efficiently kill as many feral cats as possible without killing native animals or pets. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-08/federal-inquiry-proposes-plan-to-control-feral-cats/13127092 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-08/federal-inquiry-propo...
EarthMephit 3y ago
In Australia we cull feral cats. We don't trap, neuter, release: https://www.agriculture.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/factsheet-tackling-feral-cats-and-their-impacts-faqs.pdf https://www.agriculture.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents... We're not likely to release a neutered cat back into the environment where it will kill more native creatures. Feral cats have already caused the extinction of 20 native species.