Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t a happy little debunker; Ask an Aussie if there is anything rare or endangered about Kangaroos, or road pests as we think of them, and most of us would collapse into helpless laughter. But for reasons which are unclear US Congress is set to consider a bipartisan Kangaroo Product ban.
U.S. Lawmakers Introduce Kangaroo Protection Act to Blunt the World’s ‘Largest Wildlife Slaughter’
Congressmen Salud Carbajal and Brian Fitzpatrick Say ‘No More Killing Kangaroos for Athletic Shoes’
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Representatives Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., this week introduced the Kangaroo Protection Act to ban the sale of kangaroo body parts in the United States. The bill aims to curb the massive trade in kangaroo skins used by Nike, adidas, Puma, and other companies for manufacturing soccer shoes (“cleats”). Though sold throughout the world, the U.S. is the second-largest market, behind only the European Union. Animal Wellness Action, Animal Wellness Foundation, Center for a Humane Economy and SPCA International, the Michelson Center for Public Policy, and others applaud the initiative and call on lawmakers to pass the legislation.
“Nike and other major athletic shoe companies are fueling the world’s largest commercial slaughter of terrestrial wildlife,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. “It’s time for the company to shed kangaroo skins from its product lines and embrace 21st-century sensibilities about wildlife protection.”
“Commercial shooters kill roughly two million wild kangaroos a year to profit from the trade in their skins, despite the availability of alternative fabrics that are of similar or better quality. While California has banned the sale of kangaroo products, enforcement of this inhumane practice is lacking,” said Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif. “I’m proud to stand against kangaroo trafficking and have introduced the Kangaroo Protection Act to make it illegal to exploit kangaroos in the United States and impose penalties for violations.”
“Kangaroos are victims of the largest commercial slaughter of land-based wildlife in the world. As a member of the bipartisan Congressional Animal Protection Caucus and an outspoken defender of animals, I will continue to be committed to ensuring that our government is doing everything in its power to promote and protect animal welfare,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn. “Our bipartisan Kangaroo Protection Act of 2021 will make it illegal to exploit kangaroos in the United States and ensure that penalties are imposed for violations. I am proud to join my colleague Rep. Carbajal in this fight.”
…
Read more: https://centerforahumaneeconomy.org/2021/02/09/us-lawmakers-introduce-kangaroo-protection-act-to-blunt-worlds-largest-wildlife-slaughter/
Culling was not introduced as a commercial activity. Culling was introduced to alleviate suffering, and prevent the utter destruction of the land during dry spells. The following is a video of what happens when kangaroos are not culled, when they run out of food.
From the farmer who shot the video;
…
‘Kangaroos are beautiful animals and an icon of this wonderful region,’ the concerned farmer said.
‘But we are genuinely concerned because if their population levels exceed what the land can naturally sustain, then not only do the kangaroos suffer horribly, but this drought stricken land suffers further too- and this beautiful country will struggle to recover when it finally does rain.’
…
Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3360459/Bizarre-video-shows-kangaroos-avalanching-road-farmer-warns-s-genuinely-concerned-overpopulation.html
Without culling, kangaroos breed like crazy in good years. When the rains fail, a frequent occurrence in arid Australia, kangaroos form vast locust like swarms, eating the ground bare, destroying everything in their path, until the food supply is utterly exhausted. Then millions of them starve to death.
A kangaroo product ban will not stop the cull, because selling kangaroo products is not the reason for the cull. All a kangaroo product ban will achieve is the culled kangaroos will not be converted into useful products.
I wish someone in US Congress would explain why waves of overpopulation followed by the horrible lingering death of millions of kangaroos from starvation, and depriving people of their livelihoods, would be a better outcome than a bit of active land management.
Video of a kangaroo population crash which occurred in 2003. Warning, this video contains distressing images of dead and dying kangaroos.
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So the U.S.is officially now a “Kangaroo Court”. Who’da thunk that!
In other news: It’s intermission time at the Capital Circus. The don’t have lions and tigers and bears (oh my) but there are a lot of clowns and jackasses. It’s The Greatest Shitshow on Earth today! Grab popcorn and beer before the show continues!
Kangaroo Impeachment Court
How can the Dems have kangaroo courts if they cant bring in kangaroos.
Also Dems seem to be compliit in long term Malthusian [plans to cull humans so why not kangaroos too
Planned Population schemes (e.g. select a child, cannibalize her profitable parts, sequester her carbon pollutants) are forward-looking, progressive under some religious (e.g. “ethical”) philosophies, especially when kneeling before mortal gods and goddesses (i.e. “secular” regimes) for redistributive lucre and sanction of wicked solutions.
That said, save a bird, a bat, whack a wind turbine. Donate to World Walrus Foundation. Clear the environment of the Green Blight.
If Beijing had built more wind turbines it would’ve reduced the bat population. So maybe we could’ve avoided the COVID-19 outbreak. So coal kills. 😉
Kabuki theatre. Congressional string puppets and Senatorial Ventriloquist Dummies.
These are some of the dumbest humans on planet earth talking down to the ignorant un-educated post 1990 Public School graduates/University Safe Zone Drones and making a connection. The U.S. Constitution has been turned into Capitol Hill Toilet paper.
The Constitution is evolving, mutating, progressing to realize a dysfunctional convergence, a recurring, seemingly inevitable, event as dictatorial/democratic regimes pursue the consolidation of capital and control.
Bill,
Would it be safe to ask which of the many Californication genders that person called
Salud Carbojal belongs to ?
With all the most esoteric Christian names it is impossible to tell.
So will they Tie This Kangaroo bill Down Sport?
Australian farmers complain about a recent growth in ‘roo numbers after the last winters rains. ‘They are too many. You can leave them be and a large number will become road kill as well as die of starvation in a season or two. The ‘roos they are allowed to take are NOT threatened species.
At the same time the Koalas are threatened as it is and one habitat in NSW is to be destroyed by a dam. Congress must have mixed up kangaroos and koalas, because the koalas deserve protection.
koalas have NO natural predators and rebound in a yr or tqo
they breed yearly and for around 8 yrs. do you forget the desexing and planned culls or relocations of thousands of excess koalas on KI a few yrs ago?
the fires may have kiled half
of FIFTY K of them, theyre not going to die out anytime soon
Absolutely correct. Koalas also breed themselves into starvation through overloading the environment. Every couple of years, there are reports of this in different areas across the country
Additionally, they are monumentally stupid. The local propaganda channel (ABC) last night reported on distressed koalas in areas burnt out during last summer’s bush fires – moving some koalas 50 meters (160 feet) to regenerated trees was one of the things being done.
I’m reminded of a Thurber cartoon, with a kangaroo in a court witness box. A lawyer is pointing at the animal, with the speech bubble: “Perhaps THIS will refresh your memory!”.
HA! HA! HA! I hit a Roo at 60 kms in my truck. The thing went through the roo bars and ended up putting it’s body through the block! Stopped me dead. There are 30 million of the things FFS! Ha ha ha
But don’t tell congress about the Drop Bears 🙂
actually last census had them at 70 million
We had 3 events in one year where our vehicles had major repairs after roo strikes.
Insurance company priced us out of next year’s coverage.
Had to carry my 410 around in the boot to finish off maimed roos some other car had hit.
Still, we fared better than our neighbor who got barreled by a huge sambar deer – didn’t even bother calling a tow truck, used an excavator to bury the deer and his truck in the roadside scrub.
Try 80 to 90 million Steve.
They are a pest of massive proportions.
This is fairly standard “animal rights” legislation, with the note that kangaroos are cute and work in fundraising ads. As Eric Worall notes, the SPCA and its ilk do not really care about the suffering of kangaroos, just virtue signaling.
Right about the virtue signaling, Tom. The only animals the left wants to kill are unborn (or born alive during abortion) human babies. My unwed mother resisted family pressure to have an abortion, and when my twin brother and were born we were adopted by great parents.
There are too many people and they must be culled to reduce their numbers.
Ask any environmentalist.
The world’s most dangerous idea is the notion that too many human beings exist.
Kangaroos are cute? 🙂
only to those who havent been close to em/tried to hold feed or gardens in a drought etc, or had their car totalled/been killed BY roos on rds
Nothing cute about a 6 foot male trying to get to your Vegemite sandwich!
Feelings don’t care about your facts.
Cuddle an opossum. Yeech!
What will I do for a change purse? https://www.ebay.com/itm/oZtrALa-Kangaroo-SCROTUM-Pouch-Wallet-Bag-Mens-Womens-Coin-Purse-LEATHER-Gift/302870929689?hash=item468483a119:g:WQkAAOSwYoFeonoR
Now that’s just plain nuts
Hilton International in Adelaide used to sell a LOT of those to tourists.
“It’s time for the company to shed kangaroo skins from its product lines and embrace 21st-century sensibilities about wildlife protection.”
So, replacement products will be made from…. hydrocarbons! That’s the ticket!
And trashing all the potential kangaroo products from naturally dead or road kill?
feed dead kangaroos to polar bears Simples
umm roadkills not really salvageable, natural deaders arent found till they stink.
the stupid shoot n drop idea just means wild dogs dingos n foxes n feral cats breed up faster and create their own massive problems
Made from hydrocarbons by slave labor in China as Loydo and Griff cheer them on.
“Commercial shooters kill roughly two million wild kangaroos a year to profit from the trade in their skins, despite the availability of alternative fabrics that are of similar or better quality.
Better quality than Kangaroo leather?? I had a pistol holster made in Sydney in the mid 60’s. Used it for several years there. Since moving to Arizona I’ve worn it on a daily basis over the past nine years. It’s holding up very well thank you. A man-made substitute – not going to happen.
“I wish someone in US Congress would explain why waves of overpopulation followed by the horrible lingering death of millions of kangaroos from starvation, and depriving people of their livelihoods, would be a better outcome than a bit of active land management.”
First it’s kangaroos, next it’s cows.
We have a progressive socialist Congress now, so expecting them to act rationally is asking a bit too much.
Yes, most folks in the states do not understand how kangaroos die in the wild. Basically, they wear their teeth down enough so that they cannot eat and then die of starvation.
Just tell the US congress, that kangaroos fart
I suspect that there is a virus circulating that attacks the brain. Its effect can be demonstrated by people voting for Democrat candidates.
“U.S. Representatives Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., this week introduced the Kangaroo Protection Ac …”
Don’t let your confirmation bias get too far ahead of you Clyde.
You listed two Democrats…
It will not protect kangaroos. It will just mean that there will be no commercial use for the millions of culled ones. They will just be left in the paddocks to rot.
All you have is conformational bias, Loy-dumb
Its your modus
CONFORM, COMPLY, like the good little marxist prat that you are.
test em for leptospirosis
they reckoned that half the UK so called alzheimers sufferers were actually Lepto caused brain damage
Not to worry, our official US congressperson do-goobers clearly know much more about kangaroos than you callous and uncaring Aussies. I have no doubt that they are aware of the starving roo problem and will appropriate many hundreds of millions of US tax-payer dollars earmarked for kangaroo feeding programs. Smart Australian farmers will soon be contacted by professional US government grant proposal writers. I’m sure that there will soon be far greater profits in feeding surplus roos than in mundane activities like raising sheep.
Just wait ’til the Congersmen find out that all those sheep eventually die! The lamentation, moaning and shrieking will shatter Nancy Pelosi’s lectern.
Same for Humans as has happened in China,Russia,India,Asia,Middle East,Sth.America and of course Africa where it will get far worse .
Primitive minded governments produce primitive outcomes .
Does that include Kangaroo Impeachments?
“What’s that you say Skippy”—– “The USA has gone completely and collectively mad”
” What,— you think the Kangaroos can stand on their own two feet, and President Biden can ask his Senators to just look at his hairy legs, and stop worrying about ours”
Ok Skipp, I will pass that message on. 🙂
More from the party of unintended consequences. There’s no end to their virtue signaling.
It bipartisan virtue signalling.
Fitzpatrick is a rino, and pa has become a liberal shithole nearly as bad as the people’s republic of New Jersey. You are a shill for the CCP, and you toss crap the same way your partner Griff does. You’ve never contributed an intelligent thought to a conversation on WUWT or most likely anywhere else.
Yeah, my party demonstrated that it has seven idiots today.
Clueless as always , Loy-d’oh
Hilarious that you can’t recognise a RINO when you see one.
This wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with a trade dispute between the Aussies and some other country? Or some tech giant or other? Nah. Surely politicians have more integrity than that.
<sarc>
Being from New Jersey USA I can appreciate the term road pests. We have what I call New Jersey’s giant rodent the deer
Hell, in Texas we have feral pigs too. A friend totaled her car hitting one, and had the nastiest looking air-bag bruises.
Here in Australia kangaroos are a protected animal already. It is an offence to harm them in any way other than by license. They are not at all rare or endangered but there you go. I think about 3 million a year are culled each year in New South Wales alone. The product from this goes into petfood mainly but you can buy some for human consumption. The meat is much like venison. I don’t know about the USA but here just about everything is protected. For instance fruit bats which are a plague animal. When I was a child they were everywhere having come from Queensland into the southern states in plague proportions. I vividly remember seeing the sky go black at sunset as they arose from their nesting sites on the north coast of New South Wales. They have colonies of about 300,000. If humans grow crops animal populations will expand greatly and feed on those crops. If we are not allowed to control these populations then we are in a lot of trouble. My expectation is soon blowflies will be protected.
Mike, fellow Aussie here. Thanks for mentioning that the Kangaroo industry is already highly regulated and very humane. It appears that this action in the USA is more about positioning for the banning of other meat product industries into the future. Cattle and sheep may be in the focus of these zealots in the near future.
The only thing rare about Roos is the level of cooking.
Very lean. Don’t over cook it.
dont UNDERcook it either !!medium at the least and let it sit n rest before eating ill be as soft as rare
remember theyre wild not wormed etc and as ALL game the meat should be cooked through
A quick word to potential US visitors to northern Australia. Crocodiles are protected. Tourists are not. If the sign on the river bank says “Don’t swim here” – don’t.
Clown wars 🤣🤣🤣😱😱
I’d much rather see a ban on Climate Alarmists — especially the “angry” ones — but then again, our freedom of speech laws allow them to make fools of themselves … https://newtube.app/user/RAOB/I97sm2D
The rep from California is too far over the edge to deal with.
The rep from Penn … what the hell is wrong with him? Is he in a goofy district, where he needs to pander to stupidity?
If there are 24,000,000 (low 2011 est.) kangaroos in Australia and they live 12 years (high end est) then by rough half ass estimation (something the ‘sustainability nutballs’ would do) there would be 2 million dying every year. Without management the population can spiral out of control (like rabbits); even with culling and management a current estimate is 45,000,000.
In a couple of bad years & no food/water maybe 20,000 could die. Starvation, dehydration, etc..
(mebbe the rep from California needs to recognize this and modify his bill; “If lack of commercial use of Kangaroo meat/skins results in an impending massive die-off at some point in the future, the USA shall apportion $5,000 per potential dying Roo (not to exceed 25 Billion) to mitigate for the unintended consequences of our virtue signalling.)
id like to drop these two into some nice dry roo habitat in drought and leave em for a week
I am very leery of googling anything politically charged or anything that might have to do with ‘social justice’ but …
When I google to find out the attitude of Australia’s aboriginals toward the kangaroo cull, the first page is all stories about how the aboriginal elders oppose the kangaroo cull.
Is that really the case?
Canada had a similar problem with the seal hunt. It’s gone. The Canadian version of the problem is that the over population of seals is responsible for the decline in cod fish. Unsurprisingly, the environmentalists will argue against that.
Before Dr. Mann’s fraudulent (as admitted by him due to adverse inference) hockey stick, I would have called myself an environmentalist. Now my default position is to assume anything said by an environmentalist is a lie.
Defund Greenpeace and all their fellow travellers.
I believe Canada banned kangaroo products years ago. I can’t buy kangaroo hide hunting boots because we Canucks are woke. And stupid.
Now, now. You make Moosehead and Molson.
And LaBatt and Kokanee and Alexander Keith’s and…
just think of what you do get right.
That’s right. All of which may explain why Canada has so many liberal voters. Stupid comes in bottles and cans. People shouldn’t drink and vote.
Not all Liberals are as stupid as Talks with Unicorns (Pete Waterhole Jr.). Jean Chretien ran a very responsible fiscal house. The old joke is that the Liberals run from the left but govern from the right. Sometimes that’s actually true.
By the same token, not all Conservatives are very smart. Instead of Tax and Spend, some of them at all levels of government do Don’t Tax but Spend Anyway. The CCF/NDP often did a better job of balancing the budget.
I realize we don’t get to vote for the PM directly but … I would vote for Erin O’Toole before I would vote for Justin Trudeau. I would seriously think of voting for Christia Freeland before Erin, if only because she’s smarter than him or Trudeau and she knows what a s__t storm the Soviet Union was. Anyone who’s tempted toward socialism really has to understand the history of Marxism in the 20th century.
And then there was Kathleen Wynne. Darn. Now I’ve gone and upset myself.
I have kangaroo hide cycling shoes. Carbon soles, kangaroo skin uppers, really light and comfortable.
you could buy online from Aus?
get a mate to send em as a “gift”
sure a few of us here could arrange that for you
Sure, but buying boots without trying them on is a risk. The point is why are they banned here? Like much in this country, it’s nonsensical. And whoever was mentioning beers made here, well, there’s beer and there’s beer. The brands you apparently like….says a lot….
You can find an Elder to say anything about anything.
What people don’t realise is that Roos pre 1788 were a minor species. They are boom and bust drought animals. When there is drought they simply stop breeding. Female roos can place a pregnancy in status if food levels are not good enough.
Then, once the waters run and the grass grows green they can restart the pregnancy and out pops the baby. The mother roo can then be pregnant, have a new born on a nipple and an older joey being semi mobile.
They breed like, well, Roos.
So pre 1788 they boomed and busted, but after European’s arrived they started to regulate water supply by building dams. Hence roos discovered they had a much greater supply of water and the bust cycles became shorter.
Roos owe their numbers to European settlement.
The regular water supply largely consists of small on-farm dams, along with sub-artesian bores, ground tanks and tapping into the Great Artesian basin with much of inland northern NSW and southern Qld covered by grids of bore drains.
Feed is certainly a limiting factor on an inter-annual basis, but regular summer water is a major aspect every year.
Paradoxically, some of the more productive farming and grazing areas on the black soil plains of NSW and Qld would have been rather inhospitable to the Aboriginal nations because of the lack of reliable water away from the rivers and creeks.
Next, cow hide..
And everything will need to be made from oil-based synthetics.
there was newsreel footage likely from Australia in the 50s showed farmers looking at a field the other side of a fence that was literally blanketed with rabbits as far as could see.
Rabbit numbers in Australia are nowadays managed by a team of the most experienced biological warfare scientists ever assembled. We’re all grateful, but I really hope those guys are getting all the TLC and marriage counselling they need.
Roos look like big rabbits.
(at least that’s what the weekend spotlighter hunters used to claim)
thatd be the Rabbit proof fence. its still being maintained as even with calici etc theyre STILL in large numbers
and we have a dog fence too for Dingos
bunnies here breed up bigtime calici is released they drop for a few mths then the young that survived are rebreeding fast
More than a few years ago in winter in a rental vehicle I came around a corner on our way to see roo tracks in the snow in the Snowy Mountains and had to avoid a big dead red one. Was told later convention was to pull it off the roadway, but was more than I could handle anyway. Saw more run over wombats though. Somebody is not teaching proper biology these days about reproduction.
How about a ban on shoes made by children, Uyghurs, and other Communist slaves? Are people less valuable than kangaroos?
Next step: import live kangaroos and dump them in rural America as part of “rewilding”. We already have restrictions on housing, farming, ranching, forestry, and other rural activities to “protect” Hungarian grouse, Chinese pheasants, Nepalese chukars, Mexican turkeys, and Canadian wolves. Why not kangaroos, too?
It should reported as US favours artificial fibres produced by the oil and gas industry. And does nothing to stop hunting US native animals.
There should be no real difficulty finding a suitable synthetic replacement, derived from crude oil, for kangaroo skin — unless the petroleum industry is destroyed by the climate zealots.
Around these parts we have Canada geese which are so adaptable and lazy that they no longer bother to fly south for winter, they just hang out wherever there is access to grass and issue copious amounts of goose kr@p, and of course it is a huge sin to accidentally hit one while they are taking their fat lazy time to walk across streets and roads. Their nickname is “web-footed vermin”.
They are lovingly refered to as sky-rats in southern Ontario.
/honk/
We have them here in Georgia too. I think we killed off all the predators that caused them to migrate in the first place.
Hey, I have an idea. Why doesn’t Australia import some serious predators to level the playing field. I have in mind African lions, Bengal tigers. Cheetahs would be excellent, I’m sure they can outrun kangaroos. Nice cuddly leopards. Sleek black jaguars. Face it, those dingos just aren’t up to the job of keeping the kangaroo population stable; snatching human babies is more their thing.
The professional kangaroo hunters could learn to code once their jobs vanish.
I mean, it’s not as if introducing exotic species has ever had unintended consequences, has it? /sarc
The natural predator of Roos are humans and medium-sized canines. (Dingos)
We used to have a type of large, smooth-haired dogs, colloquially referee to as “Kangaroo Dogs”. Of course, wild dogs killing kangaroos is ok, but domestic dogs killing them is somehow evil and depraved.
lotta roo dogs still around wolfie/deerhound/dane/ greyhound x
I own 5, but in Vic Im NOT allowed to let the dogs loose
of course if theyre on my land..oopsie
Its already happening – feral house cats are rapidly growing into creatures you wouldn’t want to meet on a dark night. The cats are rapidly evolving to fill a vacant ecological niche – a feline carnivore big enough to take down a kangaroo. Australian wildlife people are totally freaked by them.
Must not forget to mention the cane toad, rabbit, foxes, camels, donkeys and goats – all introduced species which have virtually no natural predators. Foxes tend to focus on rabbits and so do eagles and dingos which sort of makes a minor impact on populations depending on wet seasons and droughts. Australia now has the world’s largest populations of “pure bread” camels and goats. Australian camels are quite sort after in the Middle East and so are goats for their meat. As for rabbits, they are much smarter survivalists than the white coat brigade and their clipboards.
Aussie crows finally figured out how to eat toads, they flip them open and gut them. All the poison glands are on their backs.
Crows are spread throughout the world and are frequent visitors to my back yard, no doubt attracted by my neighbours chooks. Also forgot to mention feral pigeons (as opposed to native top notch pigeons), starlings, sparrows and the spread of feral deer which have greatly increased in numbers in south eastern Australia.
pigeons must be in cities as Ive seen damned few rural since I left SA here i did keep am as outside alarm systems in a nest on my porch
only seen maybe 6 top knots here in SW vic in 14yrs
At least those deer are good to eat, make for a great hunt and often sport racks that make a nice trophy.
I think we need to ban cockroach products (even though I love my cockroach belts). The slaughter of innocent cockroaches has reached epidemic proportions. Time to act. The cockroaches should be collected and delivered to the animal’s rights organizations.
That reminds me of a story I heard from a friend who was mineral collecting in northern Australia. Their party entered an abandoned mine tunnel, where they observed a dead snake. Upon their return, the snake carcass had been reduced to bones by the cockroaches.