James Grubel, Reuters 14 Mar 08;
CANBERRA (Reuters) - As protesters prepare to disrupt a planned cull of kangaroos, an Australian government report on Friday found kangaroos have an image problem when it comes to marketing them as a source of meat.
The report said the kangaroo industry needed to do more to explain how wild kangaroo "harvesting" was humane, sustainable and good for the environment and not related to pest control.
"It needs to separate itself from the culling for pest management that often attracts strong emotional responses from the community and creates images of poor quality control," it said.
The report by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation comes as protesters prepare to blockade a planned cull of about 500 kangaroos from a military base on the outskirts of Australia's capital, Canberra.
Authorities say the cull is humane, and needed because the kangaroos are threatening other species due to over grazing. But animal rights activists want authorities to catch the kangaroos and move them to another state.
Australia has about 60 million wild kangaroos, and has allowed the sale of kangaroo meat for about 30 years. The industry generates about A$200 million ($190 million) a year and employs more than 4,000 people.
About 3.5 million wild kangaroos are shot each year for their meat, although the government has set a quota which would allow that to increase to up to 6.9 million kangaroos.
Kangaroo consumption has increased over the past decade, with 58.5 percent of Australians saying they have tried prime kangaroo cuts at least once and 14.5 percent saying they eat it four times a year or more. Other cuts are used widely in pet food.
Kangaroo meat remains in demand in Europe, particularly in Germany, where it is used as a low-fat component of smallgoods, but smallgoods manufacturers in Australia have shied away from using the meat.
The government report said while kangaroo meat was lean and healthy, the public, meat manufacturers and retailers had little knowledge that kangaroos were harvested from the wild and kangaroo meat did not come from farms.
The report said none of the respondents to its latest survey new that kangaroo meat came from wild kangaroos.
"I assume that ... obviously it is farmed (although you would need a pretty high fence to stop the buggers jumping over it!) and transported to a slaughter house, then vacuum packed," one respondent told the survey.
(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
