Commercial kangaroo killing: Why experts are calling for an end

Image credit: Suzuha Kozuki / Unsplash

Scientific evidence shows that kangaroos are sentient beings who have the ability to experience a wide range of emotions, from joy to pain. Yet the commercial kangaroo industry continues to exploit them for their skin and flesh.

With your support, World Animal Protection has recently collaborated with over 80 organisations to endorse a Global Declaration addressing the Kangaroo Welfare Crisis.

In this declaration, together, we’re demanding immediate and strong action to stop the commercial kangaroo killing and calling for an end to the cruel trade of their body parts in Australia and around the world.

The declaration also highlights the fact that this barbaric industry engages in the largest slaughter of land-based wildlife in the world. Moreover, it uses inhumane killing methods such as shooting kangaroos at night. Almost half of the shots fired at kangaroos are inaccurate, leading to the prolonged pain and suffering of many millions of these animals.

About one-third of the kangaroos killed commercially are females, leading to the deaths of around 400,000 joeys each year – who are often in their mothers’ pouches when they’re shot by hunters. The joeys are then killed by methods such as ‘blunt force trauma’ which means having their heads bashed in.

A government-commissioned study into the ‘humaneness’ of the commercial kangaroo industry revealed that the methods used to kill joeys often do not cause an instant death. It also revealed that shooters rarely track down and kill co-dependent joeys after their mother is shot, leaving them to endure a slow death of starvation, dehydration, predation, or exposure.

Years of data show that kangaroo populations don’t rely on manmade water sources like farm dams. And in fact, their grazing helps the environment by promoting plant health. Despite this, the industry continues to justify the shooting of kangaroos under the guise of ‘reducing grazing competition with farmed animals.’

Independent, nationally representative surveys conducted in Australia and Europe (Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands) in 2023 and 2024 revealed that a majority of the public does not support commercial kangaroo killing.

It’s time to put an end to this cruelty. Together, we’re urgently calling on the industry and the Government to stop the commercial exploitation of kangaroos.