Australia has excessive protections for its kangaroos

In the US, regulations vary from state to state. Some states make a distinction between protected species and unprotected species. Significantly, in the US a large number of small animal species are classified as either varmints or game. Hunting big game in the US is also broadly legal but typically requires a "tag" for each animal harvested. Tags (to limit numbers shot) must be purchased in addition to the hunting license, so that hunting is available on a sustainable basis. Big game that can be hunted in the US (inter alia) include deer, moose, elk, caribou, bear, big-horn sheep, boar and bison.

Returning to kangaroos, the conservation lobby in this country regularly puts forward some rather unrealistic (and often contradictory) suggestions. One school of thought suggests that Australian farmers should cease running cattle and sheep, and graze kangaroos instead because kangaroos have a lesser environmental impact (which is probably true). This suggestion, however, overlooks that there is a very limited low-value market for most kangaroo products (the Russian market for kangaroo meat has largely collapsed), while animal rights activists are busy trying to destroy all existing export markets for kangaroo products.

Animals Australia is typical of those who take an extreme position. Even where there is a proven case of severe damage due to an overpopulation of animals, it is opposed to shooting as a means of control. Animals Australia instead advocates only non-lethal methods of population control (such as fertility control) and then only in respect of introduced species. This is despite that such measures are extremely expensive and don't work very well.

Back in 1997, in response to over-population, male kangaroos within the grounds Government House in Canberra were given vasectomies in order to control their numbers, with the aim of protecting the flora of the grounds (secured by high fences on one side and Lake Burley-Griffin on the other). The fertility-control solution did not work because unvasectomised male kangaroos swam the lake to impregnate the frustrated female kangaroos in the enclosed grounds.

Re-location of surplus kangaroos is also commonly suggested as an alternative to shooting but (besides being expensive, and traumatic to the animals concerned) there are few obvious places to receive the unwanted roos.

In rural areas farmers are often frustrated by "conservation-minded" owners of bush blocks, who may have no interest in any agricultural business and instead declare their land an "animal sanctuary". There can be a "beggar thy neighbour" effect from such sanctuaries, in that the owners often have no interest in maintaining fences, that are regularly damaged from kangaroos making their way nightly to neighbouring grazing properties (to eat out the neighbours' improved pastures). The "sanctuary" commonly may also provide refuge for noxious animals and weeds. While most farmers like to see some wildlife, they don't like to see huge numbers of kangaroos descending on scarce pastures or an emerging crop, during a drought or a tough winter.

In summary, it should be both legal and acceptable in this country to kill and eat a kangaroo (or harvest its skin), just as our Indigenous fellow-Australians have done since time immemorial, and as the Americans and Brits do in respect of their abundant native species. In our drought prone nation it is also humane to keep populations of some major species (eastern grey and red kangaroos in particular) from reaching unsustainable levels.

When it comes to wildlife, Australia seems to have an obsession with things "native". The belief seems to be that "native" equals "good", whereas an exotic species is "bad". I wonder whether Australia would tolerate the spread of saltwater crocodiles that has occurred in recent decades, if they were regarded as an introduced animal?

Finally, instead of regularly criticising the gun culture of the US, we should admit to the extremism in some of Australia's own anti-gun culture. I am of course referring to a significant minority of our population, that refuses to admit that shooting is the most practical, economic, and humane way of dealing with over-population of animal species, especially the kangaroo.