
They Shoot Kangaroos - swimduck
http://www.outsideonline.com/2037071/overrood-behind-scenes-australias-surprising-kangaroo-conflict
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emmelaich
Surprised the headline is truncated; it's a reference to

    
    
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Shoot_Horses,_Don't_They%3F_(novel)
    

It's a pity kangaroos have to be culled but it's a fact of life.

Aside - our family had a magnificent kangaroo rug made from animals that Dad
had hunted. Still had a few bullet holes.

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suprjami
More appropriate title: Idiots get in the way of government environmental
sustainability engineers. Those engineers are removing a pest. Let them do
their job.

~~~
tomellis271
Here here.

To non Australians, they seem like cute puppies that bounce, but in reality
they're a huge pest and terrifying when they appear out of nowhere on the
highway.

~~~
suprjami
When driving from Kalgoorlie (a remote mining town in the middle of the
desert) to Perth (the capital city in that state) one must complete the 6 hour
drive across featureless plains during the daylight hours only.

Trying to drive at night will result in kangaroos approaching your headlights,
then your passenger vehicle is hitting a 200lb (90kg) mammal whilst driving at
70mph (110kmh) which is never going to end well.

~~~
tomellis271
Yowch! Even with bull bars, that's never going to be fun

~~~
rangibaby
Aren't they called roo bars in Oz?

~~~
ehnto
Both, depends on your pedigree I think. I hear either as much as the other.

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ps4fanboy
Some animals you can kill, some you cant, the hypocrisy of people. If this
article offends you, think about where you live and how many animals used to
live there, or the amount of deforestation caused to make your food, be it
vegan or not.

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abandonliberty
Kangaroo hides don't have sweat glands and the proteins have more width-wise
linkages compared to cows.

This makes their leather very strong, even when thin, which makes it a prized
material in protective wear like motorcycle gloves where it provides far more
feel.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_leather](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_leather)

>Although most species of macropod are protected from hunting by law, a small
number of the large-sized species which exist in high numbers can be hunted by
commercial hunters

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dstyrb
"Fletcher goes full kangaroo, drooping his head, hunching his shoulders,
dangling his hands from his chest and zigzagging slowly forward."

This is my new dance, the 'full kanga.'

~~~
abandonliberty
You never go full kanga.

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dools
Stopped reading at the word "radicalized"

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pvaldes
"pest tag", the most useful thing since the sliced bread. Justifying all our
destroying ecosystems dreams since the dodo, moa and tasmanian tiger.

Buy now the "pest tag" argument and take to your home also the "but, there is
still lots and lots of tuna" and "nobody thinks in the billions of cattle
killed by wolves each saturday" tags for free.

~~~
cromulent
They are very different to your examples of dodo, moa, and tasmanian tigers.
Before European settlement, the population was largely limited by water
access. With farming, there are numerous small dams across the landscape and
irrigation. The population has exploded in the last 200 years.

~~~
pvaldes
Oh, I'm not consider myself a total jerk, but let me show you now some
interesting examples of what we could call the gray 'pest business' area:

In the North of Spain the iberian subspecies of gray wolves are strictly
protected but still can be legally culled in special cases. The wolf was
extinct in the basque country about 1950 and after the law any recently
extinct native species must to be reintroduced ASAP. For some strange reason
this is translated as an active minory supported by the government killing
actively any wolf daring to enter in the autonomous community, splitting
effectively the normal distribution area of an endangered species in two
northern subpopulations since them. The press often show photos of the local
hero smiling with the killed animal because, as they remember us constantly,
"wolves are vermin".

[http://www.eldiario.es/norte/euskadi/inadmisible-sector-
mino...](http://www.eldiario.es/norte/euskadi/inadmisible-sector-minoritario-
determine-Euskadi_0_252325104.html)

Now wild boar damages are so high and _kill so many people_ in crash cars,
that the same basque government is _buying wolf urine_ with the hope to keep
the boars out of the roads. Doing the less possible with the maximum money of
the taxpayers.

Out of the basque country, wolf cubs and adults are also being culled
systematically inside national parks. Yes, is a National Park and cattle have
_all_ priority over pests. Inside our particular northern yellowstone you can
see domestic goats, sheeps, thousands and thousands of cows, and even roaming
free pigs and chicken. We have also some old trees, zero saplings of three
years, and I can guarantee that you will have a hard time finding an exposed
grass of more than 6 mm high.

No one of the spanish National Parks is thinking seriously about to
reintroducing the locally extinct wolves. No matter how high the prevalence of
bovine tuberculosis in wild boar and wild roe deer.

Scotland: No trees growing naturally. 100% sappling mortality unless
barricated. European Lynx reintroduction is out of discussion; not even in
isolated islands or as a single experiment. Blocked forever by the powerful
"pest card" by farmers and hunters. If we could ask the scottish plants its
definition of pest, they will probably say "sheeps, sheeps roaming free
everywhere".

Cougars in Argentina: Kill it with fire. Yes, they are protected. Salmons and
minkes in argentina: not pest; dollars. Free pass to all lakes and streams,
even if some native species, err... sorry, native pests, will be extinct in
the process.

(to be continued...)

~~~
pvaldes
Second part: Show me the money

" _In 2000 Asturian sheep farmers put in compensation claims for more sheep
killed by wolves than actually existed in the Principality_ ".

The two last spanish ministers of _environment_ had repeatly tried to convince
Brussels that all was plenty of wolves so they should be hunted _also in the
south_. Each year between 140 and 300 wolves are tendered to hunters

[http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/03/27/inenglish/1332871020_305...](http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/03/27/inenglish/1332871020_305012.html)

And here is this bright jewel of internet sarcasm that you surely will enjoy:
Lets save the relict population of tasmanian wolves in Andalusia:

[https://scontent-mad1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-
xlt1/v/t1.0-9/s...](https://scontent-mad1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-
xlt1/v/t1.0-9/s720x720/12308629_10207824033867164_4933404281340245142_n.jpg?oh=43e8fc2ffb4a8a93af5b7cf53cbb9adb&oe=56F20938)

 _Although there is no proof, in the last decades, of thylacine presence in
Andalusia, it is estimated that 8 reproductor groups can be still survive in
Sierra Morena._

 _The project perspectives are good, is easy to harmonize the interests of
hunters and livestock keepers with a species that do not exists._

 _We want to improve the social perception of tasmanian tigers among citizens.
No reintroductions, or real measures against the causes of their extinction
are planned._

The context of this is about the new 12 millions of euro granted to "improve
the social perception" of wolves in the South of Spain. Since 2012 not a
single iberian wolf was caught in the trap cameras deployed to census the also
hightly endangered lynx, but Spain said this year in Brussels that there are
50 iberian wolves in two subpopulations instead, the same number as in the
last 30 years. A growing number of people think instead that they are locally
extinct by now

[http://infoandalucia.com/ii-plan-de-recuperacion-del-lobo-
ib...](http://infoandalucia.com/ii-plan-de-recuperacion-del-lobo-iberico-en-
andalucia)

Even if one or two wolves miraculously remain they will be highly hybridiseed
with feral dogs currently. But as long as Brussels do not ask inconvenient
questions about why Spain is not just taking some of the 300 auctioned wolves
that will be hunted in the North and traslocate this animals to the National
Parks in the South for a small fraction of this money, all will be OK.

As I said I'm not a total jerk. I do not mind if some kangaroos need to be
culled as long as is done correctly. Is the common rethoric what is a problem
to me, because often it just covers an abuse or a scam (I'm not saying that
this is the case here).

If Australia need to keep off kangaroos out of children play areas, I'm fine
with the idea. Maybe some strategically situed realistic statues of dingos or
thylacines could do a much better job for less money. Who knows?. Children at
least will enjoy it. Just lets try it and see what happens.

