Animal activists stop roo cull
By Patricia Karvelas
July 15, 2004
A CULL of Canberra's starving kangaroos has been put off for two days, after animal liberationists threatened to come between the marsupials and the shooters.

Environment ACT had begun shooting the animals on Sunday night on the grounds they were polluting water supplies and facing starvation in the drought-ravaged area around Googong Dam.

But animal activists yes terday vowed to prevent the culling of up to 1000 kangaroos, saying they were prepared to risk their lives to stop the shooting. Animal Liberation said it had placed about 10 people in the nature reserve surrounding the dam to disrupt the culling by a commercial shooter.

Pat O'Brien, president of the Queensland-based Wildlife Protection Association, flew to Canberra to try to persuade the ACT Government to suspend the night-time cull, due to be completed by the end of the month. "Our bottom line is that we're going to stop this commercial kill."

ACT Animal Liberation spokeswoman Simone Gray said yesterday's meeting between animal activists and the ACT Government gave her organisation a chance to come up with alternative solutions.

"We feel like the whole dam has been mismanaged ... and now these thousands of kangaroos shouldn't have to pay the price," she said.

About 150 have been killed so far, according to Environment ACT. An Environment ACT spokesman said while they were still committed to the cull, they decided it was best to give the activists time to see the facts.