I was thinking they could have set up a temporary abattoir on the Island, round them all up, via the “Mata Hari’s” etc, put them down humanely, then process and sell the meat.
There’s a good market for it, and it would have offset it’s own cost, perhaps even make a few dollars to help with rehabilitation of the natural habitats.
Its a good idea but the cost, shipping etc would be extremely high and the abbottoir would have an environmental footprint too.
There’s certainly a need to be smarter about these things, though. I still cant believe that kangaroos culled in victoria are not permissible to be used for human consumption.
As someone who’s had a bit to do with wildlife and wildlife health, I wouldn’t go near roo meat even if the roo meat/culling industry wasn’t an ethical sewer chock full of sadists.
We know NOTHING about the pathology and parasitology of roos. Nothing. Last i heard, the standard textbook on ALL australian mammalian wildlife vet science was a single book by CSIRO that covers every species from whales to bandicoots to bats to echidnas. By comparison, simply on sheep or cats - single species - there are multi-dozen volume sets. Roos could be carriers of ANYTHING. I know as a matter of certainty that there is at least one unidentified disease that every so often scythes through roos in Melbourne’s northern outskirts like the black death. I’ve heard unconfirmed reports that horses have died from it too - and if it can leap one species, it can leap another. And people serve roo meat RARE ffs. It’s a disaster waiting to happen. Any sort of microbe or virus could be transmitted, and if it does we have no idea what to look for because we know utterly nothing. Hell, I actually have my name on the scientific paper identifying an-unknown-to-science roo virus, simply because I happened to be called out to help with the rescue of the particular sick roo that it was cultured from. And this was only a couple of years ago, random sick roo (that lingered a long time before dying like the rest of its mob already had). There could be ANYTHING out there, any virus, any parasite, and people are making wild meat into ■■■■■■■ tartare or carpaccio or serving it as rare steak!
Utter madness. Wild meat is where AIDS came from, it’s worth remembering…
Ah ■■■■ it, I liked roo meat too.
HM don’t know wether to thank you or curse you. But I suppose lamb is better than the AIDS.
I find that statement to be very homophobic.
You read too many books. Come out the farm, il shoot a roo, gut it, and we’ll have roo steak Sangas
i used to as well, before I got into wildlife work.
Nah, I’ve seen too many mobs of roos scattered all over paddocks, choking out their life on ■■■■■■ brown froth from their mouth and nose, with masked and gloved vets standing by who simply had no damn idea what the hell was happening.
Can you put some in a jar so I can spread some fkn disease for them here so they stop trampling our fkn crops. Ammo is expensive these days
Some valid points, HM re disease risk. The real danger is probably in symbiotic carrying of a virus /microbe rather than a fatal pathogen to the host animal since by definition it stays symptomatically hidden.
But I’m more concerned with failures/delays in hygene and processing - and most specifically monitoring for said failures- than endemic pathogens, tbh. Roo has been eaten by humans for a long long time.
I also suspect that Siv transfer was more about the slaughter environment and methods than consumption , but of course no one knows. Ebola on the other hand appears linked to both. We could REALLY take the thread offtopic down that track, lol.
Im in two minds as to whether confined, intensive farming or wild game populations are more likely to result in mutated zoonotic risks to humans. To argue against myself though, The obvious endgame of that thinking is that a kangaroo industry inevitably HAS to move towards farming and abboitoir practices, and therefore perhaps true game meat should only be used by those who have killed it and can therefore evaluate its suitability on the spot.
Its actually a very complicated and fascinating topic, lol.
Kangaroo tartare anyone?
I eat kangaroo a couple of times a week. Thanks HM 
If you really must, make sure you have it well done!
You eat Skippy ? You are off my Christmas Card list !
What about Bambi and Bugs and Donald ?
Those characters are all delicious when correctly prepared.
Especially Bambi.