Animal advocates are preparing for a month-long sit-in and are calling on others to join them after confirmation that the ACT Government will kill 1,568 kangaroos across six nature reserves commencing Sunday 16 May.
“A very small, dedicated group of us will go out every night of the cull and sit in our cars to bear witness together,” said Yana del Valle, Convenor and Delegate for the Animal Justice Party’s ACT Committee.
“We understand it takes extremely dedicated people to do this work, and we urge anyone who is as disgusted as we are by the Labor-Greens Government’s decision to join us if they have a spare hour or two.”
AJP ACT is also organising letterbox drops and a demonstration at the ACT’s Legislative Assembly.
NSW Upper House MP for the Animal Justice Party, Mark Pearson, has praised the local group for their dedication and bravery.
“It’s not easy to bear witness to the suffering of animals enduring horrific cruelty at human hands,” Mr Pearson, a long-time animal activist, said.
“But it’s so important we know what really happens, and stand together against the ACT Government’s annual barbaric slaughter of kangaroos.”
Mr Pearson’s comments come a day after he took to social media share a photo of a kangaroo “death pit”, taken by cull protestors who have found mass graves after the killings.
“Print and TV media deemed the photo ‘too horrific’ to publish,” Mr Pearson wrote alongside the photo”
“But what this photo shows is legal and government-approved.”
Mr Pearson has been campaigning for an end the slaughter of kangaroos for years, and recently successfully lobbied for a NSW parliamentary inquiry into kangaroo wellbeing.
“It may be too late for the 1,500 kangaroos who will be mercilessly killed this month in Canberra, but if we keep the pressure on the governments who allow this slaughter to continue, we will see an end to the killing of our national icon,” Mr Pearson said.
Ms del Valle said Animal Justice Party ACT had high hopes with the recent local election outcomes of six ACT Greens seats that the newly elected Minister for the Environment, Greens Member for Kurrajong, Rebecca Vassarotti, would provide a strong argument against this year’s slaughter.
“Both Labor and the ACT Greens’ continued support for a program that mandates the execution of kangaroos with firearms is deeply disappointing and devastating,” she said.
The Animal Justice Party is also urging people to write to the ACT’s key decision makers about the cull:
Labor Chief Minister Andrew Barr, barr@act.gov.au
Greens MLA Rebecca Vassarotti, vassarotti@act.gov.au
Labor MLA Mick Gentleman, gentleman@act.gov.au
Labor MLA Chris Steel, steel@act.gov.au
AJP ACT has contact Ms Vassarotti’s office numerous times since early February asking for an appointment to discuss a moratorium on the killing of kangaroos pending an independent audit of the impact of the government’s current policy on kangaroos and other species.
Ms Vassarotti has so far been unavailable to meet.
To contact AJP ACT to assist their campaign, email: ACT@animaljusticeparty.org
