EU powerbroker has roo meat in her sights

PAOLA TOTARO AND RACHEL OLDING

February 6, 2010

A HIGH-PROFILE campaign to ban kangaroo meat and products throughout the European Union is being backed by the prominent British politician who single-handedly brokered and won the controversial EU ban on all seal products.

Arlene McCarthy, a veteran Labour member of the European Parliament, told the Herald this week that she was resolutely targeting the $270 million kangaroo meat industry.

Speaking from Brussels, Ms McCarthy said that the new law banning the sale of seal products in Europe had come into force this year and followed the ban on cat and dog fur in 2008.

"These campaigns take time but the European Parliament is now looking at the issue of kangaroo products. The clear message is that the European Parliament acts when citizens raise their voice,'' she said.

"Thousands of citizens are now calling for action against the cruel trade in kangaroo fur and meat and I am confident that the Parliament will act. This is a cruel trade … every year, 440,000 joeys are pulled from their pouch when their mothers are left to die.''

The push, which comes just six months after Russia placed a ban on kangaroo meat after concerns of contamination with E.coli bacteria, has also received an unexpected fillip from the former Polish prime minister Professor Jerzy Buzek, who is the president of the European Parliament.

He said the campaign was ''important and valuable'' and wished it every success in encouraging ''as many EU citizens as possible to support'' the project''.

Philip Woolley, the British-based director for the European ''440,000 Joeys'' campaign, said more and more high-profile actors, writers, politicians and artists were joining the drive to ban what he described as Australia's ''dark and dirty secret''.

Recent recruits include Dame Judi Dench, the Aboriginal elder and storyteller Francis Firebrace, British marathon runner Fiona Oakes and the British actress Liza Goddard, who was one of the early young stars of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.

''This is one of the most important campaigns that has been mounted against the killing of kangaroos in Australia,'' said Mr Woolley. ''An industry that says it works humanely yet does not completely check on the killings cannot claim that it operates in this way. Every kill must be a head shot and when animals are skinned in the bush, no one checks. Killed animals are delivered to processing plants headless, so how can these kills be confirmed as correct?

''When adult animals are killed, leaving defenceless young to fend for themselves, they are brutally killed with a boot to the head or a lead pipe brought down on them; how can this be humane?

''It is about time that the world and particularly the EU knew about this dark and dirty secret which the Australian Government doesn't want anyone to see, let alone talk about. The lives of these young animals have to be saved and the only way is to stop trade in kangaroo products in the EU. This campaign aims to do just that.''

Dame Judi Dench said: ''As a lover of animals and their welfare I am pleased to add my name to the many others across the world who are supporting this very worthwhile campaign. Cruelty to any animal is barbarism and killing a joey after killing the mother is totally unacceptable.''

Supporters of harvesting, such as the UNSW ecologist Professor Michael Archer, say kangaroos are culled humanely to keep over-population in check.

The industry argues it has strict regulations governing the method of killing kangaroos and less than 20 per cent of animals culled are females and the RSPCA supports the industry's code of conduct.

Last month, the federal member for Parkes, Mark Coulton, said a ban in the EU had the potential to ''decimate'' the industry. He accused opponents of conveniently ignoring problems caused to Australia's fragile ecosystem by kangaroos.

''It is very misguided, and with the nation's kangaroo export industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year, it is also potentially very damaging,'' he told the Daily Liberal newspaper.

Ray Border, the director of Macro Meats, which is the largest processor of kangaroo meat for domestic and international markets, said 10 per cent of his company's exports went to the EU, generating about $4 million.

''It would be a dent but it would not destroy us,'' he said.

''We look at Europe as being one of the biggest consumers of game meat in the world.''

The executive officer of the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia, John Kelly, was unfazed by Ms McCarthy's reputation as the first chairwoman of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee and her position as the vice-chairwoman of the EU's powerful Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee.

''We would expect that the EU Parliament would respond and make decisions on science rather than any sort of emotion. We've been monitoring [the campaign] for six months along with the Australian Government and we're not aware of there being any serious attention to it in the EU.''