Source: The High North publication, "The International Harpoon," July 3, 2000, published during the 52nd Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission held in Australia
“Greenpeace along with more than
35 Australian and American conservation groups, has committed itself to ending
the kangaroo slaughter,” the magazine of Greenpeace USA, the Greenpeace
Examiner, proclaimed in 1983. What happened to this commitment?
The Greenpeace Examiner article was written just after
the US had reopened its market to kangaroo products. Bringing “the largest
kangaroo importer world wide” back in business, “has caused the level of
both legal and illegal killings to skyrocket,” it reported.
Greenpeace gave little credit to Australia’s kangaroo
management program: “Some 3 million kangaroos are killed legally each year in
Australia; illegal killings are thought to double that amount.” Greenpeace
also reported that Australian conservationists disagreed with the government’s
1982 estimates of 19 million kangaroos; “they say there could be fewer than 10
million.”
And Greenpeace pointed out that if the US opened its
trade doors on a permanent basis, “the result could be the depletion of all
three species” targeted by the hunt. Well, the US trade doors are open on a
permanent basis. But nothing more has been heard of the Greenpeace kangaroo
campaign since the late ’80s – not even an announcement that it had come to
an end. Perhaps improvements in Australian kangaroo management have convinced
them to put it on hold?
Not according to an article by Greenpeace Denmark,
submitted to the newspaper Informationen in 1986. This article made it clear
that kangaroos deserve the same treatment as whales, and should not be subjected
to commercial exploitation. Stated Greenpeace Denmark: “Greenpeace...
announces its opposition to the commercial trade of kangaroo products on
ecological and moral grounds ... We are against the kangaroo slaughter because
... it represents the extreme lack of respect shown in our management of nature
and we, on a purely moral basis, find it nauseating.”
Is Greenpeace still nauseated by Australia’s kangaroo
carnage? Only Greenpeace knows the answer, but they’re not telling!
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