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Talks on plan to cull kangaroos postponed

Defence officials deferred talks with animal activists about a plan to shoot more than 3,000 kangaroos on the fringe of Australia's capital, prompting the conservationists to claim yesterday their campaign to stop the cull was working.

  • AP
  • Published: 00:00 May 25, 2007
  • Gulf News

Canberra: Defence officials deferred talks with animal activists about a plan to shoot more than 3,000 kangaroos on the fringe of Australia's capital, prompting the conservationists to claim yesterday their campaign to stop the cull was working.

The Defence Department wrote to animal welfare groups yesterday to cancel a meeting planned for today to discuss the cull, saying the talks were "probably premature" and that other options were being considered.

"Defence is still considering the available options for kangaroo management at both sites," the department's regional manager Larry Robbins wrote to the groups, without elaborating on those options.

Furore

Defence sparked a furore when it applied early this month for local government permits to hire professional shooters to cull the kangaroos. It said the animals are in plague numbers at two sites the department owns on Canberra's outskirts, and threaten to eat themselves and other animals into starvation.

News of the rethink was welcomed by Pat O'Brien, president of Wildlife Protection Association of Australia, which has as its patrons the family of the late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin.

O'Brien suspected the department was backing down because of hundreds of complaints directed at Defence Minister Brendan Nelson in an election year since the cull plan was revealed earlier this month.

"I'm sure there's been a lot of political flak flying around the place over this, so they're rethinking their options," O'Brien said, adding it was too early to claim a complete victory.

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