Australians told to eat more kangaroo as population hits double that of humans
Kangaroo is one hell of a pest in Australia. It&#x27;s a native, which made it illegal for the general populace to hunt in the early 2000&#x27;s (this doesn&#x27;t apply to Australian Aboriginals). Non-Aboriginals who want to hunt them have to go through tedious multi-day &quot;ethics&quot; courses on about how you should and shouldn&#x27;t hunt them, and even after that your options are limited and the process is ridiculous.<p>Unfortunately this has led to kangaroos reaching plague proportions. They destroy farms, tear down fences and generally be a nuisance. You can barely drive through rural roads without breaking a sweat in case a kangaroo jumps in the way of your car.<p>The problem here is multi-fold.<p>The location issue:-<p>1. Due to Australia&#x27;s sharp weather, areas could suddenly fall under drought which would result in a sharp decline in kangaroo numbers.<p>2. As a result of this, kangaroo culling is disincentivized in other areas even though there is an uptick rather than a decline.<p>The species issue:-<p>1. There were originally about eight distinct breeds or so of kangaroo, but things like hunting and drought has reduced the numbers of those species dramatically.<p>2. The outcome was to limit the amount of kangaroo culling so as to not affect other breeds.<p>3. As a result, overall numbers haven&#x27;t declined - rather they have sharply risen - and certain breeds have &quot;muscled out&quot; the at-risk breeds.<p>Firearms laws in Australia:-<p>1. The Australian government banned most firearms after a massacre in 1996.<p>2. The Australian public has since come to find guns &quot;dirty&quot; and Australian lawmakers (coincidentally, those belonging to the same parties that outlawed hunting of kangaroos) do not want to promote firearms (even in a licensed, limited fashion)<p>3. Promoting the culling of these species would run counter to their political discourse for the last couple of decades.