Kangaroo cull to increase with restriction on harvesting licences axed

“This means we have a chance to grow the kangaroo processing industry by over 86 per cent within the current and sustainable quota that already exists,” Minister for Regional NSW John Barilaro said.

Mr Blair and Mr Barilaro announced the change on Thursday morning. Mr Barilaro said lifting the cap will encourage more companies to start processing kangaroo meat, but will not affect the current quota of kangaroos that can be culled each year.

“The cap was an outdated concept based on historic commercial arrangements under the Kangaroo Management Program,” Mr Barilaro said. “NSW was the last remaining state to have the cap in place."

The move was welcomed by the Pastoralists' Association of West Darling's president Lachlan Gall who has been lobbying for the cap to be lifted for two decades.

He said it would allow new players to enter the commercial kangaroo industry and increase the number of kangaroos that are taken by commercial harvest.

While there were 11 licensed harvesters, there had only been seven processors, which had limited the options for companies to sell their products.

The decision is bound to pit those campaigning against kangaroo culling against many NSW farmers and others who say shooting starving kangaroos is more humane than letting millions of animals die a slow death.

The decision coincides with the opening this month of a controversial new movie called Kangaroo: A Love-Hate Story after heated responses from viewers in the United States.

A review by showbiz magazine Variety said the provocative movie "drilled deeply into the complex question of why Australia's beloved and iconic creature is also regarded as a dangerous pest that must be slaughtered and turned into everything from fancy fashion products to pet food and gourmet cuisine".

Mr Gall argues that city dwellers who argue that culling kangaroo numbers is inhumane have not seen kangaroos dying from drought.

"The alternative to death by shooting is death due to drought, which is animal cruelty on an industrial scale. People who don't experience it first-hand cannot possibly have any idea of how distressing it is to see mother nature assume the role of population controller," Mr Gall said.

In western NSW near Broken Hill, Mr Gall said there are hundreds of thousands of kangaroos that dying from drought.

In 2016, the NSW kangaroo population was estimated to be 14.4 million, and this included only those species that are harvested: the red kangaroo, Eastern grey, Western grey, and wallaroo.

"Clearly an instantaneous death from a shot to the brain is infinitely more compassionate than allowing millions of kangaroos to die, as a result of drought conditions across the state," he said.