Supporters of British animal campaign group, Viva! - dressed in bush hats and kangaroo costumes - will hold a demonstration calling for an end to the killing of kangaroos for meat and leather at the Australian High Commission, The Strand, London, WC2, on Thursday, November 22 at 11.30 am.

Demonstrators will hand in a string of tens of thousands of postcards sent to Viva! by British people demanding an end to the slaughter. A large, mounted demand for an end to the cruelty, signed by many of the UK’s leading celebrities, will also be presented. They include Paul McCartney, Jerome Flynn, Twiggy Lawson, Joanna Lumley, Hayley Mills, Carol Royle and Jeremy Cunningham (The Levellers). Even Australia’s Mr Macho, reptile expert Steve Irwin, has thrown his weight behind the campaign. They are supported by almost all Australia’s wildlife and animal welfare groups - more than 40 in total - who will hold co-ordinated actions across Australia.

The slaughter quota for this year is 5.5 million animals and amounts to the worst massacre of wild animals in history. Many are females and more than a million baby ‘joeys’ will be removed from their mothers’ pouches and tossed aside to die from predation or will be beaten to death with iron bars. When these deaths, road kills and illegally slaughtered kangaroos are included, the kill total amounts to more than 10 million animals, from a population estimated at between just 19 and 30 million.

Viva! has already persuaded all Britain’s major supermarket chains - 1,500 stores in total - to dump ‘roo meat but some bistros and restaurants persist in selling it, mostly as steaks or burgers. Walkabout Inns, with 23 Australian theme pubs, is now the last remaining retailer of any size in the UK.

Viva! intends to export its successful campaign and has formed a coalition of groups in Europe, Australia, South America and the US to target the major purchasers of meat and skins. A detailed report on the trade, Under Fire, will be translated into several languages as will new posters, leaflets and a video of the killing. Viva! has also set up a dedicated website - savethekangaroo.com

Viva!’s director, zoologist Juliet Gellatley has recently returned from a fact-finding visit to Australia and says: “Australia has the worst record in the world for the destruction of wildlife but it has learnt nothing from its past mistakes. It is allowing its meat industry to dictate the fate of a unique animal for the sake of foreign currency earnings. The British Government is complicit by allowing imports, which are unhygienic and potentially dangerous, while swallowing the Australian High Commission’s sales patter, which is patently untrue.

“Not one of the reasons given for killing kangaroos stands up to scientific examination, as the latest research from New South Wales shows” continues Ms Gellatley. “Australia has turned its outback into a slaughterhouse by promoting a barbaric, red-necked killing bonanza which is destroying the ecological balance and threatening the long-term survival of many species. The lesson this offers to less-privileged, developing countries is clear - ignore science, morality and public opinion and kill your wildlife for profit. It is a potential disaster for wild animals, 75 per cent of which are already in serious decline or are facing extinction.”

Actor Jerome Flynn dismissed Australia’s promotion of kangaroo meat and its attempt to justify the slaughter as ‘immoral clap trap’ and added: “Throughout history, humans have destroyed other animals for their own self-interest with threadbare justifications. They have all ended in disaster. This massacre is no different and the Australian government would be better employed tackling the growing number of man-made disasters which are destroying that country’s environment rather than scapegoating kangaroos.”