A kangaroo leaping through a rising (or, more appropriately, setting) sun is the new symbol encouraging us to see Australia in ‘a different light’. We’re invited to pat a koala and see penguins parade but cavorting with kangaroos doesn’t get a mention. The reason, according to Dr David Croft, University of NSW, is an almost complete absence of these once abundant animals: “Many an outback tourist will lament that of the few kangaroos they see, the majority are roadkills”.

This unique animal is facing one of its greatest crises as numbers collapse due to over exploitation, drought and bush fires. Meltdown of the species isn’t impending any more, it’s happening and if policies continue as they are, the logical outcome is extinction for some species. This is precisely what Viva! predicted when it first began its campaign against the import of kangaroo meat and skin into Britain some years ago.

This year, 4.4 million beautiful and majestic kangaroos - Australia’s national emblem – are earmarked for obliteration. Out of view of tourists, these gentle marsupials are hunted down at night and shot. Baby ‘joeys’, useless to the industry, are torn from of their dying mothers’ pouches and stamped on, decapitated or simply left to die.

It is Government policy to encourage the commercialisation of wildlife with a claim of sustainability. “There are more kangaroos in Australia now than when Australia was first settled”, it says. A recent report leaked to the Australian press exposes this claim as bogus. The Government knows that the annual slaughter it approves is unsustainable - there are no longer enough kangaroos to satisfy commercial demand. A recent severe drought and devastating bush fires have exacerbated the problem and kangaroo numbers have collapsed. The Government’s response has been to open up new areas of the country to the killing industry.

Viva! has fought a long campaign against this barbaric industry and scored an important victory when we persuaded all the UK’s big supermarkets to dump kangaroo and other ‘exotic’ meats. The use of kangaroo leather in Europe and the US, however, is still widespread. Companies like Adidas, who use it to make football boots, have refused to respond to ethical concerns, preferring to profit by using cheap kangaroo leather.

As always, there is an answer. Australia’s tourist industry is worth $70 billion annually and wildlife safaris, viewing large mobs of kangaroos in the wild, could swell this figure enormously. It has barely been tried and the Government has wasted the massive tourist potential created by hosting the Olympic Games. For short term political reasons it has chosen to support the killing industry, which is worth less that 0.3 per cent of current tourist revenues.

Tell the Australian Government and the tourism industry why you won’t even consider visiting their unique and beautiful country whilst they continue to butcher their wildlife here.