If you’ve already sent your emails with the ‘1-click campaigner’ you may have had some responses back. Reading these you might be forgiven for thinking kangaroos live in some kind of perfect idyll. They do not. Use our myth buster to strip away the PR-spin and see what really lies behind those claims.

Myth - Kangaroos are in plague proportions

Kangaroos have never been a plague. They have been wiped out in many regions. In others, their numbers build up in order to withstand the regular droughts which wipe out half the population. Kill quotas for 2004 are 4.4 million, (a lower figure than previous years only because the government has had to acknowledge the sheer number of kangaroos who are dying in the drought that Australia is currently in the midst of). The official quota ignores joeys, road deaths, illegal and non-commercial kills. This annual death toll could amount to 10 million - a patently unsustainable figure. Many believe that pre-European population there were hundreds of millions of Kangaroos in Australia. The figure is so low now – and the vested interests in a ‘cull’ so ingrained – that extinction is a very real threat.

Myth - Killing kangaroos helps preserve them

The kangaroo massacre destroys the process of natural selection. The repeated targeting of the 'alpha' males, the largest and fittest animals (who provide the industry with the big skins they want), means younger, smaller animals are left to breed, weakening the gene pool. "This has the potential to cause the extinction of a number of species". (Dr Ian Gunn, Animal Gene Storage Resource Centre of Australia.) Australia has the worst wildlife record in the world - six species of kangaroos extinct, four more extinct on the Australian mainland, 17 species endangered or vulnerable.

Myth - The killing is strictly controlled

No one monitors, let alone controls, the killing in the field. Kangaroos are shot at night in the vast outback, far away from public scrutiny. The Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos, which hunters are supposed to adhere to, is a guideline document, not a law, and is not even linked to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. In order to obtain a licence to kill kangaroos commercially, all hunters have to do is read the Code, 'understand' it, and pass a one-day marksmanship course. "Shooters often have a thorough contempt for the law. They commit cruelty on a regular basis." (Dr John Auty, veterinary scientist and former Chief Agronomist).

Myth - Kangaroos are killed to save the environment

Kangaroos are an integral part of Australia's environment. They have evolved to live in harmony with the fragile landscape and often hostile weather conditions. Destruction of the environment comes from 160 million hard-hoofed sheep and cattle.

Myth – Farming Kangaroos is the ‘green’ alternative

In an effort to justify the annual ‘cull’ of kangaroos, incredible as it may seem, some people are even suggesting that farming kangaroos is the environmentally friendly alternative to farming sheep and cattle. Even if you take away the moral implications of farming kangaroos it is unrealistic to even consider it. Kangaroos cannot be herded. Fencing kangaroos would also be dangerous and cruel. Kangaroos live by their fright/flight reaction. They flee from the slightest disturbance. If there was a high fence in the way of a mob who were frightened there would be horrific accidents. Stress for kangaroos in captivity, or semi-captivity, is the major cause of death. Those being farmed would have an extremely high level of stress. Only about 10% of a kangaroo is ‘useable’ for meat. In John Cameron's Recovering Ground, he concludes that the kangaroo industry could only ever provide 0.5% of Australia's current meat production. The really green alternative to sheep and cattle farming is to not eat meat in the first place.

Myth - Kangaroos destroy wheat crops

A four year study by CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation) found that 95 per cent of wheat crops are never visited by kangaroos. Yet farmers and the Australian government still refer to kangaroos as pests. "Pests is an emotive word. It conjures up visions of animals destroying crops. I can think of no situations where this is likely to be true for kangaroos." (Dr. Graham Arnold, CSIRO) In fact, commercial killing takes place in the outback where crops are never grown.

Myth - Kangaroos compete with sheep for grazing

A six-year study by Dr Steven McLeod (NSW Agriculture) - the biggest ever undertaken - examined whether red kangaroos affected sheep farming. It found that there was no competition for food between sheep and red kangaroos and that the presence of kangaroos had no negative impact on the number of lambs born to the flock, nor their size.

Want to find out more? You can read online Viva!'s shocking and persuasive report on the killing of kangaroos for meat and skin in Under Fire.