The 2025 target kill for Kangaroos in the Canberra / ACT park system is more than double the 2024 target and nearly triple the 2023 target. 2025 is the third largest kill since 2015 and is likely to result in the killing of an additional 1,073 joeys in 2025 (based on the last three years actuals @ 36 per cent). The cruelty is staggering, as is the concealment from the public gaze of what is being done. The last minute announcement of the details attempting to limit protests and complaints.

Remember that Canberra is the inventor of ‘ecological grazing’. That is remove the soft footed and gentle native and protected animals and then introduce cattle to eat down the grass. How bizarre can this get?

The 2025 'Kangaroo management operations' will start on 10 June 2025 and be completed by 31 July 2025. Sixteen reserves in the ACT will be closed during this time. Approximately 2,981 Kangaroos will be culled.

“Carcass use: Where possible, carcasses, or parts thereof, are made available for Indigenous cultural use. A proportion of the Kangaroo meat is processed into baits for use within the ACT Government wild dog and fox control programs. There are no commercial Kangaroo harvesting arrangements in the ACT. Given the relatively low number of Kangaroos being culled, and the high costs of establishing, administering and monitoring a commercial operation, it is currently not cost-effective for the ACT Government to enter the commercial industry”. ACT Government

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History in numbers

The killing of Kangaroos in Canberra’s public parks and reserves since 2015 (not including joeys to 2021) is as follows:

• 2015 Target 2,466 / Actual killed 1,689
• 2016 Target 1,991 / Actual killed 1,989
• 2017 Target 2,603 / Actual killed 2,592
• 2018 Target 3,550 / Actual killed 3,253
• 2019 Target 4,076 / Actual killed 4,035
• 2020 Target 1,958 / Actual killed 1,931
• 2021 Target 1,568 / Actual killed 1,505
• 2022 Target 1,650 / Actual killed 1,645 plus 608 joeys
• 2023 Target 1,042 / Actual killed 1,041 (533 were females) plus 362 joeys
• 2024 Target 1,336 / Actual killed 1,232 (657 were females) plus 438 joeys
• 2025 Target 2,981 / Actual killed TBA - estimated number of joeys to be killed an additional 1,073

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The road to extermination

Ratio of females to males slightly higher in 2024 (53.3 per cent were female) than it was in 2023 (51.2 per cent). Ratio of joeys to females killed in 2024 (66.7 per cent) was slightly lower than it was in 2023 (67.9 per cent). As a rough calculation we can estimate that 7,329 dependent joeys (in addition to the adults targeted as part of the ‘program’) were killed by the ACT Government in the period 2015 to 2024. The ACT Government likes to claim that the period chosen for their annual nature reserve Kangaroo killing program is at a time when fewer joeys will be caught up in the slaughter. This is not supported by the data that shows very large numbers of joeys are impacted.