Wildlife Victoria is outraged over the recent kangaroo cull at the Puckapunyal Military base near Seymour in Victoria, questioning whether non lethal methods have even been applied.

Spokesperson for Wildlife Victoria Manfred Zabinskas said "Culling is fast becoming an old fashioned and inhumane approach to wildlife management.”

After exposing the Department of Defence's secret cull last week, the Australian Society for Kangaroos ASK, are demanding recent copies of the Management Plan, the onsite Annual Kangaroo Census and the Vegetation Condition Assessment Report.

Australian Society for Kangaroos says the public has a right to know why protected species are being killed and want the opportunity to be able to get a full independent examination of the evidence Defence has to support a culling program.

The unknown numbers of kangaroos on the 40,000 ha site are captive behind an outside boundary farm fence and an inner 6’ electrified fence.

The Department for Sustainability and Environment stated that “The kangaroos at Puckapunyal are at risk of starvation and the most humane option possible has been chosen to reduce the number of kangaroos to a sustainable level. This is occurring under a management plan, which has been developed for the site, Puckapunyal has significant environmental values, which are under threat from overgrazing.”

But Wildlife Victoria member Fiona Corke and spokesperson for ASK said, “We have been out patrolling the huge site every afternoon and night since Friday 18/12 and will continue to do so.

From what we observed and through high powered binoculars the grass is knee high in the open pasture areas, the kangaroos looked very healthy. But we also saw a lot of introduced grasses like Phalaris Grass, which is toxic to kangaroos, and lots of Coffee scrub which is an over abundant native plant and plenty of rabbits and hares.

Not to mention that there is likely to be contamination on site from years of detonated explosive devices, and yet it is the kangaroos that are being blamed and killed for habitat loss and destruction and because they ‘might’ starve. I urge anyone to go to Puckapunyal and look for themselves, it doesn’t make sense.”

As Department of Defence or the Department of Sustainability and Environment is yet to confirm the number of kangaroos killed Wildlife Victoria volunteer rescuers have been working with the Australian Society for Kangaroos in patrolling the perimeter roads ready to rescue any kangaroos that may become victim to fence entanglements or road trauma and provide them with immediate medical care.

As an experienced wildlife rescuer and carer of 13 years Mr. Zabinskas has observed many kangaroos in grief and said “Kangaroos fleeing gunfire are at increased risk of injuries such as getting caught in fencing in their bid to escape and because the fences are electrified this poses a horrific death."

"These kangaroos will be traumatised by the experience, they form extremely strong social bonds within their mob and this will leave them grieving for their mate or missing family members.

Joeys can become separated from their mothers during the panic and spend weeks crying out in their desperate attempt to reunite with their mums. Many of those mums won’t be there after the cull. This inhumane practice must stop; it is no longer acceptable to the Australian and international public."