A New South Wales (NSW) man has appeared in the Raymond Terrace Local Court today after being arrested by a police rural crime prevention team in the state’s Hunter Valley after 98 kangaroos were found shot to death on Singleton Army base.
He faces six charges, including aggravated animal cruelty, discharging a firearm on the base, trespassing on Commonwealth land, and harming or attempting to harm protected animals.
Joey Pace, 43, of Williamtown, is also accused of failing to ensure his rifle was kept safely when police searched his property in December of last year, when they allegedly seized three firearms, and not having approved storage for ammunition.
Magistrate Gregory Moore ordered that his licence be suspended.
Kangaroos are protected in all Australian states and territories, though landholders can apply for a Permit to Destroy Wildlife to manage them. Most states also allow commercial culling if numbers get too high.
Aboriginal people also have dispensation to hunt kangaroos for their own consumption.
Carcasses And Ammunition Boxes Discovered
Police were called in to investigate after the dead kangaroos, as well as an ammunition box and two cartridges, were found on the Singleton army base on Oct. 8, 2024.Pace refused to comment outside court.
Moore adjourned the case to Aug. 26 for a hearing, continued Pace’s bail, and ordered police to send his lawyer the brief of evidence against him by May 1.
World Animal Protection claims that even the commercial shooting of kangaroos should be banned as they are “sentient beings who can experience a wide range of emotions, from joy to pain.”
The group claims that, despite their protected status, kangaroos are the subject of “the largest slaughter of land-based wildlife in the world.”
“About one-third of the kangaroos killed commercially are females,” World Animal Protection says, “leading to the deaths of around 400,000 joeys each year, who are often in their mothers’ pouches. They are then killed by methods such as ‘blunt force trauma,’ which means having their heads bashed in.
“Years of data show that kangaroo populations don’t rely on manmade water sources like farm dams. And in fact, their grazing helps the environment by promoting plant health. Despite this, the industry continues to justify the shooting of kangaroos under the guise of ’reducing grazing competition with farmed animals,'” the group claims.
Kangaroos are “responsibly sourced in small numbers at a time by skilled, qualified shooters” the group says, and studies of kangaroo populations have found no long-term impacts resulting from more than 30 years of commercial harvesting.
