November 30th 2010

How did kangaroos stop being wonders of the Australian bush, becoming only good for food or sport?

Why do conflicting opinions abound about how many kangaroos Australia should maintain and how many we can sustain, if these animals are intensively harvested in the wild for meat? Despite industry reassurances, do kangaroos and their pouch young suffer cruelly at the hands of hunters?

Based on cutting-edge UTS research, this public lecture addresses the contentious issues of harvesting and eating kangaroos as a means to protect the environment and examines the laws and regulations that govern the well-being of one of our most treasured national icons.

Dr Dror Ben-Ami
During his 15-year research career, UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures Associate Dror Ben-Ami has maintained a focus on wildlife, conservation biology, road ecology and kangaroo and wallaby ecology. He has researched the Eastern Grey Kangaroo in north-western New South Wales and was a postdoctoral research fellow in wildlife disease dynamics at Israel's Ben Gurion University. Dror now works with the Sherman Group in developing environmental technology investment concepts and conducts research with the UTS kangaroo think tank - THINKK.

Keely Boom
Keely Boom is a research fellow with THINKK and an animal rights expert. Her research focuses on the law and policy governing the killing of kangaroos. Keely was the first intern to be taken on with animal protection institute Voiceless and served as an intern with the legal unit of Greenpeace International in Amsterdam. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Wollongong and is Executive Officer of the Australian Climate Justice Program.

Resources

• flyer (PDF 74k)
• audio recording (MP3 33.3 MB)
• presentation slides - Shooting our wildlife (PDF 746 k)
• presentation slides - Advocating the consumption of kangaroo meat (PDF 749 k)
• video (Opens video presentation) A transcript is available.

UTSPEAKS: is a free public lecture series presented by UTS experts discussing a range of important issues confronting contemporary Australia