Subject:

Salutation:

Australia's assault on its national icon is disgraceful. Wildlife culls are permitted to take up to 10,000 kangaroos per night. Where is the Australian government's moral compass? Please stop authorized culls and commercial kills. I urge officials to respect and accommodate indigenous wildlife with more national parks, nature reserves, and protected land corridors for animals to get there. In Australia, the internationally beloved kangaroo has become an article of trade -- to buy and sell by way of violent death. A 4/23/09 Daily Telegraph report says "tens of thousands of joeys will be decapitated, shot or clubbed to death" under government orders to open commercial shoots across a generous swath of New South Wales. The National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies advises that babies found in a slain mother's pouch be decapitated with a sharp blade; clubbed with a metal pipe; or slammed against a firm object. Older joeys are bludgeoned or shot at point blank range. Hunters spotlight kangaroos in the outback at night. They aim for their brains, but often miss and leave kangaroos with gaping head and mouth wounds. Along with nearly four million kangaroos commercially killed each year, hundreds of thousands of joeys die hideously. I respectfully ask the government to phase out its consumptive use of kangaroos and consider eco-tourism instead. Plainly stated, Australia's largest known slaughter of land wildlife is sickening. Thank you, <YOUR FIRST and LAST NAME> <YOUR ADDRESS <YOUR COUNTRY>