Meatless Monday: UK supermarkets pulling kangaroo meats off shelves

The last remaining UK supermarket to serve kangaroo is pulling the product off its shelves after public pressure.

Animal rights group Viva! called the move a victory in its long-standing kangaroo campaign with Lidl pulling the products and ending sales in kangaroo meats.

Lidl marketed “deluxe kangaroo steaks” as nutritious and inexpensive and Viva! said consumers were unwittingly buying into the “largest slaughter of land based wildlife in history.

Although no statistics are currently available on the number of wounded animals the Australian RSPCA estimates that 100,000 adults are inhumanely killed with some temporarily surviving with horrific wounds, such as shot off jaws.

Latest ‘harvest figures’ from the Department of the Environment and Energy have 6.9 million kangaroos earmarked for slaughter in 2018 but this does not include the millions of baby kangaroos (joeys) that are simply thrown away. The Australian Government’s own guidelines insist on clubbing or decapitating joeys, as they cannot survive without their mothers. Many will and do escape but later die from predation.

Viva! says it’s a common misconception that kangaroos are farmed. They are completely wild, which means populations fluctuate massively – and can be especially impacted by factors difficult to predict, such as drought and disease.

Since kangaroos are a slow-breeding marsupial with low reproductive rates wildlife experts are concerned that turning them into just another commodity is not only cruel but also unsustainable, according to Viva!

The organization has been campaigning against the sale of kangaroo meat since the the early 90s and achieved numerous successes in removing sales from TescoSainsbury’sSomerfield (now Co-Op), MorrisonsIceland and now Lidl.

Founder and director Juliet Gellatley says the organization has campaigned on the issue of kangaroo meat for the past 25 years.

The novelty value of so-called ‘exotic meat’ has been masking the true horror of a brutal business for too many years. As always, Viva! remain committed to supporting Australian wildlife groups to end the bloody trade and celebrate the kangaroo for its unique and iconic status in Australia.”

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Peg Fong is also in recovery from newspapers

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