Australia Environment Minister David Kemp has angered environmentalists by agreeing to allow 6.9 million kangaroos and wallabies to be killed for commercial purposes this year. The figure represents a 1.5 million increase over past culls of Australia’s national symbol. State governments had requested an even larger increase, saying the kangaroo population was on the rise. But environmentalists criticized the increase, arguing that kangaroos have minimal impact on agricultural production and that the rate of slaughter is unsustainable. Australia’s kangaroo industry is worth $104 million per year, largely in exports.
