Forwarded from the Wildlife Protection Society of Australia
Last week the offices of Animal Lib NSW were raided by Federal and State police. All documents relating to their kangaroo campaigns were seized and confiscated, including computer hard drive contents.
It's believed that a complaint was made (probably by AQIS ) that AL members broke into kangaroo chiller boxes and deliberately contaminated the contents. However, on the Kangaroo Protection Coalition website at www.kangaroo-protection-coalition.com, photos of highly contaminated kangaroo carcases can be seen....clearly in a human consumption processing plant. Workers and equipment can be seen in the background. Swabs taken by AL and WPAA from unlocked chillers during the past 2 to 3 years have identified evidence of extreme contamination, including e-coli and salmonella. Naturally this info has been passed on overseas....and to the Australian Federal Government.
We could be forgiven if we thought we are all living in Russia. Video evidence taken from the Steve Irwin of illegal whaling activities recently confiscated by Rudd Government Federal Police, photograghic evidence of kangaroo contamination, bureaucratic and government complicity, and illegal activity, all confiscated by the Rudd Government...and they.....the Rudd Government..... are supposed to be the "good guys!". Jo Belke-Peterson must be watching from wherever, and laughing his head off! Even his worst environmental excesses didn't come close to what the Rudd Government is doing to cripple community groups who legitimately question bad decisions and questionable government activities! And there's more bad decisions to come.....lots more.......WPAA
Visit the WPAA Website at www.wildlifeprotectaust.org.au
Federal Police Raid (article from SMH)
NSW and Queensland police have raided the offices of the animal welfare group Animal Liberation, seizing documents and computer files in the latest development in a prolonged war over the slaughter of kangaroos and their export for human consumption. The chief executive of Animal Liberation, Mark Pearson, said the warrant specified allegations that members of the group had wilfully contaminated carcasses for the purposes of causing "public alarm or loss", and of breaking into a house for the purposes of committing a serious indictable offence. The allegations, which the group denied, were that group members had set about entering kangaroo chillers - containers in which carcasses were dumped after killing and kept cool before being moved to processing centres - and in the chillers they had put contaminated material to produce adverse quality test results.
Mr Pearson said that had not happened, but there was no need to anyway, because tests commissioned by Animal Liberation and contained in a report by an Israeli-born ecologist and biologist, Dror Ben-Ami, showed high contamination in some samples. Dr Ben-Ami's research, funded by another animal rights organisation, Voiceless, provided a damning report on the industry. He said: "This report exposes the realities of the kangaroo industry, which include extensive and alarmingly unhygienic practices, unacceptable suffering of young kangaroos and the manufacture of false hope that kangaroo harvesting will alleviate environmental degradation … "
The paper, just published, was seized by police last Wednesday. Lynda Stoner, communications officer for Animal Liberation, said nine police, led by a NSW detective senior constable and a Queensland detective-sergeant, spent five hours at the York Street premises. Mr Pearson said Animal Liberation had gone into chillers in the killing areas of western Queensland, but the chillers were unlocked, and all the group had done was take swabs for analysis. The campaign had been effective. Last year the Russian Federation had stopped 70 per cent of kangaroo meat imports, because some of the meat had been found to be contaminated by chloroform. "There were carcasses with E. Coli and salmonella, there was some rotting and antibiotic spray," he said.
Mr Pearson said his initial concern was the cruelty of the shooting, which often did not result in clean kills and the slaughter of joeys. Dr Ben-Ami had taken that up in his report, saying that "every year some 440,000 dependent young kangaroos are either clubbed to death or left to starve after their mothers have been killed". Mr Pearson said the Federal Government was trying to promote the export of kangaroo meat to China. The Herald asked for a response from the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Tony Burke. His media adviser said the matter had been referred to the department. *SMH