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CANBERRA - A desperate appeal to former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney to help to save a mob of kangaroos sentenced to death appears to be doomed.
While kangaroo supporters tried to reach Sir Paul yesterday, the cull of about 400 eastern greys began on Defence land, despite vows by protesters to block the mass killing.
Protesters say even if they are unable to prevent the cull, they will ensure graphic footage is made available to international media that have followed the controversial plans since they were announced a year ago.
Canberra Kangaroo Coalition spokesman Mark Drummond told ABC radio his organisation was trying to contact Sir Paul and other supporters in the hope of raising money to relocate the mob.
"We're not thinking for a moment that Sir Paul should make up all the difference in the cost between whatever Defence feels they are prepared to pay and what it costs to move them."
Sir Paul was one of the leaders of an international campaign to stop the cull, describing the plan as a "shameful massacre" on an animal rights website.
Anger in Britain, Europe and North America has more recently been joined in Japan, where critics have accused Canberra of hypocrisy through its condemnation of whaling while killing kangaroos en masse.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whose Government's decision against funding a proposed relocation programme sealed the Canberra mob's fate, said the two could not be compared.
He said Australia's actions in the Southern Ocean and its opposition to Japanese whaling was based on Tokyo's claim that its whale hunt was carried out in the interests of science.
"Our attitude on whaling goes to the whole nature of the International Whaling Commission and relevant conventions and it goes to whether or not what is occurring is scientific whaling," he said.
The Canberra kangaroos have been condemned because of overpopulation that will lead to slow death by starvation for many, and the destruction of endangered plants and animals.
Almost 600 eastern greys live at the Navy's Belconnen transmission station site, a population density of about 4.4 animals a hectare, more than four times the sustainable level.
A report by consultant ecologists for the Defence Department said feeding the roos probably would not work and would not save a wide range of threatened species of plants, lizards, grasshoppers and moths from overgrazing and loss of habitat.
Despite a long-standing Australian Capital Territory Government policy against moving roos because of further welfare problems, the outcry at the plan to kill all but about 100 forced Defence to back down on the cull.
But the mob's proposed move to open country in surrounding New South Wales ran against federal bean-counters, who refused to hand over the A$3.5 million ($4.3 million) Defence estimated the relocation would cost.
The announcement last Friday of the resumption of the original cull programme, supported by the RSPCA as the only humane and appropriate measure, outraged animal activists.
But despite their plans to blockade the property and prevent the cull, contractors have moved in, erected hessian screens to hide the slaughter, and stacked freezer boxes nearby.
The kangaroos will be shot with tranquilliser darts, and killed by injection of sodium pentobarbitone.
