In May 2018, SHIFTING VALUES hosted the Austrian premiere of the stirring documentary “KANGAROO – A Love-Hate Story”. The movie shows Australia’s ambivalent relationship with its popular national animal and reveals disturbing scenes from the world’s largest terrestrial wildlife hunt.
Far more than 1.5 million of these marsupials, once honoured as iconic animals of an entire continent, are shot every year to end up mainly as dog and cat feed or in the fashion industry, but increasingly also on plates for human consumption, particularly in Europe. However, the number of unreported cases of hunted animals is far higher. The official shooting quota was set at 6 million animals per year.
Good news for all those who have missed the cinema show but would like to contribute to raising awareness and to protecting kangaroos: The DVD is available now!
CONTENT
On the one hand, the kangaroo is an extremely popular icon for logos of brands or sports teams as well as for souvenirs, and serves as invaluable, charismatic mascot for Australia’s tourism marketing. On the other hand, these marsupials are considered a pest by many people and often get brutally killed, especially in the darkness of the night and far away from civilization. Many scientists are concerned about the regional extinction of certain kangaroo populations. In spite of all this, official figures about the number of animals killed are lacking, even though the Australian government supports the kangaroo hunt.
Where does the ideology come from that these animals, which have existed on the 5th continent for millions of years, should be a problem or even a national plague? Which interests are behind this? The meat of the animals ends up in ‘gourmet’ restaurants or in the feeding bowls of dogs and cats. The leather is partly used for shoes, bags and belts. Europe is considered to be the main consumer of kangaroo products. The documentary unsparingly reveals the background and actuality of kangaroo hunting and lets people from different interest groups and professions have their say: Scientists, farmers, hunters, politicians, artists and animal welfare activists comment on the shituation.
