Eight people were arrested for
trespassing on the site of Canberra's
controversial kangaroo cull yesterday,
the third day of the killings. An
ACT Policing spokesman said four
men and four women entered the
site at about 9am and lit a small fire.
Police officers asked the group to
leave, and when they refused
arrested them for trespassing on
Commonwealth land.
The eight people were escorted
peacefully from the site. The offence
carries a maximum penalty of $1100.
Protesters at the gates yesterday said
the eight people were indigenous
elders reclaiming the site as traditional
land, and that the fire was
ceremonial.
Meanwhile, Defence reported that
in an apparent attempt to interfere
with the kangaroo cull, trespassers
had cut internal fences at about
11pm on Tuesday night.
Defence spokesman Brigadier
Andrew Nikolic said six kangaroos
had been released from the recovery
yard.
''[This] was dangerous given that
the animals were partly sedated and
following release, could have
drowned in the dam,'' he said.
''These particular kangaroos are
part of Defence's fertility control
project and were not to be euthanased.''
Animal Liberation ACT
spokesman Bernie Brennan said he
did not know of any protesters
trespassing on the site, and he did
not condone such action.
''We've told people to stay out,
because it's just counterproductive
to what we're doing,'' Mr Brennan
said.
''There's nothing to gain from
releasing kangaroos from the recovery
pen, because they're the ones
being saved.''
He said he was ''cynical'' about the
latest Defence claim and wondered
why police officers had no incident
reports of either allegation.
One of the protesters, Coralie
Letica of Queanbeyan, said she had
not seen any protesters enter the site
and there had been gaps under the
enclosure fencing of about 45cm
from which a kangaroo could have
escaped.
But a source dealing with
kangaroos within the site said it was
''very unlikely'' the kangaroos would
have created the gap. Mr Brennan
said Animal Liberation had sent
''graphic footage'' to www.livenews.com,
an international news
website, of kangaroos stumbling and
hopping into trees as they recovered
from being tranquilised.
The on-again, off-again cull finally
began on Monday, just over a year
since Defence first announced it
planned to kill 400 eastern grey
kangaroos at the site, out of a total
population of about 600.
Environmentalists believe the
kangaroos are threatening
endangered species such as the
Perunga grasshopper and the striped
legless lizard.
RSPCA executive director Michael
Linke said he was satisfied the cull
was being carried out as humanely as
possible.
Defence expects the cull to take
two to three weeks to complete.