Moree district man fined for illegal roo shooting
Media release: 5 November 2008
A Moree district man has been fined $4,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of $500 after illegally shooting 104 kangaroos in NSW and reporting they were shot in Queensland.
The man was charged with one offence of harming protected fauna under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974, which is administered by the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC). The sentence was delivered in Moree Local Court last week.
Between April and June this year, the man shot the 80 eastern grey kangaroos and 24 red kangaroos on a property near Garah. Although the man had a licence allowing him to shoot kangaroos, the licence did not allow him to shoot kangaroos on that property.
The man attached tags to the carcasses indicating they were shot in Queensland and sold them to a Queensland meat processor.
DECC North West Director Joshua Gilroy said his department had prosecuted several people this year in relation to shooting kangaroos illegally.
"The culling of kangaroos for commercial purposes is a regulated process in NSW and Queensland as they are a protected species."
"A quota system is in place to ensure species numbers in specific zones are kept at ecologically sustainable levels."
"Shooters are only allowed to kill kangaroos according to the conditions of their licence and the tags they have been allocated, one of which must be attached to each carcass."
"These tags indicate which species was authorised, who shot them and where they were killed."
"DECC will not tolerate breaches of these strict licence conditions," he said.
Contact: Jacki Roberts