In my veterinary career I have spent much time working with and advising farmers [and have farmed myself] and I freely accept that sometimes pest animals have to be culled. In fact, I believe there should be more culling of feral pest animals such as rabbits, foxes, pigs and cats.

Mr Sullivan seems to be forgetting, however, that council has already tried getting shooters to cull kangaroos near Mount Panorama. One time this was announced to the public and the other attempt was tried in a clandestine fashion behind the Mount.

Both attempts failed to dent the population much at all and there was a big increase in frightened kangaroos rushing on to roads and causing more traffic hazards than before.

Council also had to contend with a vast amount of negative publicity for these actions with even overseas media asking why kangaroos were being shot to hold the world famous Mount Panorama car races.

Since that time there has been more subdivision near the Mount and when the harness racing track opened below it, they soon had 50 or 60 kangaroos appearing on the track in the evenings.

It is now quite common for kangaroos to appear in people`s backyards.

It seems that Mr Sullivan is advocating that he or a bunch of Rambos get into theses suburban blocks or the race track and start blasting away. To me it is glaringly obvious that the use of firearms in such close proximity to domestic animals and humans would cause extreme risk.

So although I agree with Mr Sullivan that the population of eastern grey kangaroos is not threatened in this area at present, the project that these volunteers have set up is offering a solution that should reduce the ’roo population more efficiently, should be safer to the people around the Mount and will be more ethically acceptable to the Australian and international press.

The volunteers have put in an enormous amount of unpaid hours into this project and have also received financial support from council and individuals and businesses in the town.

It has been essential to tempt the animals into a compound where they can be safely darted for sedation and transport and already this has greatly reduced the numbers of animals on the roads and the trotting track.

I believe this will be the biggest relocation of kangaroos ever attempted in this state and if it is successful will reflect some very positive kudos on Bathurst Regional Council and the community.

The volunteers’ work will also have relevance to projects involving other animals that might be facing extinction [e.g. koalas, some wallabies, wombats, Leadbeater’s possums, Tasmanian devils and more].

After criticising the project for many weeks, Mr Sullivan this week derided the use of radio collars on some animals. Might I point out that this requirement was forced on the project by the Sydney office of National Parks [now called OEH] as a condition of approving the licence to move the animals.

Mr Sullivan has continued to criticise this project without suggesting a safe, humane or even economically viable alternative.

I give him a “thumbs down”.