Landowners in the ACT are killing far too many grey kangaroos every year, according to the animal protection campaigners, Humane Society International Australia.
The organisation said that about 7000 of the creatures were slaughtered in the territory every year by farmers and other landowners.
These are in addition to the kangaroos killed in the official culls.
People who own or work land are allowed to apply to the ACT government for permission to kill kangaroos which threaten or damage crops, pasture or fencing.
Under this arrangement, Humane Society International said in its report "Licence to Kill" that nearly 20,000 eastern grey kangaroos were killed by private landholders in the three years from 2021 to 2023.
In 2023, for example, 12,489 killings of eastern grey kangaroos were licenced by the authorities while 6529 were reported as having actually been killed.
One of the report's authors said that landowners could do more to prevent the damage kangaroos did to crops or property rather than resorting too easily to killing them. Kangaroo gates could be introduced, the author, Evan Quartermain, said.
These gates allowed kangaroos to get through a small, low gap, too small to be usable by stock rather than damaging a fence or crop.
Mr Quartermain thought that ACT farmers should undergo a "cultural change" so that they tolerated animals more and reached for the gun less readily.
He wanted landowners "to recognise that these animals have existed for millennia on these landscapes and that we need to move towards existing with them rather than remaining in perpetual conflict".
"It doesn't have to be an us versus them mindset," he said.
He accepted that the ACT was not as easy with regulations as other places. The ACT requires a person to pass shooter accuracy or species identification tests, for example, while other jurisdictions do not.
The report said that the ACT "is different to other jurisdictions in that it only allows private landholders to kill eastern grey kangaroos for 'damage mitigation' purposes, not other animals. Despite this, the government advised that it does not require landholders to demonstrate that non-lethal methods have been trialled before a licence is sought".
The report concluded, referring to the national situation: "While each state and territory have some good policies in place, the laws that allow private landholders to kill native animals are in desperate need of improvement.
"The current systems are too lax and characterised by too much discretion, flexibility, and too many exemptions which allow human convenience to be prioritised over the protection and conservation of our native wildlife.
"Our assessment is that the laws are too permissive and allow for the widespread killing of native wildlife while treating conservation and welfare with complacency if not contempt."
