Australia's kangaroo industry says moves from two US states to ban the sale of kangaroo products are based on "misinformation" and "false accusations".
Warning: This story contains images that some readers may find disturbing.
In Oregon, lawmakers want to make it illegal to buy, sell, receive, or commercially exchange any product using kangaroo parts.
Senator Floyd Prozanski introduced the bill, labelling the commercial hunting of kangaroos for products as "unconscionable".
The proposed legislation takes aim at sports apparel manufacturers in the state like Nike, Oregon's largest employer, who use kangaroo leather for soccer cleats
Politicians in Connecticut have followed suit, introducing a similar bill in the hope of banning kangaroo products.
In 2021, US Congress failed in an attempt to introduce the Kangaroo Protection Act, which would have banned the sale and importation of kangaroo products.
California is the only US state where kangaroo products are banned after laws passed in the 1970s.
'Outrageous' misinformation led to proposed bills
The Kangaroo Industries Associations of Australia says its sector contributes $200 million to the economy and employs more than 3,000 people.
The ABC has not been able to independently verify this.
Meat products for human consumption and pet food are exported along with kangaroo hides for leather products.
Dennis King is the executive officer of the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia (KIAA) and said activists were spreading false narratives about how the industry worked.
"There's a lot of misinformation being put out … about the way we treat the animals," Mr King said.
"All these false accusations [from animal rights groups] of two million kangaroos slaughtered to make shoes for Nike; that's just outrageous."
In 2022, the kangaroo population across New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, and Western Australia was estimated to be more than 30 million.
The government quota for culling and harvesting in 2022 was set around four million or 14.3 per cent of the known population.
KIAA members will travel to the US soon to meet with embassy officials and politicians to make the case for the importation of Australian kangaroo products.
"We feel it's important that the industry itself gets over there," he said.
"The misinformation that's been put out by these groups needs to be called out and needs to be shown as false."
Concerns for 'snowball effect'
Commercial kangaroo harvester Dan Kempson has been in the industry for 30 years.
He said it regularly came under attack from people outside the industry who did not understand why it was important to control kangaroo numbers.
"Our industry is very easily targeted," Mr Kempson said.
"We are highly regulated … and the facts and figures are there for everyone to read."
Mr Kempson said while bans in two US states would not have a huge impact on the industry, they might influence others.
"I think the bigger picture may be that it's going to be a snowball effect as more states might follow suit," he said.
"That could be devastating for our industry."
Domestic market fears knock-on effect
Townsville-based NQ Game Meats supplies the domestic market with 55 tonnes of raw meat including kangaroo, venison, goat, and wild boar each week.
Director Edward Ramsey said there had been a big upturn in the kangaroo market in the past year.
"We've seen, over our counters alone, new customers every week wanting to try roo, which is a good sign," he said.
But Mr Ramsey was worried any bans in the US might affect the domestic market too.
"It would damage the industry, market-wise, definitely," he said.
"There's a couple of other major companies that do a lot of exporting so if that [US] door shuts that would bring them back to the domestic market, which would flood the market."
Mr Ramsey said any ban would have wide-reaching implications.
"These American states, they sort of jump on a bandwagon and they don't want to look into it too much," he said.
"It will cause a lot of problems, like graziers will get upset because the roos eat the grass instead of the cattle and you can get major car accidents because they are crossing roads everywhere.
"It's very beneficial to keep the industry strong."
Editor's note 26/4/2023: This story has been amended to attribute figures regarding the value of the commercial kangaroo sector to the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia.
