Kangaroos are commercially harvested in Australia for meat and leather, and face welfare challenges from shooting methods, joey killing, and habitat pressure.
Kangaroo harvest welfare hinges primarily on shooting accuracy and pouch-young management. Head shots that fail — causing jaw or neck wounds — result in prolonged suffering as animals flee wounded. Joey management is a welfare problem without a humane solution: dependent young cannot survive without their mothers and must be killed. The commercial code of practice requires methods whose field application varies significantly with shooter skill and visibility conditions.