Australia's commercial kangaroo harvest is one of the largest wildlife harvests in the world, and welfare standards governing it are more developed than for most wildlife industries but face ongoing scrutiny.
Commercial kangaroo harvesting occupies a complex welfare and conservation position. It is legal, regulated, and provides incentives for habitat maintenance; it involves wild animals with natural behaviour patterns rather than confined farmed animals; but it also involves significant numbers of imperfect kills and the death of dependent young that is unavoidable when females are harvested. The welfare standard — headshot for immediate unconsciousness and death — is the right aspiration, but real-world compliance is imperfect due to the conditions under which shooting occurs (at night, at distance, from vehicles). Independent monitoring of kill quality is limited. The fate of dependent young is the most challenging welfare problem inherent to the harvest system and is one that cannot be fully resolved within current harvesting practice.