Tourism Australia Under Fire For Kangaroo Stunt

Why can’t you tell the truth?

“But animal expert Tim Faulkner told News Limited newspapers the animal was clearly unwell.
“The animal is obviously distressed, there is no question about it,” Faulkner said after viewing the footage.
“The sort of stress I see here suggests it has endured long-term problems.”
Bob Irwin, the father of late wildlife icon Steve “Crocodile Hunter” Irwin, issued a statement from his hospital bed where he is recovering from a heart attack.
“It is a terrible image for Australia to send to the world, seeing a magnificent kangaroo treated in such a cruel way,” said Irwin.
“Where the bloody hell is the government? I trust the government will also take Tourism Australia to task on their poor judgment.”

Hi Geoffrey

There are plenty of news stories about this with lots of comments from people who viewed the footage of the kangaroo but who weren’t actually there. I decided to present a different side of the story without getting into the speculation and blame game tactics that other media sources have chosen.

Thanks for commenting and as you can see, we do approve all comments even if they disagree with us!

Lisa

One thing should be made clear. The Bingle bungle with the ill-fated Where The Bloody Hell Are You campaign was produced on behalf of Tourism Australia. The Best Job campaign came from Tourism Queensland, not TA — and was far more succesful, and came in at a meagre budget compared with TA’s Bloody failure.

TA’s Bloody mess was followed by the an equally costly damp squib in the form of Baz Luhrman’s yawnathon, Australia, which had TA promo involvement.

I would hazard a guess that the caged kangaroo stunt was planned before Andrew McEvoy became MD at TA recently. His past track record would suggest that he is far too media savvy to have been involved in such a promo — and it would be a fair bet that most of those involved in the Aussie travel industry would opine that he is the best thing to have happened to TA since the departure of John Morse from the MD role some years ago.

I was there, and took photos right alongside the girl taping on her cellphone. The animal was not happy at all. There was no handler, just a guard, and there was no food or water in the pen.
-Also just fyi: Humane Society of the United States said “they did not approve of the kangaroo video” .
The reports are false.

Steve

This is a comment from a director of a wildlife museum in the USA

“Hideous – that is typical caged-psychotic behaviour which many animals suffer when they are not only caged, but deprived of sensory experience,…..”

However, AJ you miss the point. On his comments alone Andrew McEvoy ought to be sack. The man is a disgrace. The issue is not about media savvy. It is about the treatment of an animal.

Geoffrey

Lisa,

For much of 30 years I taught and researched, at a university, the economics of tourism. Our wildlife is one of the our tourist industry’s greatest natural attractions.

Here is a email about this episode written by an American lady and directed to Tourism Australia:

“..you know I wrote you a couple days ago and you said that you’d no longer be using live animals in your promotions and well could you please explain this then??

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/news/vow-to-keep-roo-displays-despite-controversy/story-e6frg8ro-1225845810237

…you people need to get a clue this isn’t the wild west or 1820′s and Anmial Cruelty will not be favorably received here you may think its ok to terrorize animals but its not I have forwarded our correspondences to P.E.T.A. and my local chapter of the human society to see if  the conditions were within the standsards …  I’m not an animal expert but I do know what an animal in stress looks like …”

Now the current CEO of Tourism Australia, given the comments to the press so far, has the neither the integrity nor the values to run this organization. If he does not go now you will have disaster after disaster. I have been in touch with Tourism Australia and with PETA. He still does not understand what the problem is.

Tell me, do you believe he has been honest?

Geoffrey

how much it would be spent money for travelling in Australia?

Journalists also have a responsibility to tell the truth

“Tourism Australia tried to explain away fears for the kangaroo’s well-being, saying that the animal came from a reputable handler and is being monitored, but the video that started the outrage notes that no animal handlers are present. The Tourism Australia marketing employees, who were on the scene, are not necessarily qualified to care for giant marsupials.
Also, regardless of where a kangaroo came from, placing it in a small cage on a busy street is not conducive to its overall well-being. For those who don’t already know this, kangaroos are not urban animals.”
http://www.nowpublic.com/environment/kangaroo-los-angeles-cage-angers-australians-2596085.html

Comment

“The kangaroo was next to (8 to 10 feet away) from a busy busy street and was so traumatized it was rocking back and forth over and over again.

On Saturday it was running around and round in circles, chasing its tail in a craze.
[...]
At one point one of the Australian Tourism worker rolled her eyes and called me ‘pathetic’ for caring about the animal that was clearly in distress.”

@ Lisa, I WAS there and, in fact, went with Kylie to the “event.” Watching this footage two months later, I am nauseated by what I see.

If it’s not clear from the video, the roo WAS distressed: there’s no way to justify or “explain” the rocking.

What’s not clear is the concrete floor: imagine standing on concrete for four hours in your bare feet.

The street is one of the BUSIEST in Los Angeles. It’s completely inappropriate to bring any animal there (and they’re almost never seen, even dogs on leashes) much less display one.

It’s amazing you lack either the imagination or the compassion to see the atrocity of these conditions.

The roo’s predicament was only exceeded by the really nasty PR girls manning the event. Seen all over Los Angeles, this group was totally clueless that their “promotion” was a complete flop, openly mocking efforts to document the roo’s treatment.

But the single most chilling moment came at the end when the trainer picked up the roo and carried it to a silver transport module that resembled a coffin.

For all of you who think this is acceptable, imagine spending your day this way – you might have quite a different way of looking at the video and be less quick to speak so cavalierly.

I’ve noticed people bashing Americans: the fact is, this was a collaboration between Tourism AUSTRALIA and an American trainer. No one is innocent in this, least of all the Australian government which tacitly endorses this sort of abuse by patronizing this trainer with business.

Geoffrey
Many thanks for your comments which we appreciate. Our story looked at the incident from a different angle but we by no means wish to dismiss the severity of the incident for which we understand Tourism Australia have apologised for. Any comments further regarding this are welcomed and put on the site. We do not censor readers comments and we do welcome those that take an opposite stance to ours so that readers are able to gain a clearer picture of what happened.

Lisa,

Could point out where Tourism Australia have either acknowledged or apologised for the “severity of the incident”. From your own account above they have defended it.

Geoffrey

PS the account given by Thomas is what every informed and intelligent person is saying.

On Macquaire radio Andrew McEvoy said they took the accusations seriously and stated that Tourism Australia did care about the alledged mistreatment of the kangaroo. He gave his email address out on air for complaints. The show http://www.2gb.com/index2.php?option=com_newsmanager&task=view&id=5974 here was actually very good.

Lisa,

“Alledged mistreatment”??? LOL

Andrew McEvoy could not care less about some ‘roo’ in Los Angeles.

What is needed in Tourism Australia is honesty, integrity and human values. There is scant evidence of any of those qualities in Tourism Australia.

As far as I know Fesnick the Kangaroo is still being abused by her handlers in USA. Andrew McEvoy has done NOTHING to change that. Nor would he care.

Geoffrey

Lisa,

I listened to the interview, you provided, on Macquarie Radio. I found it slightly sickening and an embarrassment to Australia.

It was the equivalent to an attempted justification of , say, the Chinese putting a Panda in small cage without food or water on a concrete floor in Martin Place for days at a time. and pretending the rocking back and forwards of the abused and psychotic animal represented China.

Ask yourself – are these the people you want presenting the face of Australia?

Geoffrey calls for TA CEO Andrew McEvoy to be sacked over Roogate, and then draws attention to an item in The Australian showing it was TA’s regional manager Daryl Hudson who defended the practice of using kangaroos in promos, saying that if future promotions required a kangaroo’s presence, they (TA) would do it again — not McEvoy.

Thus, it would be best if all communications between TA Sydney and TA regional office in LA concerning this matter be made public before anyone calls for the head of the new TA CEO to be handed on a platter.

Just a suggestion.

AJ,

I think that is a pretty fair statement. And it would be very interesting to see exactly what happened.

But what are we to make of Lisa’ words: “It was a well-meaning stunt that unfortunately backfired when Tourism Australia were accused of making the animal distressed – an accusation strenuously denied by the Managing Director of Tourism Australia, Andrew McEvoy who states that the American Humane society (the US equivalent of the RSPCA) and the vet on duty both gave assurances that the animal was fine.”

I would just add here, that on other accounts the American Humane Society (which is a private organization nothing at all remotely like RSPCA) did NOT give assurances that the animal was fine. On other accounts there was no vet on duty.

Geoffrey

Geoffrey and Lisa

Maybe it’s time to draw a line under this discussion by saying that if the stress caused to the roo in question leads TA to prohibit similar displays of animals in any of their future promos, and if other NTOs take note of the outcry this incident has brought about and also ban the use of animals in ‘circus or zoo’-like promotional appearances, then all has not been in vain.

Meanwhile, TA is about to announce its new global marketing campaign this week. Let’s all hope it is far better than those of the past few years. I wish them well.

Can I just say that the statement was not mine but was taken from Andrew McEvoy’s statement on the Tourism Australia site and the explanation of the American Humane Society was for the benefit of our UK readers who may not have heard of them. I think it wise to move on from this story at this point as this site is in danger of being used as a vehicle to criticise Tourism Australia.

Important to note: ALL Australian State Tourism Boards have their own rules, any rule TA enforces, does not apply to Tourism Boards at State Level
- haven’t seen a press release about this from TA – Below is part of a response from TA, still waiting to hear back from MP Martin Ferguson’s office for confirmation.

“What we have been saying to everyone who emailed is that we have been looking at developing a policy in regards to animals at our promotional events and at the end of last week advised all our teams worldwide that we would no longer be using live animals at promotional events.

It should be pointed out however that this policy cannot extend to our commercial partners, such as zoos and wildlife parks, who, on occasion, bring their animals to our trade events.

We will be working with the RSPCA to develop some specific guidelines for those trade events which we will provide to our commercial partners.

Let me know if you have any further queries”.