An iconic Aussie takeaway chain has pulled a menu item just days after its high-profile launch. The decision follows an uproar from customers about its “world-first” kangaroo pizza.
Bubba Pizza, which has 17 franchise locations around Melbourne and Adelaide, claimed the meat it sourced was “ethically harvested” and “free-ranging” — a reference to all kangaroos being shot in the wild in line with government regulations, as they cannot be farmed without causing stress.
Its managing director, Damian Hopper, is well-known on social media for raising money for charity and carrying out crazy stunts, like tattooing his neck to raise the profile of his business.
When he first announced the kangaroo pizza plan online, it attracted positive media attention, but some customers quickly responded negatively, raising concerns online about kangaroo welfare and hygiene.
At least one man was so concerned he emailed Hopper personally.
Responding to questions from Yahoo News, Hopper said kangaroo pizza was added to the menu as a limited offering, and while some were “excited” by it, the ingredient ultimately attracted a “diversity of views”.
“After taking this feedback on board, we’ve made the decision not to purchase kangaroo meat moving forward,” he said.
“Our priority is always to listen, learn, and make choices that reflect the values of the communities we serve.”
Related: Domino’s deletes trace of controversial word from pizza website
The kangaroo pizza announcement sparked polarising views: Bubba Pizza/Getty
Is kangaroo meat controversial?
The commercial harvest of kangaroos is the largest land-based slaughter of wildlife in the world, and like the clubbing and skinning of baby seals in Canada, it has critics.
Much of the controversy has been overseas, where high-profile sports companies including Nike, Puma, New Balance, Adidas, and most recently Muzuno have all announced they will stop making soccer boots from kangaroo leather.
“We are currently planning a gradual phase-out of kangaroo leather in our products,” the Japanese brand told Yahoo in June.
Back in Australia, the meat continues to be sold widely for both pet and human consumption at Coles and Woolworths, while Big W has stopped selling kangaroo skins and novelty scrotums following a public outcry.
The decision by Bubba Pizza to no longer buy the meat has drawn praise from wildlife advocates and frustration from industry.
Claim kangaroo meat is more ‘humane’ than beef
Bubba Pizza’s supplier, Macro Group Australia, is the world’s largest kangaroo meat company, processing between 300,000 and 400,000 animals a year, depending on their abundance.
Its managing director, Ray Borda, told Yahoo News he was disappointed by the company’s decision.
He conceded there’s “nothing sexy about harvesting of meat”, but the kangaroo industry has modernised and is now the most “humane” way of supplying animal protein to consumers.
“Taken in your own environment, with a single shot in a relaxed mode is probably the most humane way of taking any animal,” he said, before turning his attention to modern, industrialised farming of livestock, which provides most of the meat Australians eat.
“Look at the alternative, most of these sheep or cattle they’re farmed, then they’re put into trucks,” he said.
“Imagine the panic that goes on.
“Then they take them into the abattoir and then line them up to be, you know, there’s nothing nice about it.”
Meat from kangaroos is sold for both pet and human consumption at Coles and Woolworths. Source: Getty
Kangaroo shooters act alone at night
Borda argues that technological developments over the last 20 years, including telescopic sights and thermal imaging, help to ensure most animals are precisely shot, and that the majority of animals killed are males, not females with joeys.
“There is a lot of ethics that go into it. You know, 20 years ago might have been different, but now it’s so,” he said.
But others claim that not all kangaroo shooters are killing animals with one bullet.
Victoria’s peak animal rescue group, Wildlife Victoria, says it has seen a 55 per cent increase in gunshot wounds to native animals since the program began in 2019, and it has called for the state government to end it.
“Kangaroos are already under pressure from significant existing threats such as road trauma, habitat fragmentation and urbanisation — commercial killing only adds to this burden on an already vulnerable population,” its CEO Lisa Palma told Yahoo.
Kangaroo shooters are individual operators, shooting animals at night without oversight, and then selling their carcasses to abattoirs. Palma claims this results in “limited transparency”.
“The result is unspeakable violence inflicted on wildlife, and many of the injured animals we are called to assist are only a fraction of those impacted. These are the ones we find, there are many we don’t, who are left to suffer out of sight,” she said.
Wildlife advocate applauds pizza chain’s decision
The Victorian Kangaroo Alliance argues most Australians don’t know the methods used by harvesters to kill the kangaroos they eat.
Its founder, Alyssa Wormald, is particularly concerned about the treatment of joeys, which are considered a waste product after their mothers are shot.
Regulations state they should be bludgeoned to death or decapitated, but some simply get away from shooters and are left to starve.
“Kangaroos are shot in the wild and then gutted and beheaded, and I think if people knew that they would be really disgusted,” she told Yahoo.
“I think awareness is growing really rapidly, but there’s certainly a lot of work to do.”
Wormald called the decision by Bubba Pizza to no longer purchase kangaroo meat “absolutely huge”.
“In business, it’s a lot of work to develop and launch a new product, and so for them to now turn around and acknowledge that it wasn’t a great decision, I think it is really admirable,” she said.
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