Paul McCartney Hopping Mad Over Kangaroo Cull

Paul McCartney has spoken out against the planned cull of about 500 eastern grey kangaroos in Australia's capital, Canberra.

McCartney has joined British animal rights group Viva! (Vegetarians International Voice For Animals) in a campaign against the cull. Viva! has posted a petition on its website, which has reportedly amassed about 1,300 signatures in 36 countries.

The kangaroos in question occupy land on a former naval base in Canberra owned by the Australian defence department. The Australian government says it must kill the kangaroos to protect the area from overgrazing that threatens rare vegetation used as shelter for several endangered species. The government says the kangaroos are trapped on the land and it would be inhumane to attempt to forcibly move them. The kangaroos will be shot with tranquilizer darts and then put to sleep by injection. Beginning Saturday, animal rights activists have said they will try to stop the cull and act as human shields to protect the kangaroos and will also block the gates to the land.

Australian Environment Minister and former singer for Midnight Oil Peter Garrett disagrees with the activists and says the government's actions are right.

"Programs like this, humanely and properly administered, are sometimes necessary," he said, according to Reuters.

McCartney is an outspoken animal rights activist and vegetarian. He has said Walt Disney's film Bambi, in which a mother deer is shot in front of its baby, was instrumental in his dietary change. He has also said watching lambs playing in a field while he was eating lamb influenced his switch to vegetarianism. But in an ad for vegetarian and animal rights activist group People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals, which launched today, McCartney also said a fishing trip was what prompted the change.

"Many years ago, I was fishing, and as I was reeling in the poor fish, I realised, 'I am killing him — all for the passing pleasure it brings me,'" he said. "Something inside me clicked. I realized as I watched him fight for breath that his life was as important to him as mine is to me."

In 2006, McCartney made headlines when he and then wife Heather Mills called for a ban on the seal hunt in Newfoundland and Labrador. It is estimated the seal hunt brings in $16.5 million for Newfoundland and Labrador hunters every year.

McCartney has also spoken against the fur trade. In 2005, he said he would boycott the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China after he saw a video of a fur market in Guangzhou, China. In the video, cats and dogs are apparently thrown onto the pavement from the top of a car and then skinned alive for their fur.