We kill them because there are five million of these introduced pests in our country, and their small hooves tear the fragile topsoil up, which then erodes in wind and rain. This destroys the homes of our little native animals, like quolls and kangaroo rats, etcetera. Further, five million donkeys is a lot of competition for our native animals, which are becoming rarer and rarer, in some cases close to extinction, because of the animals our European ancestors introduced here a hundred to two-hundred years ago. We only hunt these introduced animals in Australia. In some parts where native kangaroos are abundant and are over-running farmland, farmers can apply for tags to cull these, but that is done with rifle only. Recreational hunting is only for the introduced animals. Because they are such a huge ecological problem, and because of difficulties with heat, distance and inaccessibility, we don't have laws about utilising meat, because it is, in most cases, impossible to do so, and yet the need is still there to limit their growth.