A FULL-TIME kangaroo hunter based from Stawell says the state government gave shooters no notice it was suspending the Kangaroo Harvest Program.
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Aaron Hemley, a full-time kangaroo hunter, says he has been left without an income and without certainty as a result of the suspension announced last week in the wake of the bushfire crisis and the loss of millions of animals.
Mr Hemley also said he only found out about the suspension through media reports released last week.
The government did not provide a date for the program to resume but a Department of Jobs spokesperson said: "The Kangaroo Harvesting Program has only been temporarily suspended and is likely to resume shortly in the areas unaffected by fire."
But Mr Hemley said local shooters received no confirmation of the program being stopped, despite contacting the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning for information.
"We haven't had a reply from DELWP saying it's going to be stopped for however many months - we don't know," he said.
"We put our applications in (for shooting quotas) - it's all been done, it's just waiting on DELWP to say right, we're going to let them go again."
Mr Hemley has been a full time kangaroo hunter since the Pet Food Trial was introduced in 2014.
"I make over $100,000 doing this job so it's a full-time job," he said.
"I've spent over $130,000 on trucks, cool rooms, equipment ... but it's stopped my livelihood.
"It affects everyone - boners, skinners, truck drivers, knackeries. I chose to make it my full time job because they said it was going to be full time. I haven't shorn a sheep in 10 years and I just started again two weeks ago."
Mr Hemley said he was unclear how the ban was supposed to help kangaroo populations as under different licences kangaroos could still be hunted. It's effectively a ban on selling, he said.
"You can still get permits to cull kangaroos," Hemley said. "It's always been about culling and making money out of them but they don't want us to make money, and that's the way it's going to be."
A DEWLP spokesperson confirmed people could still apply for Authority to Control Wildlife permits to "scare, disperse or destroy wildlife" if it is damaging property, impacting biodiversity or posing a risk to human safety.