The Darwin Crocodile Farm, located south of Darwin on the Stuart Highway, was started in 1982 with 100 crocodiles that were taken from the wild. Now there are over 12,000 crocodiles in captivity at the farm.
The farm is an industry against reptiles in action. The kiosk sells an assortment of crocodile products, from single teeth to full length skins. Other products include; wallets, purses, belts, hat bands made of crocodile skin and teeth and key rings made out of the tip of the crocodile's tail or the scutes along the top of the crocodile's back. There are also crocodile back-scratchers made out of their claws, the tiny nails painted with bright red polish.
No experts are required. Throughout the Northern Territory and Australia the 'protected' crocodile is little more than 'human property' ruthlessly exploited for a luxury market and has no legal rights. The Darwin Crocodile Farm produces 3,000 skins per year - a waste of animal life for the sake of a human luxury. [Left] Staff holding up a croc skin at the farm's the processing plant.
The closed in sheds full of crocodiles at the Darwin Crocodile Farm are carefully concealed from the visiting public by high fences, hedges, trees and gates with signs saying, 'no public access beyond this point.' The usual reason given is was one of quarantine. These are just the first series of sheds on this huge farm that extended well into the surrounding tropical landscape with hundreds of sheds and containing approximately 12,000 intensively farmed crocodiles that would never experience a river or estuary.
The crocodiles on display included named individuals such as Errol who was relocated from the Daly River, 1981. Then there is Snowy taken from the McArthur River in Gulf of Carpentaria - aged 50. Snowy allegedly 'destroyed' 4 female crocodiles at the farm. He is now in solitary. This is a common problem at the farm, with crocodiles damaging one another with their claws and teeth when kept in such close confinement. Crocs have to be constantly 'graded' in order to stop this destruction. Snowy wouldn't necessarily be a particularly savage crocodile, just suffering from the stress of confinement after being taken out of the wild.
The sign reads: The Pig has been in captivity for many years and still bears the scars from being stranded in a waterhole as it dried out. The white marks on his back are the result of prolonged exposure to the sun and dehydration. He is on display because his aggressive behaviour towards other crocodiles has made him unsuitable for breeding.
Two captive crocs with mouths full of dead battery hens. Crocodiles do not eat battery hens in the wild. So what do the public actually learn about crocodiles from this so-called educational facility?
When slaughtered the terrified and struggling crocodiles are shot in the back of the head with a 22 calibre rifle, caught and wrestled to the ground, and although the death of the animals was mentioned to be instantaneous (as if that made it somehow more acceptable) the actual process of slaughter in regards to the degree of stress placed upon the animal was considered, 'quiet a job!" by the manager of the farm.
There are 190 crocodiles per shed and 20 sheds at the farm. The trick is to maintain a constant temperature of 32 degrees celcius. The sheds are constructed of canvas, with borewater running straight through the ground. The floor of the sheds is comprised of smooth concrete, so as not to scratch the belly surface (or skin) of the crocodile. In this shed there were 2 elongated shallow ponds set in concrete basically running the length of the shed. The shed was similar to a broiler shed (a shed for growing chickens for meat).
The crocodiles slaughtered at the farm are the size of belt. At one point the guide pointed to a group of young crocodiles crowded into an exhibition pen saying, 'there's ya belt!' It was the closest she came to really talking about the industry during the tour. As is usual with the animal industries we are shown how interesting the animal is, how well he/she is being treated and then suddenly at the end of it all we have flesh, belts, skins, and other products as if by magic!
When the shed door was opened the crocodiles responded the same way as the chickens would do in a crush. All these crocodiles who were almost ready to become belts were very flighty and splashed hysterically to one end of the shed and into the pond all trampling over the top of one another. One can only imagine the poor condemned crocodiles splashing around inside the sheds and fighting for their lives during the slaughtering process.
Crocodiles are slaughtered after 2-3 years and their corpses are transported in PVC pipes to the building where they are partially processed at the farm, which primarily involves the removal of the skin from the flesh. The time for 'culling' or killing is when the crocodiles reach 1.7 metres in length or are 15 kgs in weight - or are the size of a belt.
This is typical crocodile behaviour - the open jaws gaping. By gaping the crocodile expresses excess sweat in a similar way to a dog.
An interior view of the 'grow out pens.' The grading of crocodiles occurs out of these circular pens, after which they are placed in the larger rectangular growing sheds.
The public display pens with the large crocodiles weren't much bigger than a single room and contained a dirty pond in the middle, a bit of grass and concrete around the outside and that was about it. A lot of the pens had shade, but there was nowhere for the large animal to hide. They are after all public exhibits. Many of the crocodiles had been in these tiny spaces for years. The usual reason was given that they are happy like this because crocodiles don't move much in the wild. Any books you read on crocodile and alligator movement and migration will usually put this false information to rest.
An exterior view of the 'grow out pens.' The grading of the smaller crocodiles begins out of these circular pens, after which they are placed in the larger rectangular growing sheds.
Dead battery hens taken from a nearby hen factory are thrown into the jaws of captive crocodiles in order to entertain tourists in a dramatic display of blatant animal cruelty. Farmed and displayed crocodiles are often kept hungry, so that they will turn and attack each other, as they fight to secure a dead bird. This makes for a better show and is all part of trading wildlife for the tourist dollar.
Some crocodiles that are killed are from domesticated breeding stock that is born and raised at the farm. But as the manager said, 'you can't breed the instinct out of them.' So, whilst it remains illegal for the public to kill and skin crocodiles, the Northern Territory government continues to support and maintain an ever growing industry keeping the human population in belts, hat bands, wallets and back-scratchers made from the claws of crocodiles.
Exterior view of the growing out and grading sheds. In order to stop mutilation occuring in an unnatural and overcrowded situation, the young crocs have to be constantly 'graded' in order to maintain weight and size uniformity on their way to slaughter. An average 'growing out' of a crocodile at the farm takes takes between 2-3 years.
At Mindal Beach Markets in Darwin there were crocodile key rings for sale where the claw had been cut from the leg of the crocodile for the novelty. The flesh component of the claw was still sticking out of one end pierced by the actual key ring. Breeding season for 'salties' or salt water crocodiles who become key rings is in the wet season, from October to March each year.
The crocodiles on public display are fed dead chickens from a nearby battery hen farm. The battery hen farm had about three sheds that were off the floor and basically open air due to the tropical location. The crocodiles are fed at 2pm each day for public viewing at the farm. I noticed a few crocs fighting over dead chickens. They are kept hungry in order to put on a good show for the paying public. At the actual farm the crocs are fed a fine mince depending on the size, along with chicken heads and multi-vitamins.
Apart from the brutal method of slaughter, we should not underestimate the severe stress suffered by the terrified animals during capture and handling. The tour guide said that whilst death was usually instantaneous, it actually takes the central nervous system of a crocodile twelve hours to expire.
There are two parallel ponds in each large rectangular shed enclosure. Since feeding is occurring in an unnatural environment, there is nowhere for the pollutants such as food leftovers to go. The crocodiles tend to drag the food into the pond and contaminate the water, so the shed has been designed with two ponds, so that crocodiles can go into the second pond whilst the first pond is cleaned out.
Exterior view of the circular growing and grading sheds.
The sign reads: This large 5 metre male saltwater crocodile entangled itself in a Barramundi fisherman's net in the Reynold's River in Sept, 1981. The difference between male and female saltwater crocodiles can only be determined by an internal examination, although females seldom grow larger than 3-5 metres.
Hungry captive crocodiles fight in muddy concrete pits and smelly stagnant human-made ponds for the amusement of tourists. The Australian Crocodile Farm at Noonamah offers yet another 'truly educational experience' for those people wanting to know about the natural behaviour of the Australian saltwater crocodile. When we harm other living creatures in the name of profit and our own entertainment, we are all losers. Today's score: Chickens 0 - Crocodiles 0 - Humans 0.
The staff of 2 girls work at the farm 4 days a week. The farm kills 70 crocs a week. It is the role of the workers to skin it, clean it, salt it and roll it up. The tanning is done overseas. The meat is boned out. I noticed some 2kg boxes of crocodile meat flying Ansett to Europe and Japan. Crocodile flesh is seen as a by-product of a luxury skin industry.
There were 80 freshwater crocodiles in the billabong at the farm all residing in putrid green water. A lot of the enclosures stank. I assume the smell came from a mixture of rotting meat left uneaten, stale urine and excrement left to decompose and gradually pollute the still water.
The track to the barren breeding pens at the Darwin Crocodile Farm. Every year the Northern Territory Conservation Commission supplies the crocodile farm with approximately one hundred crocodiles from the Darwin harbour in a constant clearing out process, that is meant to keep 'people places' basically crocodile free. All these captured wild crocodiles face years of unnatural confinement and eventually death at the farm.
Crocodile flesh is a food, but a luxury food mainly catering for the foreign export market. As a luxury food item, it is largely dictated by trends and fashions. For example, I was told that the Japanese presently require more tender meat, little crocs.
Most of the time is spent 'grading' the crocodiles, that is, removing the fast growers, so that size in any particular 'growing shed' remains constant. The crocodiles need to be of similar sizes and strengths. Otherwise the larger crocs will pick on, fight, eat and dominate the smaller ones. This would be primarily caused by boredom and the stress of overcrowding, just as it is on all other intensive animal farms. Although mammals and reptiles are very different animals, there are similarities in their responses to stress suffered whilst in captivity.
In a similar way to pigs being tail and ear docked and hens being debeaked, crocodiles are also cut. They are identified by the cutting of their scutes when young. The scutes are the pieces of fine flesh that form a ridge down the length of the crocodiles back ending at the tip of the tail. I was told that there was less blood in that area. The mutilation of crocodile scutes is very evident and is done so that crocodile can be identified from a distance and amongst others. It's all about what scute is removed and where it is removed from along the length of the crocodile. The identification relies on counting the scutes.
The manager inspecting a grading shed. In another seperate buildingh the incubation of eggs occurs at 32 degrees celcius in a simulated environment. From laying to hatching takes 85 days. This is a controlled incubation which would not happen in the wild.
It is harder to interpret the distress signs of reptiles in captivity as opposed to say a bird or a mammal. However many of the sheds and display cages reeked of an odour and were overcrowded. This was particularly evident in regards to the smaller crocodiles. Crocodiles were bleeding from the sides, legs and foreheads and a few were blind in one eye. The tour guide said to the questioning tourists, 'don't worry about that. That's just where they scratch each other with their claws.'
A newly hatched baby crocodile has its first taste of life 'downunder' by being inserted into the mouth of an Australian male. Fact: In the wild the developed embroyos begin calling from within their eggs at the time of hatching. The babies quickly seek sanctuary in the water; where the mother crocodile protects the nursery from predators.
Crocodiles are regularly taken from the wild and placed in breeding pens at the farm. Eggs are then collected from the pen. One of the very large pens was ½ acre and contained 3 females and 1 male crocodile. The standard pen size is 15 by 35ft. There are approximately 100 breeding pens at the Darwin Crocodile Farm. There are two ponds per pen so that the female crocodile is able to have a break from the male. Egg laying is from early December through to the end of March. A female crocodile lays an average of 45 eggs, just once a year.
A local I was talking to said, 'yes, we always hear that all the crocs go to the farm.' But she wasn't aware that they were killed there, or before being killed that they were used as breeding stock or on public exhibition in a tiny pen for life. Many people I spoke to seemed to think that the Darwin Crocodile Farm was some kind of sanctuary or oasis for crocodiles that were no longer able to live in the Darwin harbour.
Out of the 100 crocodiles taken from the Darwin harbour each year, 65 are used for breeding purposes at the farm. The breeding pens have been around as long as the farm itself, which is since 1982. Crocodiles live 80-100 years. When I asked the manager how long they would remain alive for, a he replied, 'as long as they go for it.'
It was some sight seeing a woman swinging a dead battery hen by its legs like a lasso. One of the staff told me that they go through about thirty dead chickens a day in order to feed the crocodiles on display to the public.
During the tours run for the public there is little consideration given to the processes of the industry and talk of the actual crocodile slaughter is avoided altogether. This is the psychology of most intensive animal industries, who chose to hide what they do and the Darwin Crocodile Farm at Noonamah is no exception.
The interior of the processing plant at the Darwin Crocodile Farm. This is the end of the line for those crocodiles who are unfortunate enough to be kept at the Darwin Crocodile Farm.
The sign reads: Hoody was brought to the farm in 1982 after attacking and eating cattle on a local station in the NT. He is paired off with a very attractive 2.8 metre female which produces a fertile nest each year. (And from which the eggs are taken away to be processed into crocodile skin belts and claw backscratchers whilst Hoody and 'his mate' are left confined together in a pen away from their natural habitat until their eventual slaughter).
There is a peaceful side to these great creatures as shown by this adult female and male crocodile basking in the sun. The Australian saltwater crocodile is now a protected animal in the wild, but more than ever this unique wildlife needs protection from an unscruptulous luxury industry, where a precious individual life is worth less than a back-scratcher or a keyring.
We've seen Crocodile Dundee and the 'comical antics' of The Crocodile Hunter as he supposedly puts himself as risk by scaring reptiles and other small animals. This is the latest fad from Australia sweeping the USA. The salt water crocodile is the only animal in Australia who is able to predate on human beings. Therefore we reverse the role between crocodile and the Australian male to show our dominance over the natural world. Australian cruelty and stupidity are disguised in the ever present 'easy-going' and 'she'll-be-right-mate' attitude and then sold and exported to the rest of the world.
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