*Snap* …just like that, we are a quarter of the way through the year already!
*Quackle* …and now suddenly it is open slather for eco-terrorists as duck hunting season begins where it hasn’t already been banned (Allowed : Victoria, SA, Tas, NT. Banned: QLD, NSW, and WA)
“We’ve got declining populations anyway, so it would be prudent to try to hold off in these dry times.”
-Richard Kingsford,Aerial Surveryor of Australian waterbird numbers and ecosystems
-unrecovered kills from a previous season
*Pop* … hopefully the celebratory sound of bottles of Chateau Champiss being opened when this cruel bloodbath is finally seen for what it is and outlawed entirely.
Why hasn’t it been banned yet? Quite likely due to the organised voting power of the hunters, even though the majority of Victorians are against it, according to The Saturday Paper reporter, Andrew Stafford:
As duck numbers dwindle, the Victorian government’s decision to support this year’s hunting season has sparked claims the regulatory body is biased.
He continues: The Game Management Authority estimates the total harvest from the 2015 season, based on hunter diaries, was 203,934 ducks – 53 per cent of the long-term average of 382,447. An estimated 80,610 were shot on opening weekend. But those figures do not include illegally killed non-game species, the injured, or birds that could not be recovered. Richard Kingsford said the majority of ducks killed are juveniles, victims of their own inexperience.
The Saturday Paper – Victorian Duck Hunting Season
These figures only reflect the ducks that were legally shot and retrieved.
It is estimated that only 1 in 4 birds shot are retrieved. Tens of thousands of others are left to die slowly and painfully, unable to eat with shattered beaks or unable to fly with damaged wings, their bodies left to rot away pointlessly.
Meanwhile the ecosystem becomes polluted with shot and shells.
These are wild birds living in dwindling natural, publically owned reserves – they are not threatening agriculture.
Imagine if hundreds of people came into my home and started firing away while I was unarmed and minding my own business- would anybody consider this sport, or a ‘game’ as the name suggests, even if I ran for my life?
This is just a cowardly expression of bloodlust by people who want all the rights and no responsibilities. I bet they would never calmly accept the affront of a stranger so much as beeping at them in traffic, but they are willing to act like they’re in the wild west when the (fire)power is all in their hands.
This week my immense appreciation goes to these truly game people:
Coalition Against Duck Shooting
Facebook – Coalition Against Duck Shooting
Please use this Animals Australia form to call for an end to the slaughter : Take Action
Or write to:
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews
South Australian Premier Jay Wetherill
Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles
Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman
If Queensland can ban it, anywhere can!
Together we can make a change.
52 charities - 52 weeks 