Peter,
First of all, I agree that there is a distinction between the increased
disturbance of threatened species due to the drought because of shooting, and
the innate cruelty of shooting in general. For me, and I suspect the majority
of anti-duck protesters, the fundamental issue that we are fighting against is
the cruelty. In many respects it is the drought and low bird numbers that will
hopefully result in the cessation of this activity. All the advice given to the
government this year said exactly that. The government chose to ignore this
advice.
Duck hunting IS more cruel than fox and rabbit shooting, and certainly IS more
cruel than the slaughtering of sheep and cattle for meat. Whilst I appreciate
that many people are vegetarian because of their opposition to the slaughter of
animals, I do believe that this slaughter is conducted in as humane a way as
possible.
Duck hunting is regarded as a sport. These creatures are not killed for food,
nor because they are vermin. They are killed for the fun of it. The sheer joy
of pointing a firearm at a living creature and pulling the trigger. Whilst
there are "bag limits" imposed on shooters, they will continue to kill and
wound waterfowl for the fun of it, without collecting the animals they have
shot, so they don't exceed their bag counts. Shooters will also ignore wounded
birds, because they are just too difficult to retrieve. It is much easier to
simply shoot another one. These wounded birds will often die in agony with
horrific wounds. Even if they don't die as a result of the shot, they will be
taken by predators.
Duck hunting is called "Recreational Shooting". Not even Field and Game
Australia, Inc tries to hide the fact that this is done for fun. For no other
reason.
Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Shute
Sent: Sunday, 22 March 2009 11:02 PM
To: ; ;
Subject: Duck Hunting
I'm more concerned about the shooting and even the disturbance of species that
are threatened or in low numbers because of the drought. The two issues (that
and the cruelty) seem to become easily confused.
It's cruel, but no more than fox or rabbit shooting, or even slaughtering sheep
and cattle for meat.
Peter Shute
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