Dear all,
For a start in this debate let's get the correct name for the activity, it
is not hunting it is shooting, and shooting for shooting's sake. The same
goes for so-called duck hunters, they are duck shooters.
For 26 years I have run a bird banding project in two of the nature reserves
listed, The Charcoal Tank and Buddigower, near West Wyalong. Most of the
time has been spent in The Charcoal Tank reserve and in that time I have
NEVER seen a pig ( a pig trap was placed near a dam in the reserve, near
where some slight damage was done), have heard but never seen the occasional
fox, found one small, often inactive rabbit warren but never seen a rabbit,
nor a goat and only recently has one member of my team seen a cat. We HAVE
had feral (?) sheep that have crawled under the fence erected on the
boundary by the neighbouring property owner, and who ran wild and unshorn
for about 18 months, and dogs on site come from either the neighbouring farm
or from people who have stopped in the illegally constructed rest area on
the Newell Highway at the front of The Charcoal Tank.
I am fully in agreement with the culling of feral animals, and for that
matter kangaroos when they become over abundant having seen the results
caused by them while working in Australia's (formerly) premier wildlife
research organisation for 34 years. I would like to know who the person was
who put this list together and on what evidence the two reserves are claimed
to be homes for feral animals. This actually applies to most of the small
reserves, a lot of which are in the area covered by the sitting National
Party member in the Griffith area. I have been led to believe that he was
the person responsible for Binya State Forest being allowed as a shooting
area. I have never been back to Binya SF since then.
The fact that all these reserves have been listed as shooting areas will
only stop "honest" shooters, it will not stop the looney shooters from
coming in - they are like the unlicensed, unregistered and no helmet trail
bike riders who can't, or won't, read no trail bike, no shooting and no
firewood gathering signs. I have already had members of my team express
concerns for their safety because of this idiotic policy. And before anyone
asks, I am a former, licensed gun owner who has handed them back to the
police for destruction years ago.
Does anyone have the email address for both the Premier and the Minister
for the Environment in NSW please.
Politicians from all walks of life have gone stupid in this country over the
last decade or so.
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
