Peter,
You're absolutely right of course. I think like you say, it's an insidious
threat. It's mentioned enough to make people scared and there are sadly
instances where the authorities do decide to claim a scalp - the serious
intentions regarding these teenagers and the whale are an example. You could be
next ... !
I think we have an over-zealous bureaucracy full of people who take the 'letter
of the law' into their own hands instead of leaving it to the lawyers. At the
same time, our regulations have started to include the punitive measures that
we're all familar with for driving offences and the like but often the control
in environmental offences rests with people who are not trained in policing.
There is an ongoing debate about the pros and cons of such tactics - it saves
money and acts as a disincentive but in my humble opinion, many of these things
are taken too far. For instance, I hopped a fence a few years back to check out
a dragonfly and was promptly charged and fined $250 by a parks representative.
Whilst they were just 'doing their job', they area allowed to use best
judgement but most choose not to.
Regards,
Simon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Simon Mustoe
Tel: +61 (0) 405220830 | Skype simonmustoe | Email
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> From:
> To: ; ;
> ;
> Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2012 13:13:22 +1100
> Subject: RE: [Birding-Aus] Threatened species and the OBP
>
> I assume that this policy that you can't even pick up a shell or feather is
> intended to simplify prosecution of those who kill animals for their
> feathers, skins, teeth, etc. Can anyone please verify that?
>
> I've often heard stories (mainly here) of people being threatened like this,
> but are the threats ever carried out when it's obvious there's not really
> anything untoward going on?
>
> Peter Shute
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:
> > On Behalf Of
> > Denise Goodfellow
> > Sent: Thursday, 6 December 2012 12:06 PM
> > To: Simon Mustoe; ; Birding Aus
> > Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Threatened species and the OBP
>
> > The next day a senior ranger, whose son happened to be in
> > Rowan's class, rang. He had two messages for me: a) It was
> > the Conservation Commission's job to teach kids about snakes,
> > and b) I had broken the law in handling the dead animals, and
> > I could be prosecuted.
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