birding-aus

Duck Hunting

To: "Paul Dodd" <>, "'Peter Shute'" <>, <>, <>
Subject: Duck Hunting
From: "storm" <>
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:06:35 +1100
Peter: -

When sheep or cattle are commercially slaughtered for meat, _every_ animal dies 
within seconds, if not minutes. There is no sense that the same can be said for 
ducks who are shot by recreational hunters.

I don't know anything about the killing of foxes and rabbits so I can not 
comment on that. I do know a bit about the killing of flying-foxes, and from 
that the killing of ducks.

The NSW Dept of Primary Industry standard operating code for the humane control 
of pest animals requires that : "When it is necessary to kill an animal, humane 
procedures must always be used. These procedures must avoid distress, be 
reliable, and produce rapid loss of consciousness without pain until death 
occurs."

They also acknowledge: "the challenges presented by field conditions should not 
lessen the ethical obligation of the operator to reduce pain and distress to 
the greatest extent possible during euthanasia"
[http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/57253/gen-001.pdf]

One would hope that recreational hunters would aim for the same standard.

Unfortunately when a hunter shoots a bird "[t]here is evidence that a high 
proportion of shooting attempts result in a high rate of wounding instead of 
direct kills, and that these wounds cause pain and suffering to the injured 
birds (Norton and Thomas 1994). "

Some of these woundings relate to the interaction of the body size of the bird 
and the characteristics of shot. Birds that have larger surface to target 
ratios are more likely to suffer injury in the form of imbedded pellets but not 
death. "An Australian study of 40,000 ducks found that 9% of the relatively 
small grey teal had embedded pellets while 19 per cent of the larger mountain 
ducks had pellets." [F. Norman (1976) “The incidence of lead shotgun pellets in 
waterfowl (Anatidae and Rallidae) examined in south-eastern Australia between 
1957 and 1973”, Australian Wildlife Research 3, 61-71 ]

We also know that hunters, in common which much of the population in any skill 
based activity, are not as good as they think they are. "A 1987 Canadian study 
involved firstly asking hunters to estimate their cripple rate and then, from 
concealed hides, observing those same hunters and estimating cripple rates. The 
Canadian Wildlife Service staff observers counted 5 to 8 cripples for every 10 
birds bagged (which also includes wounded), but hunters admitted to only about 
2 cripples for 10 bagged."  [Nieman, D.J., Hochbaum, G.S., Caswell, F.D. & 
Turner, B.C. (1987), `Monitoring hunter performance in prairie Canada', 
Transactions of the 52nd North American Wildlife and Natural Resources 
Conference 52 ,233--245.]

None of this makes hunters bad people, it may make them people who are not able 
to consider what they are doing in a rational manner. In that, they can join 
the rest of the human race.  We all want to continue to do what we think is fun 
and we are blind to the harm our fun causes because if we were not, then it 
would be more difficult to maintain a positive self-regard.

Notwithstanding that, it is time that the government acted to ensure that 
shooting stops.

Quotes and sources taken from Animal Welfare Implications of Flying-fox control 
in Orchards by Shooting by Carol Booth, May 2007

I also suggest that people who are interested in further scientific information 
about the mechanics and outcomes of duck hunting review this page: 
http://www.animalliberation.org.au/ducks.php

Anyone interested in the outcomes of the shooting of flying-foxes as a means of 
control in orchards is welcome to check out 
http://www.hsi.org.au/index.php?catID=263 You will find a report on why 
shooting should stop, the results of autopsies on 58 animals taken from an 
orchard and information about the fates the further 147 animals effected by the 
shooting in that orchard. Of the 205 animals effected by this shooting, 196 
died. The remaining 9 survived only because of the action of the people 
conducting the study.

storm


-----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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