After the heavy fine handed out in March 2013 to a shooter for shooting a
Freckled Duck ( $1000 fine with $5000 costs ) The Field and Game applied in
2014 to
the D P I to allow shooters to shoot one Freckled Duck.
Their argument was that Freckled Ducks were too hard to identify for most
shooters and the fines handed out were too large. ( An excuse for their
incompetence )
Living in Qld I had never followed up the result of this application and
presumed after talking to several shooters over the last week that this was
allowed.
They told me they could make one mistake as long as they didn't bring the
duck from the swamp.
Inquiries yesterday confirmed that the shooting of them is still highly
Illegal and this was never allowed although very few have been put into
court of late.
This line of thinking by the shooters is that the D P I inspectors would be
lenient as it is almost impossible to tell who shot the bird, this thinking
by many shooters is resulting
in so many Freckled Ducks being picked up after the opening day at various
swamps by C A D S etc.
Their thinking will certainly result in some very costly enlightenment for
some in the future.
The law states that a fully feathered wing must be left on the duck till
immediately before cooking or the shooter arrives at his house of residence.
This is for identification purposes but is rarely done and a lot of
shooters nowadays don't pluck their ducks, only taking two fillets off the
breast.
When the D P I took over the responsibility for duck shooting season from
the Dep. of Sustainability and Environment lots of staff were retrenched and
offices closed not leaving
enough staff for policing of the shooters.
The majority of shooters know their ducks and act responsibly it is the few
" Rednecks " that will and are wrecking it for all.
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