Last year I wrote an article about the 2010 Victorian duck shooting season. I spoke to the Campaign Director of the Coalition Against Duck Shooting, a member of the Victorian chapter of the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia, the founder of duck advocate youth group Duck Army, and a spokesperson for then Minister for Environment (VIC) Gavin Jennings. I also received a report from Professor Richard Kingsford at the University of New South Wales who has led extensive aerial waterbird surveys across Eastern Australia.
In light of a recent announcement by the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) regarding this year’s duck hunting season, I was compelled to post on this issue.
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The 2011 duck hunting season in Victoria is due to begin on March 19, running for 12 weeks until June 13. Executive Director of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services at the DSE, Kylie White, has defended the full 12 week season this year.
In a statement, Ms White said that substantial rainfall over the past year has “increased habitat for waterfowl including game bird populations. This in turn has triggered extensive breeding and wide dispersal of waterfowl across Eastern Australia’s wetlands. As a result, Victoria can sustain a return to normal seasonal arrangements in 2011”.
DSE’s highly flawed reasoning suggests that waterbirds’ sole purpose for breeding is to replenish their numbers for the benefit of hunters.
Last year, Laurie Levy of the Coalition Against Duck Shooting (CADS) told me that the DSE is tasked with supplying justifications for government sanctioned duck seasons.
“DSE staff have often said in private that if the government allows a duck shooting season, then it's DSE's job to supply arguments to justify the season. If, for example, the government doesn't want a season to go ahead then DSE would give you arguments supporting a moratorium or a ban”, Mr Levy said.
Waterbird numbers
Note that this year’s arguments for a season have centred on DSE’s assertions that heavy rainfall has led to an expanded habitat for waterbirds, resulting in increased breeding and mobility.
However, ongoing research by a University of New South Wales team - that has conducted aerial waterbird surveys over a 25-year period - has revealed that waterbird numbers have been long in significant decline. Surveys show a decrease in bird numbers of up to 80% since the early 1980s.
Considering this continuing sharp drop in the bird population, arguments supporting a 2011 season – or any future seasons – are untenable.
Mr Levy believes that duck hunting serves to compound the threat to bird numbers. Dwindling wild populations are due to a combination of factors such as long drought periods, water being diverted from rivers for irrigation, and climate change. Furthermore, Mr Levy pointed out that waterbirds do not breed unless conditions are ideal.
In a recent CADS media release, Mr Levy condemned the Victorian Government’s announcement of a 2011 duck shooting season. “Waterbirds have only just begun to recover in response to the rain in Victoria and east coast Australia”, he said. “This could wipe out every native waterbird in Victoria. The decision has nothing to do with science. It’s just an excuse by the Department of Sustainability and Environment for another bloody slaughter.”
Playing politics
While animal advocates are often described as “vocal minorities”, it is clear that the duck shooters hold the marginal opinion in this case. However, they are a loud minority backed by powerful interests and vindicated by successive Victorian governments.
The most recent poll conducted on public opinion of the duck hunt three years ago revealed that 87% of Victorians desire an end to duck shooting.
Clementine Round, the 15-year-old founder of Duck Army, said last year that despite public opposition she “cannot foresee a ban on duck shooting in Victoria happening in the near future. Our government is too busy pandering to the wishes of shooter lobby groups rather than listening to the 87% of Victorians who want duck shooting to stop”.
Miss Round was referring to the then Brumby Labor state government; however it is apparent that her words are still as pertinent with the Baillieu Liberal government’s recent endorsement of a 2011 duck season.
“We have politicians who do not have the courage to stand up to vocal, militant and organised shooting groups. They would rather take the easy path and pander to antisocial behaviours than stand up for animals that do not vote”, said Miss Round.
Mr Levy agreed that political support for the duck hunt is strong: “We have the public on side, however all three political parties in Victoria - Labor, Liberal and National - have always supported the shooters”.
Sanctioned slaughter
Duck advocates face other obstacles. Mr Levy strongly rebukes euphemistic terms used by DSE which serve to disguise the impact of the hunt on waterbirds. “Words like 'harvest' are used to make you think of a crop - harvesting wheat, as an example. It's done to make the public think that birds don't suffer any pain”, Mr Levy said.
(Insidious terminology which aims to camouflage the brutal reality of animal treatment is certainly not unfamiliar to animal advocates. Unfortunately, this kind of language - i.e. “humane slaughter”, “happy meat”, etc. - has become quite pervasive.)
There is also the spin coming from the side of the shooters, who regularly claim they are conservationists that actively campaign for wetland protection. And along with government support, the duck shooters have the law firmly on side.
“Duck shooting is legalised cruelty. The Wildlife Act overrides the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, so the RSPCA cannot legally prosecute duck shooters”, Mr Levy said.
CADS state in their recent media release that they are consulting with environmental lawyers concerning legal action against the Baillieu Government, in the hope of preventing hunting on the Bellarine Peninsula, at Lake Connewarre, Reedy Lake and Hospital Swamp.
Let’s hope that the campaign to put an end to this atrocious mass slaughter of Australian wildlife is successful.
**This blog post inspired me to write an article about this year's VIC duck hunting season, which was published on The Scavenger.
For information on supporting the campaign against the duck hunt, please see:
Coalition Against Duck Shooting: http://www.duck.org.au/
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Coalition-Against-Duck-Shooting/147897351061
Duck Army - Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/DUCK-ARM-Y/306316356363
