The perils of speaking about Thai elephant exploitation

My latest piece, The perils of speaking about Thai elephant exploitation, was inspired by the recent raids of authorities on two leading wildlife sanctuaries in Thailand.

The Thai tourism industry generates massive profits from selling elephant-related activities to tourists. The tourism industry conceals the dark reality behind these activities: the brutal abuse that elephants are subjected to in order to "prepare" them for a life of providing elephant rides, painting pictures for tourists, playing football, etc.

Public ignorance is part of the tourism industry's agenda, therefore those who speak up against the abuse of elephants have faced intimidation and threats. There is strong indication that the recent wildlife sanctuary raids were an effort by Thai officials to cover up their own involvement in the illegal trading of elephants within the country, by hushing those speaking out.

Jerry Nelson who runs blog "Asian Elephant Stories" reposted my article on his blog.

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The perils of speaking about Thai elephant exploitation

13 March 2012

Recent raids on two wildlife charities in Thailand have caused outrage in wildlife protection circles. These incidents have been interpreted as an attempt to intimidate and silence wildlife conservationists speaking out about illegal elephant trading within the country. Suspicions as to the complicity of Thai authorities in the trade of elephants are well-founded, and are likely to be behind efforts to muzzle campaigners, Susannah Waters reports.

Elephant riding has long been championed by tourist operators within Thailand. The Tourism Authority of Thailand promotes it with a dizzying excitement: it claims elephant riding is an “integral part of all tourists’ visits”, that “there are few experiences in Thailand more iconic”, and that “riding atop one of these intelligent yet gigantic creatures is often the highlight of one’s trip to Thailand”.

The activity is presented as an exhilarating, not-to-be-missed experience of a lifetime.

Not surprisingly, absent from the over-hyped descriptions of promised tourist thrills is the reality of abuse, over-work and exploitation of tourist elephants. Missing from the glossy tour leaflets is mention of the phajaan training ceremony, the brutal sustained abuse young elephants are forced to endure in preparation for a lifetime of carrying tourists, performing in animal shows, and even painting pictures for tourist amusement.

A blow-by-blow of the phajaan doesn’t make for light reading. The confining and beating with metal hooks and sharp implements, the deprivation of sleep and food, and the ultimate breaking of the spirit to transform Thailand’s “intelligent yet gigantic” creatures into mere shells of submission, consequently renders them more malleable to an industry with a lot to gain.

And also a lot to hide. The cruel training ritual inflicted on all domestic and tourist elephants is the industry’s dirty little secret.

As is the illegal poaching and trading of elephants within the country, alleged to have links to Thai government officials and prominent businessmen.

Complicity and cover-ups  

Recent weeks have seen two leading Thai wildlife charities subjected to raids by Department of National Parks (DNP) officials. In February, the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT) faced several days of raids resulting in the violent removal of 103 animals from their sanctuary in Phetchaburi. At the time of writing, only three animals had been returned.

Founder of WFFT, Edwin Wiek, had penned a letter to a Thai newspaper only days earlier, in which he outlined the issue of baby elephants being poached from the wild to supply Thai elephant camps. He estimated that over half of all young elephants in tourist camps were “wild-caught”.

Wiek suggested a cover-up had taken place over the recent deaths of six elephants within two national parks. Despite claims by a government official they were likely slaughtered for “bush-meat”, Wiek believed a more realistic scenario was they’d been killed to obtain their babies for tourist elephant camps.

In addition to detailing the huge financial incentives driving the demand for wild-caught baby elephants, Wiek alleged that “influential people” buttressed elephant trafficking and that bribing of officials was standard. 

There is strong indication that the ensuing harassment of WFFT’s sanctuary just days later was no coincidence, and was directly linked to Wiek’s explosive claims rather than DNP’s stated need to urgently sight legal documentation for the animals under WFFT’s care. 

In strikingly similar circumstances, shortly after Elephant Nature Park (ENP) founder Sangduen ‘Lek’ Chailert was interviewed on Thai TV about the illegal elephant trade, the DNP converged on her park’s Chiang Mai grounds.

The elephant rescue and conservation group was raided three times by the DNP in February, ostensibly to seize illegally kept wild elephants. Upon finding none during the first two raids, officials conceded that there were no wild elephants housed among the park’s herd of rescued elephants.

Yet, DNP officials returned to the park several days after Chailert joined Wiek and elephant conservationist Antoinette van de Water for a Bangkok press conference, where they discussed the illegal elephant trade.   

Staff and volunteers staged a protest as officials again entered the park, but no confiscations or arrests were carried out – despite a tip-off that they would. However, DNP have pledged to return, purportedly to chase up documentation for several elephants at the park.

In a video discussing the raids, Chailert questioned why the 16 elephant camps in the region were not also being scrutinised.  

Punishing the protectors

The harassment of wildlife campaigners in Thailand is not without precedent.

Antoinette van de Water, founder of elephant conservation group Bring the Elephant Home (BTEH), has worked to protect elephants for a decade in Thailand. Fresh from the Bangkok press conference and the protests at the Elephant Nature Park (a group she has worked closely with for years), she tells The Scavenger that she is proud of the work BTEH has achieved for the benefit of elephants.

But she admits her efforts have sometimes come at a personal cost. 

Two years ago, a media storm erupted in reaction to revelations about the forced breeding of elephants in van de Water’s book, The Great Elephant Escape. She was accused of lying and fabricating the information, and of insulting Thailand. 

In statements to the media, so-called elephant “experts” tried to discredit van de Water, denied that forced breeding happens, and declared that she should be deported from Thailand.

“I received some serious warnings. I don’t get scared easily, but this made me feel at least a bit uncomfortable in Thailand”, reveals van de Water. “Even organisations I used to work together with didn’t speak out to defend me. It’s all about the political position, and this is more important than animal welfare, I learned”.

During her 10 years in Thailand, van de Water has witnessed elephant abuse first-hand, including the cruel training of baby elephants. From experience, she knew how problematic it was to raise these issues publicly and that she risked getting “in a lot of trouble”.

Her frustration grew as it became clear it would be difficult to fight “the corrupted powerful gang of people” at the heart of the elephant trade.

Van de Water has found this aspect of working in Thailand so frustrating that she now feels better placed to advocate for elephants away from Thailand, and has made the difficult decision to leave.

“I am not giving up; I will stay active for animals, including Thai elephants. But I feel that I can do more, and be much more appreciated, in another part of the world”, says van de Water.

She believes that the raids at ENP and WFFT happened because Chailert and Wiek have been “very outspoken” in the Thai media about the recent elephant killings.

“I believe they [the DNP] did this to intimidate these NGOs and to save face”, claims van de Water.

Abused by the system

The relentless marketing of elephant activities to tourists falsely depicts these experiences as harmless to elephants, and often places them in a “get back to nature” context.

Suffice to say that there is nothing natural about the enforced enslavement of elephants for tourist entertainment.

Elephant riding and related activities serve to entrap elephants in a cycle of abuse while simultaneously depleting their numbers in the wild. Thus, the paying tourist becomes an accessory to elephant exploitation.

Wiek alluded to this in his controversial letter, stating that “people who ignore what is occurring effectively support the killing and torture of wild-born elephants”.

But with strong and sustained attempts to hush critics such as Wiek, unfortunately many tourists are none the wiser about elephant abuse. The industry which reaps immense profits from appropriating elephants has a vested interest in maintaining the ignorance of tourists.

Worryingly, Thai officials are allegedly involved in facilitating the traffic and poaching of elephants.

Van de Water says that she has encountered ample evidence of this.

Last year, her group was informed of some seriously injured elephants in Surin province. Upon arrival they discovered a severely injured young adult elephant with a tusk missing and deep cuts across her entire body. They were initially told by a mahout that he’d rescued her, but the truth was uncovered later that night: the group of mahouts had been shooting wild adult elephants in order to steal babies from the herd.

The injured elephant was captured and immediately forced into torturous phajaan training. The plan was to then sell her to the tourism industry.

Van de Water’s group asked how the mahouts could sell an elephant without any documentation. All captive-born elephants over the age of 8 are required to be registered.

“They just laughed about this question: easy! One way is to use the papers of a domesticated elephant that died already. But even easier: powerful people will just make the papers”, recounts van de Water.

Because elephants under 8 years of age don’t require paperwork, wild-caught babies are often simply passed off as the offspring of domestic elephants.

Van de Water claims that at the annual Surin Elephant Round-up, organised by the Surin government, there are scores of baby elephants. She detests the event - which features choreographed elephant shows and “performances” including football games – but attends to maintain a watchful eye. Once she collaborated with Animal Planet on the filming of a behind-the-scenes documentary there.

Physical signs of the abuse of baby elephants are clearly visible at the festival, van de Water says. “When you have a closer look at the babies, you will see incredible abuse. Head completely covered with wounds, of a baby not even a year old”.

Her conversations with mahouts at the event have been illuminating. Many admitted that they bought wild-caught young elephants, and disclosed that “very powerful and influential” people assisted with arrangements.

Van de Water asserts that the recent national park elephant deaths, which prompted Wiek’s letter to the media, did have Department of National Parks involvement. This is known within Thailand, she says, and they most certainly were motivated by the prospect of big money.

“Unless the forestry department makes a big change to get rid of corruption and start to really enforce laws, I’m worried a lot about wild elephants…. Even though many elephants die, they will still have elephants to expose: playing football, painting pictures, carrying tourists.  A sad image of the future of Thai elephants, no? But this is the direction Thailand is taking”, van de Water laments.

The cry of elephants in the ‘land of smiles’

The weight of evidence suggests that the recent raids on WFFT and ENP were a form of punitive action, aiming to silence and constrain wildlife conservationists. The message is loud and clear: speak out and suffer the consequences.

But elephants don’t have the luxury of time on their side. Their situation grows ever more precarious by the year. With as little as 1500  wild elephants remaining in Thailand, the urgency for conservationists to inform the public is stronger than ever.

Elephants’ continued survival depends on these dedicated campaigners to advocate for their rights in Thailand. A successful suppression of wildlife campaigners would condemn Thai elephants to an even more perilous existence.

But the world is watching, and in recent weeks WFFT and ENP have been inundated with messages of support. Protests are being organised at Thai embassies around the world to demand the return of confiscated animals to WFFT’s sanctuary.

Although it is an uphill battle, the tenacity and hard work of many to end the illegal trade and exploitation of elephants is unlikely to waver.

“No matter how much they will try to intimidate us, the truth will come out. We have too many supporters to let this happen again”, insists van de Water.  

See the Elephant Nature Park and Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand websites for the latest developments.  

Related reading:

Wildlife tourism in Thailand: Cruel and exploitative?

Photos: Abused elephant in Kanchanaburi province, group of elephants at Elephant Nature Park; abused elephant in Surin; all courtesy of Bring the Elephant Home.

Wildlife tourism in Thailand: Cruel and exploitative?

My latest article for The Scavenger, "Wildlife tourism in Thailand: Cruel and exploitative?"
It is about the exploitation of wildlife by tourists in Thailand, through activities such as elephant riding. Some of these activities are considered to be quite harmless, but they are in fact very damaging to wildlife species and cause massive cruelty to individual animals.

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Wildlife tourism in Thailand: Cruel and exploitative?

10 June 2011

Experiencing the local wildlife whilst on holidays is high on the agenda of many holiday-makers. But can a seemingly harmless interaction have wider implications for wildlife conservation? Susannah Waters uncovers the consequences of some popular wildlife-based tourist activities in Thailand, and writes that the widespread use of animals for entertainment is a massive threat to many critically endangered species - and very damaging to individual animals.


Bam Bam was obsessed with a turtle soft toy. The turtle dwarfed her tiny furry frame, and she hugged it constantly, swaying back and forth. The sweet-faced orphaned baby gibbon missed her mother.

The illegal wildlife trade is considered the biggest threat to individual species following habitat loss. The trading of animals among and within countries places intense pressure on wild populations, and has propelled many species to the edge of extinction.

In addition to the lucrative trade in animal parts and the pet market, there is another sinister factor driving this demand for wild-caught animals: the tourism industry.

Despite a period of political unrest which transformed tourist-mecca Bangkok into a battleground, Thailand demonstrated its enduring popularity as a tourist destination with a record 15.8 million visitors last year.

The allure of this South East Asian nation is understandable: the white sandy beaches, ancient temples, and variety of wildlife are captivating.

And the opportunities to interact with wildlife are plentiful. Owing to the common use of many species as tourist attractions in Thailand, holiday-makers can pay for an up-close encounter. Tourists are able to ride an elephant along a forest trail, hold and have their photo taken with a baby gibbon, or pat a tiger and get a snapshot souvenir.

But at what price to the animal is that snapshot, that fleeting sensation of silken fur between the fingers, or that ride atop an elephant’s back?

The price is often life, say wildlife conservationists. They claim that education is vital to helping tourists make informed choices, and to discourage their often inadvertent support of species depletion and the exploitation of wildlife.

Primates in peril

There was a time when the loud, haunting call of the white-handed gibbon echoed through the rainforests of Thailand’s largest island Phuket. But habitat loss and heavy poaching led to the extinction of the island’s gibbon population 30 years ago, and the once-vibrant forests fell eerily silent. 

Today, Phuket’s gibbon population is largely represented on the streets and beaches rather than the forest. These gibbons have been sold via the illegal wildlife trade on mainland Thailand.

The endearing white-framed faces and cuddly appeal of baby gibbons lures many a tourist to pay for a photo or hug in the popular holiday spots of Thailand each year.

Carried and exhibited on their owners’ shoulders, these small apes are handled by a succession of paying customers, to be displayed as photo adornments in an intrusive camera flash frenzy. Gibbons can also be found in bars where they are forced to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes for cheap thrills.

Life as a tourist attraction is harsh. Baby gibbons are often administered drugs to keep them docile, they are vulnerable to diseases such as Hepatitis A and B, and once they reach sexual maturity their fading appeal and increased strength sees them cast off – to either become private pets, dumped, or killed.

Phuket’s Gibbon Rehabilitation Project (GRP), a centre for former pet and tourist attraction white-handed gibbons, aims to rehabilitate and reintroduce ex-captive gibbons back to the wild. To date, it has successfully released several family groups into the Khao Pra Theaw forest.

The GRP has a popular education centre which informs visitors about gibbon conservation, and the devastating impact tourist activities can have on these petite primates. It estimates that as many as 10 gibbons are killed for every baby successfully poached from the wild.

To obtain a baby, poachers often shoot and kill their entire treetop-dwelling family unit in the forest. Babies also frequently die from injuries incurred falling the great distance from their mother’s arms to the forest floor.

It has been illegal to poach gibbons from the wild in Thailand since 1992.

White-handed gibbons, along with the nine other gibbon species in South East Asia, are recorded in Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Appendix 1 specifically covers species threatened with extinction.

Primate conservationist Petra Osterberg has undertaken volunteer work at the GRP several times, and currently works in the Primate Welfare Team at Wild Futures’ Monkey Sanctuary in the UK. She says that the use of gibbons for entertainment is a “very serious” threat to wild populations.

“Because gibbons have been locally extinct in Phuket for 30 years or more, the baby gibbons brought in for entertainment are coming from further and further afield, and their captures are affecting populations already vulnerable from deforestation and other disruptions to the habitat”, Osterberg tells The Scavenger.

She says that the problem goes even deeper: “The fact that poachers are killing female gibbons to get to their infant is creating a gender bias in the remaining populations”. Osterberg says that this has resulted in a “genetic viability problem” within wild groups. This is significant, as gibbons are monogamous and mate for life.

In regard to tourist participation in gibbon exploitation, Osterberg says “I’m sure most would never accept a similar treatment of wildlife in their own home countries.”

She suspects it largely comes down to holiday behaviour. “Many are excited about, and willing to pay for, the prospect of being in the presence of exotic wild animals”. Osterberg doesn’t believe that all tourists are completely aware of the “individual suffering” of gibbons, and the effect tourist actions may have on wild populations.

Elephant exploitation 

Considered an “integral” holiday activity by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, elephant riding is frequently on the traveller itinerary. “Begging” elephants are also a visible presence on bustling city streets, their owners jostling with other vendors for the tourist dollar.

But tourist support of these activities reinforces elephants’ endangered status.

Conclusive population data is difficult to obtain, but reports suggest there are somewhere between 500 and 1,500 wild elephants remaining in Thailand, and over 2,000 that are domesticated or in captivity. Overall numbers are decreasing by 5 - 10% per year. Asian elephants are classified as highly endangered.

During her first trip to Thailand in 2002, Bring the Elephant Home director Antoinette van de Water witnessed the suffering of tourist attraction elephants. The former marketing executive from the Netherlands encountered begging baby elephants on crowded city streets, and says it left a “deep impression”.

At that time she was a volunteer at the Elephant Nature Foundation’s Elephant Nature Park (ENP), a sanctuary for formerly abused elephants within a peaceful valley in Chiang Mai. There, van de Water learned much more about the plight of tourist elephants than she had anticipated.

She also became distressed by the disparity between a recently rescued baby elephant’s new life at ENP, and the gloomy prospects of young elephants she had observed performing in public.

All domesticated elephants used in tourism in Thailand – whether for elephant riding, street begging, elephant shows and performances such as painting – have been trained from a very young age, using brutal methods in order to render them submissive.

The training method which elephants undergo is referred to as the “phajaan”. During the phajaan training ceremony, elephants are confined and chained in crush cages for days on end, and are repeatedly beaten with metal hooks, stabbed with sharp implements in their ears, whipped, starved and deprived of sleep. These young elephants have usually only just been separated from their mothers.

The Elephant Nature Foundation contends that “some elephants are mentally and emotionally damaged for life from this ordeal”.

Since the aim of the phajaan is to break the spirit of an elephant, recovery “depends on the elephant, the training, and the care after the training”, van de Water tells The Scavenger. “For example with Dok Ngern, the first elephant I rescued, it took half a year before she could socialise with other elephants”.

Upon Dok Ngern’s rescue from a life of begging and performing, she was homed at Elephant Nature Park. Dok Ngern still bears the mental and physical scars from the cruel phajaan training ritual and sustained abuse.

The Elephant Nature Foundation claims that elephants in the tourist industry face a “bleak” future. Many of the elephants now roaming the valley at the ENP sanctuary were formerly used for tourist entertainment, such as elephant riding.

Van de Water believes that elephant riding is popular amongst tourists as elephants “look so strong and people don’t think that it would harm them”. In relation to barbaric training methods, she says, “the problem is that most people don’t know”.

Many baby elephants used for these purposes in Thailand are now being bought from Burma, van de Water says. She affirms that tourist activities involving elephants present a “massive threat” to wild elephant populations in the region.

Van de Water set up organisation Bring the Elephant Home in 2004, and has now devoted her life to protecting elephants.

Sigh of the tiger

The legendary might of tigers can also disguise their suffering.

In Thailand, tourists are often enticed to visit captive tigers in facilities where visitors can pat them and pose for photographs. Sybelle Foxcroft, of conservation education group cee4life, is particularly damning of one such popular facility: the Tiger Temple.

Although touted as a “sanctuary” for tigers, Foxcroft says that the Tiger Temple – which attracts hundreds of visitors daily - preys on people’s fascination with tigers while concealing the ill-treatment of the tigers detained there.

While on a scientific stay, undertaking research on tigers in captivity, Foxcroft discovered the dark side of the Tiger Temple. She says that it was immediately apparent the Temple was “not all it was portrayed to be”.

Foxcroft’s research quickly shifted focus. “I was originally there to research Indochinese Tiger captive care, but the research quickly became an up-close look at abuse and the wildlife trade”, she tells The Scavenger.

Foxcroft says that visitors, who pose for photographs with the chained-up tigers for a fee, are usually so overwhelmed by the experience that they overlook issues of tiger welfare. “Tourists are often blinded by the beauty of tigers - they don’t look around at their captive environment, they just want the photograph”, she says.

During her first and subsequent stays at the Temple, Foxcroft found that “abuse was rampant”, and included physical violence towards the tigers. She also claims that the living quarters are grossly inadequate, comprising “small cement undersized cages with no outdoor sections. There is no enrichment, and there is no exercise”.

Disturbingly, Foxcroft also uncovered evidence of the Temple’s link to the illegal wildlife trade. An investigation by Care for the Wild International has also alleged illegal tiger trafficking by the Temple, and “systematic physical abuse” of the tigers there.

“After witnessing the first trade, I decided that I would try everything I could to stop them”, says Foxcroft. “Places like the Tiger Temple are directly linked to, and responsible for, the endangerment of tiger sub-species in the wild”.

Globally, tigers are critically endangered across all sub-species. WWF estimates that only 100 Indochinese tigers survive in the wild in Thailand. No exact figure of captive tigers is known, however there are possibly thousands.

Foxcroft believes that the public would be horrified if they knew what happened behind the scenes. “The public are inadvertently contributing to the wildlife trade, and if they knew, no decent person would go”.

But sometimes even vigilant travellers can be misled.

Australian Jasmine Bates visited Thailand with a friend and said that it was common to see wildlife displayed on the streets. “Being concerned about the treatment of animals, we checked tour leaflets thoroughly before we booked anything”, Bates tells The Scavenger.

Therefore, she says they were disappointed when a market tour culminated in a trip to see some caged gibbons. Despite her unplanned experience with the gibbons, she believes that tourists have the power to discourage the mistreatment of wildlife.

“People should take more responsibility in educating themselves before travelling”, Bates says.

For Osterberg, the image of a tiny female “photo” gibbon being dragged relentlessly around Phuket is forever imprinted in her memory. The gibbon’s unknown fate, and the helplessness Osterberg felt, has sealed her commitment to primate conservation. “She became one of an endless, but invisible, number of wild animals that are lost to the tourist entertainment industry every year”, she says.

Other victims of the wildlife trade are luckier.

Bam Bam, the turtle-hugging gibbon, is now a young adult. She has been residing at the GRP since the day she arrived as a traumatised baby. She may soon return to a life in the forest, joining the other newly-wild gibbons who have a new hope for survival in the awakening forests of Phuket.



The Gibbon Rehabilitation Project’s tour desk is open to visitors who can learn more about gibbon conservation. Some of the gibbons can be viewed from a distance.

The Elephant Nature Park is also open to visitors, who can see the elephants during a day trip or overnight stay.

Susannah Waters is an associate editor at the Scavenger. She has worked as a volunteer on several wildlife conservation and rescue projects in Thailand and other parts of Asia.

Seasonal slaughter shame

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