Horse racing: The hidden cruelty revealed

Check out my article, "Horse racing: The hidden cruelty revealed", which was published in The Scavenger. It is about the racehorse deaths that the racing industry tries to hide. I was largely inspired by the more visible - and continuing - deaths in jumps racing. Six horses have now died on track in Victoria and South Australia since the commencement of this year's jumps racing seasons.
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Horse racing: The hidden cruelty revealed

14 May 2011

Jumps racing has been cropping up in the news after a series of track deaths in the UK and Australia. But while track deaths are problematic for racing’s image, the fate of countless other racehorses is hidden from the public, writes Susannah Waters.

While racegoers clutched betting slips and peered toward the finish line that sunny afternoon, horses Ornais and Dooneys Gate lay away from their gaze, broken and dying behind swiftly assembled screens.

The former Grand National contenders were concealed from view after suffering horrific injuries in the notoriously dangerous event, held on a long course covering 30 challenging jump fences. But the odds were stacked heavily against all 40 starting horses: only 19 were able to finish the gruelling race.  

April marked the commencement of the UK’s annual Aintree race meeting, featuring the Grand National event, and the beginning of the controversial jumps racing seasons in two Australian states.  

Jumps racing has long been steeped in controversy owing to its inordinately high mortality rate. This brand of racing, which requires thoroughbred horses to leap over a succession of fences, is estimated to be up to 20 times more fatal than flat horse racing.

The fences claimed victims early in the Victorian and South Australian jumps seasons, where five horses died after suffering traumatic on-track injuries within a four-week period. Australian jumps racing was plunged into further scandal when a horse leapt into a crowd during one of Victoria’s showpiece events, resulting in seven spectators being hospitalised.  

Ward Young, Communications Manager for the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses in Victoria, is hopeful that the recent incidents will be a catalyst for a final ban on jumps racing in Australia.

“While the racing industry and government can put on a brave face, the continuing deaths in jumps racing will wear them very thin and a tipping point will be reached where they decide ‘enough is enough’”, he tells The Scavenger.

Witnessing a horse’s death during a jumps event two years ago had a profound impact on Young, and strengthened his commitment to organise against jumps racing.

Although the sizable on-track body count has provoked a sustained campaign to end jumps racing in Australia, the high fatalities are simply acknowledged – and by all appearances, accepted – as inherent to jumps within racing circles.

Rodney Rae, president of Australian Jumping Racing, recently conceded to an Australian newspaper that "there hasn't been a jumps racing season where we haven't had a fatality". A shocking 13 horses were killed on Australian jumps tracks in 2009.

It is reported that three horses die on average at the three-day UK Aintree meeting each year. Bolstered by outrage at the recent deaths, a call to ban Aintree’s Grand National event has garnered extensive support.

More race horse deaths

But jumps racing does not exist in isolation, and should be viewed firmly within the context of horse racing as a whole. While more prevalent, racehorse deaths are not exclusive to jumps racing events – nor to the racecourse.

Since 2007, UK group Animal Aid has been recording all British on-track racehorse deaths in all types of racing. The group’s Race Horse Death Watch indicates that 68 thoroughbreds died on British racecourses as a result of racing injuries over the first four months of this year.

While it does not factor in the deaths of racehorses away from the track, it provides a rare insight into the perilous nature of horse racing. Countless causes of death are listed, including descriptions such as “injured hind leg – destroyed”, “fell – broke neck” and “collapsed and died after race”.  

Late last year, it was reported by the U.S. Jockey Club that approximately 1,500 thoroughbreds died due to injury on U.S. racecourses in the preceding two-year period.

However, independent research conducted in 2008 revealed that many deaths went unreported by racing organisations within the country, and indicated a staggering over three horse deaths per day on U.S. racecourses.  

While these deaths highlight the dangers of racing events, they are in fact just the tip of the iceberg. Track deaths are a more visible display of horse racing’s often more covert exploitation of horses.  

The screens which obscured the view of the horses killed at the Grand National are somewhat emblematic of racing’s ever-present dilemma: they demonstrate that lurking beyond its carefully constructed image of glamour and prestige, it is an industry with much to hide.

Horses slaughtered for human consumption and pet food

A rarely publicised and unpalatable fact is that many ex-racehorses, and many horses reared for the purposes of racing, end up on dinner tables in Europe and Japan. Countless others are condemned to the pet food industry.

Young says that in the past, prominent figures in the racing industry denied ex-racehorses were sent to slaughter. He says that now it is “indisputable” and a “standard practice” of the industry.

Far from retiring on idyllic green pastures, many horses are sold to slaughterhouses and knackeries once they are deemed to have exhausted their usefulness within racing.

“Retired” may evoke images of old and unsteady horses, but those discarded by the racing industry and sold to slaughter in Australia can be as young as two years old. A 2006 British report claimed that the majority of racehorses there are killed before their fifth birthdays. The normal life expectancy of a thoroughbred is around 30 years of age.

Official government figures state that up to 40,000 “failed or retired sport horses” and “feral” horses are killed yearly in Australia, specifically for the lucrative horse meat trade. However a horse meat industry insider last year said that 50,000 – 70,000 horses are slaughtered annually.

Australia is a large exporter of horse meat to overseas markets, and while it is difficult to ascertain precise numbers, evidence suggests that failed and former racehorses may comprise as many as 60% of all horses slaughtered in this industry.  

There are several reasons why so many thoroughbreds are prematurely cast off from the racing industry. A central factor is the sheer overabundance of horses being bred for racing.  

As the world’s largest breeder of thoroughbreds, there are around 1.3 million thoroughbred horses in the U.S., with up to 50,000 foals born there every year. Meanwhile, Australia is placed as the second largest thoroughbred breeder with over 17,000 foals born annually – a significant number considering the much smaller human population here.  

With masses of potential racehorses at the racing industry’s disposal, horses can be replaced quickly once they cease turning a profit.

Animal Aid claims that only 40% of foals bred for racing in the UK and Ireland actually go on to race. Australian statistics are similar.

Blinded by dollar signs

Much of the problem for racehorses stems from the way they are viewed within the racing industry. The industry promotes a culture where horses are regarded as expendable products and commodities – to be bought, sold, and ultimately discarded.

A racehorse’s value is tied directly to monetary considerations. These horses are generally not valued on their own terms, as sentient individuals. They are instead prized as profit-generating units of labour.

Racehorses’ status as replaceable commodities is entrenched in the racing industry. The language frequently used by members of the racing fraternity to refer to racehorses affirms this.

Comments likening the danger of horse racing to the risks taken by humans in sporting activities are common, and suggestive of a cavalier attitude towards horse deaths.

South Australian Thoroughbred Racing chairwoman Frances Nelson recently described horse racing as a “competitive sport” in which “accidents will happen”.

She added: "No one likes to see that happen, but in any competitive sport you will have a level of risk. The same occurs with human beings - look at footballers, look at athletes".

Her statement echoes that of David McCammon, whose horse Killyglen ran – and fell, rendering him unable to complete the race – in the recent Grand National.

“In every other sport there are dangers, just take motorcycling and car racing. You know the risk you are taking with the horses but they have been bred for racing”, McCammon said.  

The owner of Ornais, the horse who died after his neck was broken in the same event, referred to Ornais’ death as “unfortunate”, saying “we all take chances in our life”.

The parallels between horses’ involvement in racing and human participation in sports is, in reality, extremely tenuous.

The fundamental difference is the issue of consent. While jockeys and motorsport racers can provide informed consent for their participation, this cannot logically be claimed for horses.

Some contend that horses “love” to race, and that if they did not wish to, they would simply refuse to leave the starting gate - as horses sometimes do. This argument not only confuses horses’ participation with a willingness to race, but also ignores the fact that racehorses are extensively trained to be subordinate and obey commands.

This enforced subservience is an essential feature of the racing industry.

Comments made by the trainer for Dooneys Gate, the horse who died after breaking his back at the Grand National, display a corresponding attitude. Willie Mullins referred to the deceased horse as having been “a good servant to us”.  

Away from the pomp of racing events, a racehorse’s everyday life can involve the monotony of hours of confinement and a vulnerability to health conditions such as gastric ulcers, which affects up to 93% of Australian racehorses. This affliction is largely caused by stress and an unnatural diet.

Young believes that aspects of cruelty hidden from the public are fundamental to the preservation of racing and its glossy façade.

“Most people will never witness horses who are kept in their racing stables the size of a standard bedroom for 22 hours a day, or see the terrible sight of ex-racehorses who are no longer profitable waiting to receive a bullet in the head at a knackery”, he says.

The relentless pursuit to protect its image is symptomatic of an industry with a lot at stake: over $14.3 billion is poured into racing by the Australian public annually, while in excess of £12 billion is wagered by the British public. More than £250 million was gambled on 2011 Grand National day alone.  

Money is also often diverted into racing by governments. In Australia, the Victorian government has pledged to inject $2 million into jumps racing over the next four years.

But beyond the alluring sparkle of big money, exists an immense stable of misery: where many of the once-glorified winners, the fleetingly-feted champions, the old odds-on favourites, the outmoded outsiders, and the former 100-to-ones, are consigned. 

Fancy stage names now cast aside, they are reduced to a number and forgotten, while the conveyor belt of fresh horses incites a new wave of cash-coloured dreams.

Visit the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (Australia) and Animal Aid’s Horse Racing campaign in the UK.

Images from top: Horse in knackery awaiting slaughter, courtesy of Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses; Java Star, courtesy of Uproar; Horses killed for meat; and Ledgers Dream, both courtesy of Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses.

"As long as the razor wire exists" - Detention dehumanises asylum seekers

My article on asylum seekers and the dehumanising conditions within Australian immigration detention centres, published on The Scavenger: "Detention dehumanises asylum seekers".

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Detention dehumanises asylum seekers

09 April 2011

Increasing rates of self-harm and a recent spate of suicides reveal a troubling picture of Australian immigration detention centres. Deteriorating conditions are taking their toll on asylum seekers, yet the Australian government is persisting with its policy of mandatory detention. Susannah Waters speaks to some people at the heart of the issue, and discovers the extent to which asylum seekers are dehumanised by the system.

Stepping off the plane, Mohsen Soltany was confused – he didn’t think the weather in the United Kingdom would be this hot. Baffled, he questioned the immigration officer.

“UK?”. No – not the UK. He was in Perth. Perth, Australia. 

Soltany arrived in Australia in 1999 via Malaysia – or Singapore, he’s not sure – on a journey which started in Iran and traced through Turkey. People smugglers arranged his flight to Perth, a city Soltany had no knowledge of before his arrival.

Not that he would get the opportunity to acquaint himself: after declaring himself a refugee, Soltany was transported directly to Perth Detention Centre. His next four years were spent behind the razor wire in various Australian immigration detention centres.

Staying in Iran wasn’t an option. Soltany loves his country, but firmly believes he faced certain death after trying to expose government corruption.

Through his work, Soltany - then a politically active man in his late twenties - was exposed to the corrupt dealings of the government, and was also privy to information about Iran’s infamous chain murders. After penning an anonymous letter to a newspaper condemning the government, Soltany’s house was searched by officials. Although not home at the time, he tells The Scavenger “I knew I had to leave”.

While Soltany’s unplanned arrival in Australia is symbolic of the vulnerability of asylum seekers, it is perhaps also illustrative of how government policy – however strict – cannot deter people from fleeing danger and seeking refuge here. Most of those people, like Soltany, will arrive by plane.

And many will spend months, even years, in detention centres.

Ian Rintoul first knew Soltany as a name in Villawood Detention Centre. Rintoul makes it his business to know who is behind the razor wire: he is spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition, the group at the epicentre of Sydney’s refugee campaign. The 57-year-old’s involvement in refugee issues stretches back to the early 1990s, but he pinpoints the Howard era and rise of Pauline Hanson as pivotal to his participation in the movement.

When he claims that in recent years government policies on asylum seekers have both “improved and worsened”, his laugh reveals the irony is not lost on him.

“While superficial characteristics and administrative things have changed, the fundamental underpinnings of the refugee issues in Australia haven’t changed”, Rintoul tells The Scavenger. He believes that Gillard government strategies - such as mandatory detention, “stopping the boats”, and regional processing centres - mean “we’re back with all the essentials of the policies we had under the Howard government”.

Rintoul considers the “absolute punitive quality” of detention as one of the worst aspects of asylum seeker policy. Approximately 6,660 people are currently held in Australian immigration detention. Rintoul cites overcrowding, lack of services, and social isolation as instrumental to the self-harm and mental health problems within the detention centres.

Amnesty International has also criticised the conditions in detention centres, deeming them “unacceptable”. The organisation recently inspected several Australian detention centres and reported that detainees are “at grave risk of self-harm and mental illness”.  It claims that conditions are deteriorating to a point where attempted suicides are on the increase.

Of particular concern are conditions at Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre, where stays are lengthy and self-harm is increasing. More than a third of all people in Australian immigration detention live on Christmas Island.

27-year-old student Rachel Connor* has been to Christmas Island. As a volunteer English teacher at the detention centre for six weeks last year, she witnessed the fragile mental state of many of the detainees.

“The truth is that almost all of the refugees suffered from some form of mental disturbance from being in the centres, as well as the complex history of trauma they carry from previous experience”, Connor tells The Scavenger. She outlines some of the restrictions placed on the detained asylum seekers, such as “timed and monitored” recreation time. She says that detainees are not free to come and go, and that parts of the facility seem “like a prison”.

Nevertheless, Connor believes her English classes had a direct benefit on the asylum seekers, as she says the routine task of practicing the language gave them a focus, “in a context where every day feels the same without progress. Myself and many of the other teachers knew that a lot of our students would not wake up in the morning if it weren’t for our classes”.

Connor says that her students told her it was the only thing they looked forward to in the day.   

Soltany’s four years in detention were spent divided between Perth, Port Hedland and Villawood detention centres. Sipping tea in his inner city lounge room crammed with musical instruments, the now 40-year-old musician and poet contemplates the years he lost. Soltany wavers between calm reflection and palpable anger. At times his rage spills over and projects him off his seat. His brow furrows as his voice rises, and his gaze fixes on a point somewhere else – somewhere beyond the room. 

“I went very mental”, he admits. “They’re not respecting very basic human rights in detention”. Contacting the media and attempting to speak out about the conditions became a constant undertaking for Soltany. “Any channel that we could get the numbers, I would tell them - this is happening, we are on hunger strike, people here stitched their lips. I told them what was happening”, he says.

He witnessed and experienced bashings and was also placed in isolation. Released from detention in 2003, Soltany now possesses permanent residency. He is in regular contact with many detainees in the centres, and says the conditions are “still bad”.

But Soltany is adamant that the worst feature of detention is the uncertainty.

“You don’t know what will happen, that is the worst part. And you don’t know any day they can come to deport you – that is when people get stressed”, he says. “All the people going to the top of the roof and doing all this stuff, because they think maybe tomorrow… That makes them stressed”.

Rintoul agrees that the indefinite aspect of detention deeply affects asylum seekers. And so does the terminology often used to refer to them.

According to those who work with refugees, and to refugees themselves, terms such as “boat people” and “illegals” are not only misleading but also have a directly harmful effect. Nevertheless, these terms are common in the public domain - despite the fact that over 95% of asylum seekers travel to Australia by plane, and as Connor points out, “there is nothing illegal about seeking asylum”.

Research shows that the terminology does have an effect on public opinion: most people believe that the majority of asylum seekers arrive via boat.

Gode Mfashingabo works at refugee support centre the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS). The 30-year-old works with refugee youth and believes that these terms have become common as they are “much easier and more provocative to use than any other words”. Mfashingabo says that the media and politicians will use “whatever words necessary to destabilise and drive their point across”.

Soltany says that this terminology “absolutely” has a direct effect on refugees, and that it “hurts deeply - a lot”. He explains that as an asylum seeker he was variously referred to as an “illegal immigrant”, “queue jumper” and even a “terrorist”.

“Where is the queue? You run away for your life – hello, they wanna kill me! There is no queue”, Soltany says. He vigorously rejects the likelihood that the public accurately understands refugee issues. Soltany refers to his poem The Only Hope After God:

“We were the fan for the political fire, Now we find ourselves in the flames”. His poem describes being stuck in a “quagmire of prejudice”.

Mfashingabo, himself a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), agrees that the public perception of refugees is fundamentally flawed. “What they have is pretty much propaganda that is spun through the media”, he tells The Scavenger. “The public has been misinformed incredibly”.

Mfashingabo lived in a refugee camp in Kenya for three years after his ethnic group was stripped of its citizenship rights. He cannot return to the DRC as he believes it would “amount to suicide”. He says that some people’s only option is to seek refuge in another country, but what drives that decision is rarely mentioned in the media.

“Nothing serious is being discussed. Out of sight, out of mind”, Mfashingabo says, lamenting an often trivial media which features stories about shopping addiction and skateboarding dogs.  

Rintoul strongly believes the public perception is “coloured” by the way refugees and asylum seekers are presented by the media and politicians. He claims that the language is deliberate.

“It’s to create a picture, to create an attitude, to invite a particular way of looking at refugees”, Rintoul says. “When the media do it, it’s not an accident. I mean, there have been Press Council findings that asylum seekers are not illegal and the boats are not illegal and should not be referred to in that way. They are constantly referred to in that way”. 

In Rintoul’s eyes, this language and the detention of asylum seekers are techniques of delegitimising them.

“Shame!”

Soltany yells into the loudspeaker. His voice reverberates throughout Sydney’s Town Hall courtyard, and is then echoed by 150 protestors. Fijian man Josefa Rauluni died after jumping off a roof at Villawood Detention Centre a few days earlier, and the protest was organised hastily to condemn the government’s policy of mandatory detention.

Two of Soltany’s years in detention were spent at Villawood, and he says he was stressed and shocked upon hearing the news of Rauluni’s death. He says that he witnessed several suicides during his years in detention.

Last month’s suicide of a young Afghan man at Curtin Detention Centre was the fifth suicide in Australian immigration detention within a seven-month period. These deaths highlight an intensifying and pervading sense of hopelessness amongst detainees.

Soltany wrote poetry in detention to help express his feelings of despair - “as a companion to my mind”. His poems were dark, prompting his roommate to urge him, “Please write something about hope!”. But Soltany says he couldn’t: “I couldn’t find hope”. He kept writing throughout his time in detention, and last year he released a book of his poetry, Inside Out. His poetry has received wide acclaim, and he has even collaborated on a book with writer Tom Keneally, whom he considers a good friend.   

Post-detention, becoming a refugee advocate was a natural step for Soltany. He has also taken on a case worker role for many asylum seekers to assist with their claims.

Despite his distressing experiences in detention, he loves Australia and has started to recover from his mental trauma. Music was central to Soltany’s healing process, and is something he is actively pursuing with his band. He hopes that his book of poetry will help people to understand the suffering of those in detention, a place he says crushed his spirit.

Rintoul is in it for the long haul – he always knew it would be a long-term campaign. He says that although the campaign “always” faces opposition from the government, he is boosted by the small successes.

He retrieves a piece of paper from his desk - “a little list of unfinished business”. He counts and laughs: there are 16 points on the list, and he says “I think there are two of them that we’ve won”.

Rintoul believes the razor wire is emblematic: that it “cuts” Australian society by embedding a discrimination which impacts on the wider community.

“That razor wire also imprisons us, as long as we allow its existence”. 

*Not her real name

Ducking progress: Victoria’s duck hunting season

My article about Victoria's 2011 duck hunting season, published on The Scavenger: "Ducking progress: Victoria's duck hunting season".

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Ducking progress: Victoria's duck hunting season

13 March 2011

A three month duck hunting season, authorised by the Baillieu Liberal Government, is due to commence in Victoria. But declining public support and shrinking waterbird numbers illustrate that duck hunting is on increasingly tenuous ground, writes Susannah Waters.

Although dependent on water for their very existence, recent rainfall in a state long plagued by drought will see Victoria’s waterbirds caught in a dangerous quagmire. A 2011 duck hunting season has been sanctioned by the newly installed Baillieu Liberal Government, on the rationale of the recent rains to hit the state.

In January, Victoria’s Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) announced a season to commence on March 19. Spanning 12 weeks - the longest season since 2006 - hunters will be permitted to bag up to 10 ducks a day.

Flagging public support, child shooters, low waterbird numbers and cruelty concerns are the central points of controversy surrounding the hunt.

Executive Director of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services at the DSE, Kylie White, has defended this year’s season. White said that substantial rainfall 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”.

However, research indicates that waterbird numbers are far from healthy. Aerial waterbird surveys led by Professor Richard Kingsford of the University of New South Wales have revealed that waterbird numbers have long been in significant decline. The surveys, conducted across eastern Australia, show a decrease in bird numbers of up to 82% since the early 1980s.

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. Consequently, many waterbird species have been thrust into threatened status. 

Laurie Levy, Campaign Director of the Coalition Against Duck Shooting (CADS), was not surprised by this year’s announcement of a season. “We expected it”, he said.  Levy believes that duck hunting serves to compound the threat to bird numbers. He argues that the decision for a 2011 season was not based on scientific data, but was instead politically motivated.

“This season is a political season. DSE hasn’t done the studies – they haven’t carried out the scientific research”, Levy told The Scavenger. “Their reasons are based on the fact there is more water due to rainfall, therefore they just assume there are more birds”. He suggests that in good climatic conditions, recovery for waterbird populations could take many years.

With potentially thousands of shooters joining this year’s three month hunt, and considering the large daily kill limit, the impact on the recovering native waterbird population has the potential to be devastating.

Amongst those shooters will be children. Victorian law stipulates that juniors - those from 12 to 17 years - can legally hunt ducks if they hold a Game Licence.

A spokesman from the Victorian Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia (SSAA) believes that it is “not particularly untoward” for 12-year-old children to participate in the hunt. He told The Scavenger last year that there are roughly 500 shooters of that age. If young people have a firearms permit, have completed the relevant training and are under adult supervision, then the SSAA believe that children’s participation does not pose any special safety issues. 

Many disagree. Levy believes that the wetlands during duck season are “a dangerous place to be”. Having campaigned against the recreational shooting of waterbirds since 1986, he has often witnessed children on the wetlands accompanying their parents.

“What skills do 12-year-olds have when shooting birds? None. That's another reason why many birds are wounded”, Levy said.

Clementine Round is the 16-year-old founder of the Duck Army, a group she says is “filled with the young and young at heart who care about our declining waterbird populations”. Standing onshore as part of the duck rescue, Round has also seen children present on the wetlands.

“Allowing children on to the water to witness this slaughter, not to mention encouraging them to hurt and kill small animals, is disgusting and detrimental to their learning and empathetic development”, Round told The Scavenger.

Evidence shows that ignoring animal cruelty inflicted by children is at our own peril. A wealth of research reveals a strong correlation between violence perpetrated by children against animals and the likelihood of them committing violent acts against people in later life.

The tide of public opinion has been steadily turning against the hunt. A Roy Morgan poll conducted three years ago determined that 87% of Victorians desire an end to duck shooting. However recreational duck shooters are a loud minority backed by powerful interests and vindicated by successive Victorian governments.  

Levy argues that there are very strong connections between politicians and shooters. “The only reason that it’s continuing is that it is seen as a political issue. Many politicians say behind the scenes that it isn’t about native waterbirds - it’s about them trading off their interests”.

Recreational duck shooting has long enjoyed support from the Labor, Liberal and National parties in Victoria. However it was banned in NSW in 1995, WA in 1990, and QLD in 2005. The practice has never been legal in the ACT.

During last year’s duck hunting season, Round said that despite public opposition she could not “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”.

Round was referring to the then Brumby Labor government. A year on, she describes the Baillieu Liberal government’s endorsement of a 2011 duck season as “short-sighted” and “infuriatingly disappointing”.  

Under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act - which is enshrined in Federal Government legislation - the DSE is required to undertake scientific studies before the Victorian government can approve a duck season. CADS don’t believe this has ever been done.

In fact, Levy claims that the DSE is tasked with providing 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”, Levy said.

Moratoriums were in fact called in 2007 and 2008, with the DSE pinpointing the enduring drought.

Interestingly, duck shooters have often claimed to be environmental conservationists. This argument is prominent on hunting websites and other online forums, and the SSAA spokesman asserts that his organisation “actively campaigns” for wetland protection. According to him, SSAA are among the “only ones lobbying and applying pressure” to the government over wetland and water management issues.   

But do these claims of environmental credentials have any merit?

Duck rescuers have long complained about rubbish, including empty shotgun cartridges, being left behind on the wetlands by shooters. It is also apparent that the loud presence of large numbers of people and so-called “hunting dogs” is disruptive to the wetland surrounds and ecology.

A build-up of lead shot – the use of which is now forbidden – remains in many wetlands from past use, threatening waterbirds and other species. The DSE concedes that waterbirds may be poisoned by an accumulation of lead in many wetlands. Despite being banned in Victoria for 10 years, there is evidence that lead shot is still sometimes used by shooters. On last year’s duck hunting opening weekend, eleven shooters were fined for using this toxic shot.

Levy strongly rejects the suggestion that duck shooters promote wetland conservation. “Duck shooters have always lobbied governments to have wetlands filled to attract birds as targets. The artificial filling killed off many of Victoria's wetlands due to the salt rising to the surface and many Red Gums and Black Box Gums died from drowning. Wetlands need a cycle of wet and dry years to remain healthy”.

It is also worth noting that charges were brought against Gary Howard, a spokesman for hunting organisation Field and Game Australia (FGA), for his actions in the lead up to the 2009 season. An investigation found that he had illegally released water from the Latrobe River into a FGA owned wetland area in the week before that season commenced. The diversion attracted up to 1000 more birds to the wetland, which was to be used for private shooting.

In NSW and QLD the recreational shooting of native waterbirds was banned after recommendations by their governments’ respective Animal Welfare Advisory Committees (AWAC), combined with public pressure. The Victorian AWAC has consistently made the same recommendations to the Victorian Government, citing cruelty concerns.

The RSPCA opposes duck hunting due to what it deems “high level” and “senseless” cruelty. The organisation refers to a study which indicates that up to 6.6 ducks are crippled per 10 killed outright and bagged.

Particularly problematic is the use of shotguns, which spray pellets in an often irregular fashion. The imprecision of this weapon often results in high wounding rates, and consequently many ducks suffer long and painful deaths.

Many threatened species are also at risk of being killed by hunters. During last year’s season duck rescue teams discovered four dead Grey-headed Flying Foxes. They are not only a threatened species, but were found to have been killed with the prohibited lead shot.

Levy claims that in the past, hunters have illegally shot threatened and protected species such as Swans, Pelicans, Ibis, Freckled Ducks and Blue-billed Ducks.

With shooters required to sit a waterfowl identification test just once, and only a handful of wildlife officers for the entire state of Victoria, the risk to threatened wildlife during duck hunting season is immense.

But are duck shooters themselves an imperilled species? In a sign that duck hunting is becoming increasingly unpopular, FGA are attempting to entice prospective hunters to join in this year by offering over $25,000 worth of prizes. Their 2011 slogan, “Reignite the Passion”, is also being utilised in an effort to whip up participant turnout.

This throws into question claims by FGA that “interest from new duck hunters is already building strongly and license numbers are expected to increase by up to 15%”. While there are presently around 20,000 licensed waterfowl hunters in Victoria, duck season participant numbers have been steadily declining for years.

According to the SSAA’s spokesman, a strong “camaraderie” between hunters is the drawcard for many to take part. But what they may not have counted on is the solidarity between duck advocates and their unwavering determination to see duck shooting end.

Despite the obstacles, Round firmly believes that the day will come when duck hunting will be outlawed in Victoria. While acknowledging that it won’t be this season, she believes it is not unachievable in the long term. “We will continue to inform the general public of this ‘fowl’ practice and have vowed to lobby as hard as ever”, Round said. “The general public is on our side”.

Round will be onshore assisting the duck rescue this year, her third in a row. “I am only 16 and have to wait until I am 18 to enter the water myself, but if duck shooting isn’t banned before then, I am looking forward to that day”.

According to Levy, many new people are joining the duck rescue this year. Although he has campaigned on this issue for a quarter of a century, the prospect of facing another season has not demoralised him and his group. Rather, “it strengthens our resolve”.  

He says that rescuers will be back on the wetlands this year, “doing what we usually do”, and when the hunters arrive, “we’ll be there waiting for them”.

Visit the Coalition Against Duck Shooting (CADS) website for more information and to find out how you can support the campaign to stop duck hunting.

Susannah Waters holds a Master’s degree in journalism and communication from the University of New South Wales. She is a former veterinary nurse who has worked with both domestic animals and wildlife. She has a strong interest in wildlife conservation.

Images: Opening morning of the 2005 duck shooting season at McDonald Swamp in north western Victoria. A quick thinking rescuer took a photo of a shooter illegally pointing his weapon at him. The protected swan had been illegally shot. The grey teal shot through the bill (top) highlights some of the horrific injuries the birds endure.

Photos courtesy of Coalition Against Duck Shooting.