Duck season reopens after 2 years amnesty - Victoria (Oz)

Like humans, ducks form long-term bonds with their mates

Department of Sustainability (DSE) Victoria's dismal record on wildlife protection reaches new lows

The Department of Sustainability in Victoria seems to be a friend to the trigger-happy as regards kangaroos and seems not to care at all about possums. It shows no interest in promoting wildlife corridors and has pushed against local feeling to make Devilbend into a hunting and fishing and horseriding area, instead of a desperately needed sanctuary for the threatened animals on the Mornington Peninsula (a beautiful rural area redesignated for intensive development). Given the Department's failure to honour its obligations to Victorians to protect wildlife, it is surprising that it bothered to recommend a year's amnesty for ducks.

Hunting Advisory Committee trumps limp-wristed DSE on ducks

But, that's not the whole story. We learn that there is another force out there, besides the property developers, running wildlife into the ground in Victoria.

Minister Jennings was reported in the Age 5-2-09 to have said the Department of Sustainability and Environment had recommended the season be cancelled for a third straight year, but contradictory advice came from the Government's Hunting Advisory Committee, which backed allowing a season with few restrictions.

Waterbird numbers in Eastern Australia fell 80%+ in past 2 decades

So, lead bullets will again be hailed on defenseless ducks this year by people who call what they do a sport. This, despite waterbird numbers in Eastern Australia falling by over 80% in the past two decades and advice from the Department to cancel the season.

The cruelty is ignored.

Vote in two polls on this issue

The Age website –
Vote No if you do not agree with the decision to have a duck season in Victoria -
http://www.theage.com.au/polls/national/form.html

The 3AW website -
Vote Yes if you would like to see a ban on duck shooting. (scroll down and it is on your right on the website) http://www.3aw.com.au/

More information

For more information you may contact the Victorian Hunting Advisory Committee (HAC) 2/8 Nicholson St, East Melbourne VIC 3002, (03) 9637 9815,
(03) 9637 8451; zachary.powell[AT]dse.vic.gov.au

If you know nothing about the 'industry' of wildlife shooting in Victoria, this draft submission gives a lot of information: http://www.veac.vic.gov.au/riverredgum/rrgfsubmissions/1824.pdf , including on the government's pro-hunting policies.
The arguments which say hunting brings a few jobs to rural Victoria are easily countered by the amount of jobs brought by tourism of a less violent kind.

If we were not such a huge and damaging population, if the wildlife were not so horribly stressed by our day to day impact, hunting might be defensible in some lights. In the current situation where nature is trampled, burnt, mobbed and built over, the excuses seem pathetic.