URGENT - duck shooting

[eve]

Please vote against duckshooting in the Riverland and Mallee - it is coming up soon. I just voted and can't believe that the overwhelming number of people vote in favour of shooting the ducks! Please click here: http://www.abc.net.au/riverland/vote/default.htm

[Roxy]

:eek: When I voted.....an asstounding 79% of respondents are all for the duck shooting to go ahead! That's quite drastic!

[Imapeach]

I missed the poll it seems. When I clicked it just said something about one day cricket :(

But this issue is very important to me personally. I grew up in the Riverland, right by the river actually, and one of the few things I enjoy when going back to visit is the wildlife experience - especially with the birds. I'd often wake up early mornings as a teenager to the sound of *BANG* *flutter* *quack* and feel a shot of disgrace shoot through me :( But there's nothing nicer than sitting and looking out over the Murray in the evening as a flock of a thousand galahs soar overhead. There's not a lot to do in the Riverland (IMO), so why would they want to take away one of its few beauties??

[eve]

The following is from www.crueltyfreeshop.com.au newsletter:

Victorian Duck Season To Go Ahead. The Victorian government has ignored the wishes of 70% of their people and given in to a pack of gun-toting thugs who get pleasure from killing. Give an ignorant thug a gun and they don’t care if they wound or maim a duck and leave it to suffer a prolonged death, they also don’t care if they shoot protected native birds.

Dedicated, caring people are needed to attend the wetlands on the weekend of 19 and 20 March to help rescue wounded birds. Information meetings will be held at 7.30pm on Wednesday 2 March and Tuesday 8 March at the Animal Liberation Victoria office. Cnr Russell St. & Victoria Pde, Melbourne. Meetings are also taking place in Ballarat (let me know if you need details of the Ballarat meetings).

For people unable to travel to the wetlands please keep up those protest letters to The Victorian Premier, Steve Bracks (steve.bracks@parliament.vic.gov.au) and Minister Thwaites (john.thwaites@parliament.vic.gov.au) asking them to follow the lead of NSW and WA and put an end to this barbaric “sport”.

[eve]

DUCK RESCUE VOLUNTEERS URGENTLY REQUIRED

The Victorian Duck Season will open on 19 March 2005, and rescue volunteers are needed urgently by the Coalition Against Duck Shooting.

An Information Session will be held on Tuesday 8th March at 7.30pm in the Animal Liberation office, corner Russell Street and Victoria Parade in Melbourne (opposite Trades Hall). For details, contact:
Laurie Levy ph: 03 9826 9715 or fax: 03 9645 9476
or David Evans Main Co-ordinator on 0438 132 730 or info@duck.org.au.

For more info, refer to www.duck.org.au.

[eve]

Just check out that beautiful website www.duck.org.au :)

[veganblue]

The South Australian Duck Season will open on 15th 0f March for specific dates until the 9th of April.


The Department of Sustainability, Environment and Heritage have allowed the hunting season to be declared open despite numerous sightings of the rare freckled duck; of which, if there are sightings, the hunting season is supposed to be cancelled.

We need to put more pressure on the Federal Minister John Hill to have the duck hunting season cancelled.

For more information contact Animal Liberation South Australia on 08 8231 8785 or email animal_lib_sa@picknowl.com.au

Thanks to eve for this thread.

[Mystic]

I sent a letter to that guy last year, and his secretary wrote back saying that duck season would continue in the most "humane" way possible :confused:

Some people are truly disturbed if they think that shooting an animal can be conducted in a humane manner

[veganblue]

Wow - did you write back? That kind of thing would be good for a newspaper article, especially when you can put the rates of wounding up against "clean kills", not to mention the killing of protected species.

It just goes to show how little they know about what they are talking about. Being sprayed in mid flight with a cloud of tiny projectiles that may only just catch the animal - how can that be considered humane?!

[veganblue]

The March opening of the duck hunt in South Australia has been cancelled due to pressure on the government with regards to the presence of at risk freckled duck populations. We will still keep the heat on however; this is just a postphonement.

[Imapeach]

The March opening of the duck hunt in South Australia has been cancelled due to pressure on the government with regards to the presence of at risk freckled duck populations. We will still keep the heat on however; this is just a postphonement.

That is fantastic news! Deserving of a great big :D Postponing means more pressuring can be done in the meantime!

I spoke to someone the other day who said he was going to Naracoorte (?) or somewhere this weekend to help with the fallen ducks. I assume he meant with ALSA... but does this mean that has been cancelled to?

[veganblue]

I am not sure but the actual legal start to the hunt has been delayed as far as I know; either that or Bool Lagoon is closed for the beginning of the season. I would feel that there is no shooting till April.

[eve]

DUCK RESCUE VOLUNTEERS URGENTLY REQUIRED
The Victorian Duck Season will open on 19 March 2005, and rescue volunteers are needed urgently by the Coalition Against Duck Shooting.

An Information Session will be held on Tuesday 8th March at 7.30pm in the Animal Liberation office, corner Russell Street and Victoria Parade in Melbourne (opposite Trades Hall). For details, contact:
Laurie Levy ph: 03 9826 9715 or fax: 03 9645 9476
or David Evans Main Co-ordinator on 0438 132 730 or info@duck.org.au.

For more info, refer to www.duck.org.au.
This is the topic - the Victorian Duck Season which starts in a few days time.

[veganblue]

Please let us know how the activities of the Victorian Coalitioon Against Duck Hunting is going Eve. There are signals in South Australia that the hunt is dying; it would be wonderful if this was occuring in other states.

[eve]

Duck shooting season opened on Saturday 19 March 2005 and numerous ALV members, as part of Laurie Levy's Coalition Against Duck Shooting, were out on the wetlands to rescue ducks and protest against the cowardice that is 'duck hunting'. Duck hunters once again showed their total lack of compassion and disregard for public opinion as they inflicted horrific injuries on gentle and defenceless waterbirds. Hunters also aimed their guns at duck rescuers on several occasions and stood by doing nothing as a swan was mauled to death by their dogs (The below photo was taken by ALV Vice-President Noah Hannibal when confronted by shooters at McDonald Swamp in Kerang. A copy has been provided to police as part of an investigation into a number of assaults on rescuers that occurred during the opening).
[hunter aiming his gun at a duck rescuer- sorry can't insert the photo]

Duck shooting is cowardly, cruel, and it's banned in NSW, ACT and WA. However, Premier Bracks continues to condone the activity. Please write to Premier Bracks (premier@dpc.vic.gov.au) and let him know that modern society no longer tolerates such cruelty.

[eve]

The RSPCA has welcomed the Queensland Government's decision to ban the 2005 duck and quail hunting season, saying it is inhumane and endangers native species that get caught in the crossfire. He says the 2005 ban is a step in the right direction, but he would like to see the sport outlawed completely.

"We've been protesting for some time and lobbying the Government to have it banned, It's already banned in NSW, Western Australia and the ACT, and we'd liked to see it banned here."
Now it is for Mr Bracks to do the same in Victoria.

[cedarblue]

thank you veganblue and eve for updating this thread :)

[veganblue]

The duck hunt at Bool lagoon has been called off for this season due to the overwhelming numbers of protected Freckled Ducks.

Our duck campaigners are now trying to get the 'sport' banned statewide as there have been political tightenings on the Cruelty to Animals act and the timing is pertinent.

Thanks Eve for the Qld heads up, this will be useful for local pressure to fall in line with a growing national trend.

[eve]

Wed 27/04/05 from the abc-au online: Duck numbers force cull in NSW

The first native bird cull is underway in southern New South Wales, where wood ducks have found sanctuary from the drought at Australia's first coastal golfing community. With duck shooting illegal in that state, wood duck numbers have escalated to 5,000 on the Tura Beach golf course.

Golf course superintendent Peter George says the National Parks Service has now licensed a shooter to kill 50, just 1 per cent of the birds, in the hope it scares the rest into the bush. "We've tried all sorts of things from screeching noises to hawks tied into trees like a kite-type situation, fenced the waterways, we've even netted the waterways to try and keep the ducks off them," he said.

So the wood ducks find sanctuary from the drought, but it interferes with the golf, so let's shoot them! :(

[adam antichrist]

On the 10th of August, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie anounced the banning of the recreational hunting of duck and quail species in queensland. The Premier stated the numbers of licenced hunters has fallen from almost 2000 to around 350 in the past twenty years, indicating that the time has come to enact a ban on the sport.

And on the 12th, long time Victorian campaigner Laurie Levy was one of ten scientists and conservationists awarded the inaugural W. Roy Wheeler Medallion for excellence in the field of Ornithology and conservation of birds and other animals by the Bird Observers Club of Australia.

Congratulations Laurie, and to all those who have worked in QLD to bring an end to the slaughter of native Australian birdlife.

[eve]

And well deserved too. :)

[eve]

Duck hunting was banned by the Queensland government, with cruelty to animals cited as one of the key factors. Environment Minister Desley Boyle stated that hunting leads to 'unreasonable pain and suffering' for birds and that 'shooting a duck or a quail in the wing with shotgun pellets often results in the bird being wounded and left to die a slow, painful death.' http://tinyurl.com/ckh7q . There is definitely light at the end of the tunnel for Victoria too, please write or e-mail your local member - you'll find their email address at: www.vec.vic.gov.au (please send a copy to Premier Bracks at steve.bracks@parliament.vic.gov.au asking that Victoria follow the compassionate lead of Queensland, NSW and WA, and permanently ban the recreational killing of native waterbirds in Victoria.

[eve]

This letter was in Tasmania newspaper the Advocate yesterday (22.8.05)

"...I could not believe it when I read that Queensland had banned duck hunting.
Does the QLD government realise it is not only banning a practice that goes back generation, but it is encouraging the animal right agenda across Australia? It does not matter whether you are a livestock farmer,a fisherman,someone who enjoys horseracing or a person who drinks milk or wears a woolen jumper - you are a target for animal rights groups like Against Animal Cruelty Tasmania. Duck hunting in Tasmania is well managed - hunters have to pass a duck ID test before they get a licence, and current bird numbers are healthy. When animal rights groups talk about hunting being cruel, what are they comparing it to? Not what goes on in nature and not intensive farming practices that's for sure.
Graham Brownrigg"

ALV is calling on everyone to send letters to The Advocate to tell this peanut (and all of Tasmania) that blasting a small defencelss water bird with a shotgun is not a sport.

Send emails to letters@theadvocate.com.au and please put your full name and address at the end of your email.

This is the little email that I sent:
Graham Brownrigg (letter 22/8/05) could not believe that Queensland had banned duck hunting. Well I could not believe that Graham Brownrigg was serious in his letter to you.

What is sporting about shooting defenceless ducks? I am a Qld-er and rather proud that this activity is banned in our State, as well as in NSW, WA, and the ACT. Hopefully Victoria will soon come good too. Not many shooters are accurate enough to kill a little duck with one shot. Ducks and other waterbirds are cruelly injured and go off to die - it is just cowardly.
Yours truly

This is an email from Carmen Stansfield:
"Graham Brownrigg, (letter 22.8.05), I don't know why a man would open fire on a duck. Perhaps it is because he has got a problem with his own 'equipment' and needs something else to shoot. There is absolutely nothing 'sporting' or 'recreational' about using shotguns to inflict horrific injuries on these gentle and defenceless native waterbirds.

When a shooter fires, the pellets spread and birds are often shot through the wings, eyes, feet or body. The way shotguns operate make it impossible to ensure that a duck is killed outright, even by a skilled marksman. Most shooters are not very accurate, and instead of killing the bird in one shot, they often injure them. Legs and wings can be left dangling and bills smashed. Eyes can be shot from sockets or left bulging and full of blood by a pellet blow to the head. A live bird with no obvious external injuries may die days or weeks later after suffering prolonged pain. And don't forget the beautiful swans and herons on the same wetlands who also become casualties – just to keep a handful of duck shooters happy.

Duck shooting is cowardly, cruel, and it's banned in NSW, WA, the ACT and now Queensland. Perhaps you havn't realised that modern society no longer tolerates cruelty as a basis for recreation.
Carmen Stansfield."

I hope that the Advocate will be inundated with emails from everywhere! :D

[eve]

Laurie Levy urgently needs help. Please spend a minute to send a twenty word email to Environment Minister John Thwaites at this crucial time. Laurie said: Dear Waterbird Warriors, I know many of you wrote to Thwaites recently, but native waterbirds urgently need you to do so again. The 2006 shooting season currently hangs in the balance and the next few weeks will be crucial to winning or not winning.

No matter how many letters you've written before, please do the birds a favour and send off another. It doesn't have to be long. All Thwaites needs to know is that you want recreational duck shooting permanently banned because of the cruelty.

Please email Environment Minister at john.thwaites@parliament.vic.gov.au and do give your name, address, and phone number. Or write to the Environment Minister at:
Level 3, 1 Treasury Pl, East Melbourne 3002.

Thanks for your help.
Laurie Levy
If you can send Laurie's request to any other groups who could help - please do so. Here's the url for Coalition against duck shooting. http://www.duck.org.au/index2.html

[eve]

I just sent a very short letter on this subject, and that's all we need to do, just for the Minister to receive plenty of emails. I just said:

john.thwaites@parliament.vic.gov.au
Dear Minister Thwaites
It is hard to believe that yet another season of duck shooting is in the offing. Most of Australia's States have banned duck shooting because it is not only outrageous in this day and age, but is terribly cruel. So many birds are wounded and die in agony - and for what? just so that some people get a kick out of shooting birds!

Please, do consider banning duck shooting once and for all.
Sincerely
Evelyn Spencer (and I added my address & phone number)

Please spare a moment to do something similar. :)