There may be instances where sporting shooters can reduce populations of feral animals. This has happened in NW Vic where members of the local sporting shooters club have worked with parks management and other land owners on goat and rabbit control.
However, simply opening the parks up to sporting shooters does little or nothing to reduce the feral animal populations. Ad-hoc recreational shooting disturbs and disperses the animals making any subsequent attempt to control their numbers more difficult. Also, as others have mentioned, recreational shooters have no incentive to eliminate feral animals. What they do is closer to rangeland farming where the population is maintained.
Any shooting that is carried out must be under the supervision of parks management and take place at particular times as deemed appropriate by parks management. Responsible shooters who understand the impact of feral animals on the environment have no difficulty working with parks managers to achieve a good outcome. There must also be before and after surveys to show that the shooting has reduced the population of feral animals in the park.
40 years ago in NZ, deer control was largely left to recreational shooters. The population of deer boomed. It was only when professional shooters, working from helicopters were introduced that there was any impact on the deer population. Opposition to the helicopter shooting came mainly from recreational hunters who claimed it was cruel as the deer did not have a ‘sporting chance’ to run away, perhaps wounded. Part of my job at the time was to monitor the effectiveness of deer and other feral animal control. Recreational shooters just did not rate as a control measure.
If the NSW Govt was really interested in feral animal control they would be working with professional shooters and perhaps recreational shooters as part of a supervised feral animal control program.
Regards,
Euan
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Resources aside, just asking direct questions of vested interests is a good start. I have seen ABC TV news items about a kangaroo “plague” in Queensland as claimed by the kangaroo industry. The reporter was on location but the film footage obtained showed not many kangaroos present. I assume the reporter asked “where are they?” Similarly with the shooters, I hope they were asked about the basis of their claims and their evidence? If not, surely it is just laziness on the reporter’s part. cheers Andrew
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Unfortunately very true John – even “respected” organisations like the ABC and The Age seem to lack the resources to check information and proof read articles these days!
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Simply reporting what people say isn’t what I think of as journalism, it’s just laziness.
JL
Hello John,
Fair go! The ABC is just reporting what the Shooters are saying, not what the real situation is. It is up to us conservation minded people to get out and let the world know the actual situation. So far the Shooters are winning this propaganda battle hands down.
Cheers,
Jim Smart East Maitland NSW
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