Hi All,
I spent last weekend at the SSAA Property at Captain’s Mountain (for those of you who need to know the area, this is about 20km west of Milmerran a town on the Darling Downs of Queensland). I was in the company of my husband, a shooter and also a member of BirdLife Australia, as well as about 40 other members of a Gold Coast Shooting Club. By the way, this property is run as a nature refuge and all wildlife is protected. The only shooting of guns that takes place is on various ranges at inanimate targets, under the strict control of various Range Officers. The only shooting of wildlife was done by me with my camera.
I have formed very definite opinions about shooting ducks – IT SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED! Not one of the shooters I was with last weekend would be able to identify which species was able to be shot and which species wasn’t – not even my husband. They would not even know that there are such birds as Coots, Moorhens and Grebes – to the uneducated, they are all ducks. Unfortunately, most of these people are very nice and very respectable and would not intentionally break the law, they are just ignorant. I showed them a slide show of the photos I had taken over the weekend and some were very interested but NONE knew what any of the birds except for a Willie Wagtail, were. Others were not very interested in the photos mostly the younger males who’d shoot at anything if permitted.
As, to my great disgust, shooting ducks in Victoria appears to be here to stay for a few years – birders could lobby the government for a far better level of training to enable correct duck i.d. by shooters before they get out into the great outdoors if it is possible for these people to become experts at identifying a flying bird whilst the adrenalin is pumping in their veins BUT my other even greater wish is that if shooters go out to shoot ducks or ferals in National Parks, they must take a registered Wild Life Spotter (say 1 spotter to 4 shooters) with them, whose job it is to identify the targets and also officially report back to whichever government department controls the shooting, what is shot, how many and how many got away but were injured. There would be a cost involved to the shooters but they pay quite high range fees etc. to go to shoot at gun ranges and don’t seem to mind.
The other major point that should be made law is NO ALCOHOL should be allowed to be consumed whilst any person is in possession of a firearm, whether in use or locked away in a strongbox in a vehicle at a campsite.
Cheers,
Sandra Gallienne
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