In my student days I briefly knew a young man who went shooting. He reported how one weekend, he was walking round looking for something to shoot at a reserve at Mt Macedon (Vic). He thought he saw a wallaby and approached the bushes in which it had taken cover, but was surprised to see a small boy run out, playing with other kids.
His reaction was one of absolute rage with the kids’ parents, who were picnicking nearby, for letting their young run about unsupervised. What were they doing in a Reserve anyway, instead of at the official Picnic Ground?
I suppose he had really had had a bad shock finding that he could have been up on a manslaughter charge, but the assumption that people shouldn’t wander about in a Reserve because hunters might be shooting there is not one I want in National Parks.
At the time I pointed out that all Kangaroos and wallabies enjoyed legal protection, but was firmly told “No, you should shoot them whenever you see them, because they are absolute pests.”
Haven’t seen him since.
Anthea Fleming
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