Duck Shooting

...killing for recreation

Action Alert - (Details in the AACT Now section below)

• Write to the Minister and tell him to stop duck shooting in Tasmania.
• Write to your local newspaper editor and your local member of parliament and express your distaste for this killing.
• Join the Tasmanian Duck Rescue team and give the ducks a fighting chance on the wetlands should there ever be another duck shooting season.

When killing is called "sport"

For three months of every year licensed shooters are permitted to make their way onto beautiful State public wetlands in Tasmania (and private wetlands) and shoot native ducks. Shoot dead or not … collect, cook and eat.. or not. It's all sport. Allegedly.

This may not be your kind of sport - it's not the way most Australians think of sport. The ACT has never considered this sport, it has never been legal there. It's not the way WA thinks of sport - it was banned there in 1990. Nor is it the way NSW thinks of sport, it was banned there in 1995. Queensland declared it a non-sport when they announced their permanent ban on November 1st 2006. SA and Victoria cancelled both the 2007 and 2008 seasons. Tassie?- no mate- she'll be apples, fire away

.In spite of Ramsar status:

The Ramsar treaty was signed in 1971 when wetlands of International Importance were listed and acknowledged by 144 international signatories (including Australia). Five of the Australian sites are in Tasmania. Until 2003, the duckshoot opened over all 5 of these internationally important sites. Since then ONE of these sites has been closed to duck shooting. The shoot over Little Waterhouse Lake was prohibited in recognition of its Ramsar status. We will continue to push for a ban over the other 4 sites. To date the government hasn't acknowledged the impropriety.

Current target species are black ducks, chestnut teal, grey teal, mountain ducks and wood ducks, and bag limits are specified. BUT other species, some protected, share these habitats and are at risk of accidental or deliberate shooting. Amongst these: blue winged shoveler, white-eyed duck, musk duck, freckled duck, pink eared duck, blue billed duck and plumed tree duck. We are assured that shooters are required to sit a wildlife identification test to ensure there is NO mistake in identifying target ducks, but whilst the pass rate is not required to be 100% and whilst every season turns up taking of non-target species, exceeding of bag limits and unlicensed shooting we can see that not all gun handlers do or can follow the rules. No small point for concern.

Further, in seasons where much of Australia has experienced serious drought and banned shooting, Tasmania, unable to nod to the situation, has blithely increased the numbers of target species and stood firmly by its whole 3 month season. It happened in 2007 (minus 2 weeks, as a token gesture to the ducks), when other states recognised the dire situation for waterbirds and called moratoria. Only Tasmania held an open season on native ducks, despite experts like Professor Richard Kingsford warning that conditions were very serious for many species. It happened again in 2008, and will continure unless we can harass, embarass, and generally annoy the Minister into changing his mind. It can be done, and we need your help (see the AACT Now box below).

In spite of cruelty

Shooters may only use shotguns to shoot at ducks. Each shot sends a spray of pellets towards the target, the spray disperses and pellets hitting the targeted duck may kill it. Most often they only wound it. If badly injured it will fall suddenly and land heavily in the water, if the injury is lesser it may fly on for some distance. Statistics show that shooters nearly always need multiple shots to kill outright, up to ten shots, or they may wring the birds neck. For every duck killed and retreived, another may escape wounded to die later from injuries, or starvation. See the RSPCA website for details of scientific research on the wounding rates for ducks. This cruelty alone should be enough to have duck shooting relegated to history as another unfortunate chapter in human evolution.

For more information on the cruelty of duck shooting, visit the Coalition Against Duck Shooting (Victoria) website or the native ducks page on the RSPCA website.