Recently in the ‘Bay Post/Moruya Examiner’, an extremely distressing photo of a hunter with his ‘trophy’ –a beautiful young male deer, dead-or seemingly, mortally wounded (otherwise, how is it not fully prostrate?) brought tears to my eyes.
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In Australia, the election to Parliament of the “Shooters Party”, truly mocks Democracy. One wonders what the legalities would have been if humans who get their ‘kicks’ from shooting helpless animals, had stood as “The Killers Party”?
Regardless of the name, they justify their killing with claims of providing essential services to the environment by removing thousands of ‘feral’ animals from forests and National Parks. What a farce!
The gullible and ignorant may believe this claim but the truth is, the threat to our wildlife posed by goats, deer, pigs and other passive, standing targets, pales in significance to that of the millions of feral cats decimating so much Australian wildlife and in desperate need of eradication. These cunning animals are virtually impossible to detect and shoot, as are the packs of wild dogs (which cause so much pain and suffering to domestic livestock), and foxes.
Do the hero shooters, the guardians of our environment, supply records of their kill? They should be accountable,but who’s to verify what is said or written? How many wild cats /dogs/foxes do they cull? How many wretched, shot, wounded animals escape to die a slow, lingering and painful death?
How many ‘shooters’ are at “bullseye” level?
It is easy to fill out a form but what is the test?
I am not naive, having been a Jillaroo, observing the cruelties of spotlighting, poisoning and trapping. Also working for years in photo labs, seeing photos of atrocities caused to our native wildlife by shooters. Dead and dying wombats, native birds of every description, wallabies, emus, eagles, feral pigs (mother with piglets) and kangaroos shot and injured, being ripped to pieces by dogs, a water buffalo, standing- then shot and sitting looking at the photographer/shooter. Shooters posing grotesquely with their kills!
What a travesty, when a natural pursuit such as horse riding in National Parks is perceived as a threat, yet men with guns are permitted into those same public places, shooting thousands of live animals (as they claim)? It is only a matter of time before one of the thousands of stray bullets hits an innocent bushwalker or National Park employee.
Hunting and culling of feral animals must always be carried out humanely, by professionals, not by Rambo’s with guns.
Shame on the Shooters Party!
