Queensland ban on duck and quail hunting

[ChrisNPeter]

A friend picked up this news item from the ABC website:

Last Update: Wednesday, August 10, 2005. 1:32pm (AEST)

Qld Govt announces duck hunting ban


The Queensland Government says it is banning duck and quail hunting because
of "overwhelming" community concern that it is cruel.

The shooting season had already been cancelled this year because the drought
was impacting on breeding.

Landholders will still be able to apply for special permission to cull the
animals if they reach plague proportions.

The Environment Minister Desley Boyle has told Parliament that duck and
quail hunting appears to be losing popularity anyway.

"In 1984 some 1,800 recreational wildlife harvesting licences were issued,
but in 2004 the number had dropped to just 376," Ms Boyle said.

"But overwhelmingly most people concentrated on the cruelty, describing duck
and quail shooting as this unnecessary barbaric pastime."

Chris Cunningham & Peter Serle
Knusprig GSPs

[Jason Ferris]

Here is the official press release from the Qld EPA (from http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/nature_conservation/wildlife/native_animals/permits_and_licences/duck_and_quail_hunting/)

Duck and quail hunting

The Nature Conservation (Duck and Quail) Conservation Plan 1995 will not be remade when it expires in September, effectively ending recreational duck and quail hunting in Queensland.
The expiry of the plan provided an opportunity to re-examine the issue of recreational hunting and assess its appropriateness in contemporary Queensland life.

The EPA has managed this program based on ecological sustainability, declaring a season when climatic conditions and good bird populations supported it.

While hunting may not impact significantly on populations, combined with diminishing viable wetlands and sustained drought it caused a decline in bird numbers.

Many Queenslanders have also expressed concern about the animal welfare aspects of duck hunting, citing a high rate of injured and resultant slow death of many birds. For this reason, the issue of duck and quail hunting was referred to the Minister of Primary Industries and Fisheries Animal Welfare Advisory Committee for consideration. The Committee advised that, given the unacceptably high rate of wounding, recreational hunting is unjustifiable.

With this finding, the Queensland Government has determined the recreational hunting of duck and quail cannot be conducted humanely and it will no longer be permitted in Queensland.

The existing conservation plan would have allowed for a season this year, prior to its expiry. However, the EPA found that a season in 2005 was not sustainable due to prevailing drought and poor bird numbers.

It is the second time in recent years the season has not been allowed. Drought conditions also saw the season cancelled in 2003.

Last updated: 10 August 2005

[Wayne Parkinson]

This is what happens when people don't buy licences.
I bet there were more than 376 people hunting ducks in Queensland.

Wayne P.

[Graham Eames]

FOR EVERYONE'S INFORMATION. BELOW IS THE TEXT OF A LETTER SENT BY FIELD & GAME AUSTRALIA TO ALL QUEENSLAND PARLIAMENTARIANS

The "NO HUNTING" announcement was made by Qld government on the 10th August. This FGA letter of response was sent on the 19th August.



To: The Honourable Peter Beattie, Premier.
The Honourable Desley Boyle, Minister for Environment.
The Honourable Gordon Nuttall, Minister for Primary Industries & Fisheries.
Copy to: All Members of the Queensland Parliament.

Duck and Quail Hunting Ban

We seek your urgent intervention with regard to the recently announced ban on recreational duck & quail hunting in Queensland.

Arguments on this issue assembled by the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (AWAC) and presented to Government, are known to be a mix of half-truth, pseudoscience and misplaced logic and demonstrate a failure by some members to accept that animal welfare needs to be tailored to context, and not vice versa, through industry specific Codes of Practice. This situation at best stems from ignorance, at worst from a deliberate conspiracy to avoid transparency and due process in order to achieve goals clearly outside the mandate of the AWAC.

The allegation that your Government is being unwittingly enlisted into the pursuit of extremist animal rights goals, packaged as animal welfare concerns, cannot be rejected. No good for people or the conservation of Wildlife in Queensland can be expected from implementing the AWAC recommendations, as has been amply demonstrated in NSW.

The process being implemented in Queensland mirrors exactly the process undertaken in NSW, as it was obviously designed to do. An AWAC was created with some AWAC members representing organisations strongly opposed to any hunting or animal use on the basis of a narrow and intolerant philosophy. Biased and contrived advice from the AWAC was used to manipulate Government opinion, largely behind closed door, and the Government acted without ever being given the opportunity to consider the consequences objectively.

The end result in NSW is that game birds are now labelled as "pests". They are legally eradicated in many rural areas without concern about season or impact on the wild populations. A 5-year review of outcomes in NSW (Scientific Panel Review of Open Seasons for Waterfowl in New South Wales, November 2000) identified declining conservation status, as a consequence of the poorly considered actions taken by Government.

It contrasts markedly with the current exemplary management programs in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory, which are totally consistent with world opinion on the conservation benefits for species and habitats linked to sustainable use and management.

The Queensland Game Management Associations comprise organisations with a combined membership of approx. 50,200 people. They are all committed to working with Government and upholding the principles and policies of ““sustainable use”” as adopted by the IUCN - World Conservation Union, with its 800+ conservation member organisations around the world, and the Convention on Biological Diversity, with its 165 member nations.

That AWAC disagrees with these mainstream global conservation organisations, calls their credentials into question - not vice versa.
We had seen the conclusion of the current 5-year Duck & Quail Management Plan in Queensland as a positive opportunity for change. In the spirit of adaptive management, it should have allowed improvements to be made along the lines suggested by the consultancy report recently commissioned by your Government (by Dr. Tony Pople). It should have provided an opportunity to agree on new research and management objectives and to forge partnership arrangements between your Government and our member organisations which are needed to seek world's best practice in the sustainable management of game birds in Queensland. To this end, we had commenced preparing information on management from our members and reputed scientists, which we had intended to submit during the public review of the 5-year management program as promised by the Minister.

To have this positive opportunity for responsible progress taken away by a narrow-minded interest group, exploiting the AWAC for their own philosophical ends, and bent on misleading Government by avoiding due process, is both distressing and distasteful to our members.

We are seeking answers to the following:
1. Why wasn’t a public review of the Qld Duck & Quail Management Plan undertaken as promised by Minister Boyle in a letter to the Clerk of the Parliament? (Ref: BNE438-9, BNE2004/13686, E/04/03472)
2. Do you think there is a conflict of interest with the RSPCA having a seat on the Minister’s Duck & Quail Management Advisory Committee and the AWAC?
3. What role did the RSPCA and extreme animal rights groups play in the manipulation of the AWAC?
4. Was the evidence put forward to the AWAC by the RSPCA factual, was it investigated and scientifically scrutinised?
5. Have any duck or quail hunters in Qld ever been charged for cruelty whilst duck hunting?
6. Over the last five years, how many Duck & Quail hunters have been charged for offences against the wildlife regulations?
7. Will Qld duck & quail hunters be compensated for the many hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of dollars they have invested in hunting equipment, that they no longer can use?
8. Will indigenous Queenslanders still be able to hunt ducks & quail?

The Queensland Game Management Associations have representatives who are available to meet with members to further discuss these important issues.

We look forward to your prompt response to the matters raised and trust that you can put this issue back on track and conduct the Public review as promised.

Yours sincerely,
Rod Drew, on behalf of the members of:
Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (Qld)
Field and Game Federation of Australia Inc.
Field and Game Australia Inc.
Regards
Rod Drew
Chief Executive Officer
Field and Game Australia Inc.
Ph: 03 5799 0960
Fax: 03 5799 0961
Web: http://www.fga.net.au


WE HAVEN'T GIVEN UP YET AND ARE LOOKING AT VARIOUS WAYS OF GETTING THIS DEBATE REOPENED. IT IS NOT A LEGISLATIVE BAN YET, JUST AN ANNOUNCEMENT THAT THE CURRENT MANAGEMENT PLAN WILL NOT BE BE RE-IMPLEMENTED.
WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP!
Best of luck to everyone at this year's Nationals.
Graham Eames