Letter - Get the real facts on national park hunting
Narooma News, Page: 10. Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Re: Coastwatchers report in Narooma News. With regards to the article showing the ‘hunter’ holding up the Wedge Tail Eagle, the article was obviously geared to stir up sentiment over the proposed bill to allow hunters to help cull feral animals in National Parks.
By placing the article in the general news section the Narooma News has given credibility to a very flawed article.
The comedy section would have been more appropriate.
A few facts for the Coastwatchers:
1. The Minister for the Environment will state which National Parks and which feral animals will be involved.
2. Hunters have been taking feral animals out of the State Forest for years now under a similar system proposed by The Shooters Party for National Parks.
3. The program has been an outstanding success with tens of thousands of pigs, deer, goats, wild cats, foxes and rabbits taken off public lands at no cost to the community, and we can only guess how many native animals have been saved by the removal of so many introduced predators from the forests. The plan does not allow for open slather in parks, in fact it will be thoroughly policed with a hunter applying for access to an area on a particular day, with a limited number given access at any one time. The hunters will be responsible to report on any animals seen to help with further control measures also any suspicious activity such as vandals and fire hugs and road blockages that could hinder fire fighting.
4. In Victoria hunters have been taking animals out of National Parks and wilderness areas for many years now.
As for the supplied photo of the dead eagle I would suggest it was taken at a time when under pressure from the wool industry the wedge tail eagle was classified by the government as vermin and had a bounty placed on them.
To get this close to a wild bird is one of the things that keep me going back to the bush.
Steve Urquhart, Narooma
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