Hunters should be targeted
Australian, Page 18. Friday, 16 October 2009
I hate hunters. I find it inconceivable that people who get their jollies by stalking and killing innocent creatures have political influence. What sort of person enjoys the act of killing? Why do they have any credibility at all?
It is wrong to kill native wildlife. It is arguably worse to introduce feral animals or to allow existing populations to thrive simply so that people can hunt and kill them.
I don’t understand why any government would condone duck hunting at anytime, but why the Victorian government would endorse shooting wildfowl during a drought, when populations are already low and breeding is difficult, is quite beyond comprehension. Further, when every expert argues against it, including the government’s own department, such a decision becomes troubling, to say the least. How do duck hunters wield such influence?
Duck hunters cannot always positively identify the species they are shooting and, in poor light, in the excitement of the hunt, it is inevitable that non-target species are shot. But I don’t want to eradicate hunting because of the possible harm to endangered species, but because it is cruel, unnecessary and barbaric.
It is positively scary to think of these rednecks with their guns telling our politicians how to run the state. Why do politicians listen? How many hunters are there? How do they have the power to shape the laws of the land that affect us all? I can’t believe there are more of them than there are of us, law-abiding, responsible citizens who respect wildlife and the environment.
It is a sad fact hunters are often brimful with testosterone and alcohol, in which case judgment is usually lacking. It is frightening to walk on your own property and pick up empty cartridge shells.
My parents used to live in the country, 20 minutes’ drive from the nearest town. Before it was made, their road was a pretty bush track. Shooters would drive along their road at night, oblivious that there was a house there at all. (At least I like to think that this was their excuse.) To this day, there is a bullet lodged in my parents’ lounge room wall, testifying to the irresponsibility of some idiot with a gun. Had my mother been standing at the wrong spot, it would have hit her in the head.
Hunting today has nothing to do with procuring food. It is simply killing for its own sake. When one party has a high-powered rifle and the other has its wits, how can it possibly qualify as sport? How can it be justified?
By Sue Taylor, Kew, Vic
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