Hunting and the Future
by Paul Peake
Australian Shooters Journal
June 1999
Recreational hunting has long been the backbone of private firearms ownership in Australia. It is the most common 'genuine reason' put forward when licensing firearms and sales of hunting rifles and shotguns far outstrip any other types of arms. From the legislative perspective, however, it is potentially the weakest link in the battle to preserve shooters' rights. With 90% of the firearms in the country licensed ostensibly for hunting, adverse changes to various state and territory Animal Welfare Acts could have far more impact on private gun ownership than a litany of homicides. Predictably, the anti-gun lobby is beginning to focus its attention on what legitimate shooters are allowed to do with their firearms - as opposed to the particular types of guns they have access to.
In western Europe and especially in Britain, the anti-gun lobby has aligned itself with animal liberationists in order to further its agenda. Australian shooters would be naive to think it will not happen here. Recent comments by Gun Control Australia President John Crook should give all firearm owners serious reason to reflect:
Hunting is obviously not a sport . . . . A true sports person is . . . . not taking part in anything that has any association whatsoever with anti-life, meaning death. (1)
Crook raised similar sentiments in September, 1998, in a letter calling for a ban on shooting events addressed to the President of the Australian Commonwealth Games Association:
Fundamentally, guns are designed to kill, and the practice which competitors at Commonwealth Games participate in . . . . is aimed at making the shooters better able to kill some living thing . . . . It is certain that in glamorising shooting they are encouraging many others to get into the killing process. (2)
While some would argue that Gun Control Australia represents the extreme end of the spectrum even by anti-gun lobby standards, the connection between the group's philosophies and the animal liberationist perspective is obvious. The foil to any anti-gun and animal liberationist marriage, however, is the overwhelming body of evidence, both environmental and economic, in support of a continuing and even expanded role for recreational hunting.
Many readers would be aware of the highly successful culling campaigns undertaken in South Australia, aimed at eliminating goats from some of the more sensitive areas of the Flinders Ranges. The SSAA's various Hunting and Conservation branches are engaged in similar operations around the country, including programs in Western Australia designed to protect the highly endangered native Mallee Fowl from predators. Several organisations with an eye to the long term future of duck hunting are currently involved in wetland rehabilitation in a number of states and it is certain that recreational hunters generally are responsible for maintaining feral pest numbers in Australia within manageable levels.
Mindful of the inconsistencies in official policy, however, Canberra based zoologist and vertebrate ecologist Dr David Carter has recently produced what is sure to be one of the most important books on the issue of hunting to come out of Australia:
Australia does not have a coordinated policy on recreational hunting. It seems that we, as a nation, are unable to decide the place of this activity in our society. This is a puzzle to some wildlife managers not only in Australia but also overseas where hunting is an important economic and conservation activity. Our policy dithering means that we are missing out on these benefits at a time when our society needs to be using all its talents and strengths to diversify its rural economy and advance nature conservation.
A PhD with considerable experience in wildlife management, Carter takes a reasoned and pragmatic look at the issue of recreational hunting, highlighting the often fickle nature of the decision making process in Australia:
On occasions when the federal parliament gets involved things don't necessarily become any clearer. In March, 1998 the Australian Senate agreed to a motion calling: "on all state and territory governments to ban the cruel and environmentally damaging practice of duck hunting."
Three months later a committee of the Senate published an exhaustive report into commercial use of wildlife. (3) One of their conclusions was: "Hunting has considerable potential to assist with conservation objectives particularly for areas of land which are perceived to have little other economic value (such as swamps and wetlands)."
This muddle-headedness is not simply a difference between political parties. The motion condemning duck hunting was moved by an Australian Democrat Senator and supported by Australian Labor Party Senators. The Senate Committee which recognised the benefits of duck hunting was chaired by another Australian Democrat and seven of the ten core committee members were Labor Senators.
What should people make of such contradictions? It may not give us much confidence in the ability of our senior policy makers but the outcomes in the Senate are not so surprising. Hunting encompasses an intricate suite of issues and politicians, like many in our urbanised community, are poorly informed. A superficial experience with hunting can be an emotional shock to naive people, prompting them to leap in the direction of moralising and prohibition. Conversely, patient examination of the subject as a whole often shapes a more balanced understanding in the minds of the same people. Then, they are able to appreciate the hunter's perspective, see the wider benefits to society, and understand that permitting and managing the activity is a far more sensible policy than trying to prohibit it.
Carter's level-headed approach is a breath of fresh air in an important firearms related policy sphere all too often clouded by the anti-gun lobby's emotional sleight-of-hand. While the book is certain to spark controversy, the questions it raises and the arguments it puts forward cannot be easily dismissed. Carter's academic background and considerable field work mean that the anti-gun and anti-hunting movement is finally faced with a polemic from someone with both the expertise and experience to illuminate the shortcomings in many of its arguments:
A crucial argument is that biological diversity requires habitat diversity. A diversity of habitats is unlikely to be maintained if land use is constrained to a narrow range of purposes. Recreational hunting is one important land use which relies upon conserving wildlife habitat. Accordingly, hunters have a long history of conserving and restoring wildlife habitat through their efforts, funds and lobbying power.
Worldwide, conservation bodies have come to recognise the importance of the wise or sustainable use of wildlife as a powerful motivating force within society in favour of conservation.
Solutions to Australia's massive problems of environmental degradation require a range of strategies which must operate into the future to harness the resources of individuals, local and regional communities as well as big government.
A policy of protecting species by law is only one possible solution and in many situations it is counterproductive. In particular, protectionism may discourage private landowners from conserving wildlife habitat because the native animals are given no economic value.
Sound evidence in favour of recreational hunting and wise academic summaries to support it are only part of the struggle to preserve and protect firearm sports. As with all facets of the 'gun debate', the most vital component is the motivation and persistence of average shooters in lobbying politicians and policy makers; as Carter notes, shooters have been successful in the past as a result of their "efforts, funds and lobbying power".
There is no doubt that recreational hunting forms the most important cornerstone of private firearms ownership in Australia. Its continuation is not only essential to the future of gun ownership, but it is becoming increasingly important for the environmental and economic benefits that flow from it. Irrespective of whether or not they are hunters, all firearm owners need to get behind the maintenance of sustainable recreational hunting. They need to pressure their elected representatives to put in place sound policies which preserve and promote the sport and they need to educate the uninitiated. As a starting point, Dr David Carter's forthcoming book provides ample resources to do both.
1. Drive with Alison Rogers, 5AN (April 21st, 1999).
2. Crook, J (September, 21st 1998), personal communication.
3. Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1998: Commercial utilisation
of Australian native wildlife. Report of the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs
and Transport References Committee, Canberra.
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