Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens Wildlife spokesperson
From dawn tomorrow the sound of gunfire will ring out across waterways around Tasmania, marking the start of this year's native duck hunting season.
Around 500 ducks will be killed by hunters every day, on average, for the next three months. Some birds will die immediately, but so many will suffer a long and painful death.
This cruelty will be inflicted on beautiful native birds by just 0.2% of Tasmanians. By contrast, vast numbers of people from all walks of life are appalled at this duck killing spree.
Allowing the hunting season to continue each year is not only cruel, it threatens the existence of native duck populations. Eastern seaboard duck populations have crashed to 10% or less of long-term numbers, and continue to decline, but the Liberals are allowing 40,000-50,000 native birds to be killed for so-called 'sport'.
Supporters of the shooting season say duck hunting is important for tourism, necessary for farmers, essential for conservation, or important for people to put food on their plates. What a load of rubbish.
Shooting native ducks is a recreational activity that just a tiny minority of Tasmanians engage in, allowed by the Liberals who are falling over themselves to appease the shooters' lobby.
There's absolutely no justification for this barbaric, cruel practice to be permitted. It's well past time to end this needless slaughter of native animals.