Ban on Recreational Shootings of Ducks and Quails in Qld

August 10 2005 was a great day for Queensland’s native ducks and quails as The Premier and Environment Minister jointly announced that no reinstatement of the Duck and Quail Management Plan would take place when the current Plan expires on September 1 2005.

This decision effectively means the end to recreational duck and quail shooting in Qld as this so-called “sport” can only take place under the auspices of the Management Plan.

Both The Premier and the Environment Minister had indicated the cruelty and environmental concerns raised by the vast majority of the general public who had written, phoned or visited their MPs or Ms Boyle directly had been taken into consideration. They also took the advise of the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee which recommended banning recreational duck and quail shooting due to the cruelty aspects.

This decision is logical and reflects public thinking and attitudes against cruelty to animals in sport.

“Animal Liberation Qld is delighted with this ban “said Annette Guice, ALQ President and Duck and Quail Campaign Director. “We will however continue to lobby for a permanent legislated ban so no future government can re-make the Management Plan.”

Animal Liberation Qld would like to thank all our members and supporters, other organizations and the public who supported our campaign to ban recreational shooting of ducks and quails in Queensland.

Queensland has now joined WA, NSW and the ACT in banning recreational duck and quail shooting.

Below is the information for the campaign that helped in our success with a ban on recreational shooting of ducks and quails.

"Pacific Black Ducks, who mate for life are blasted out of the sky, just for the hell of it"

What can you do?
Who to write to?
What to write?

Each year in Qld during the hunting season thousands of ducks and quails are killed or injured for recreation - "for the hell of it". Hunting causes pain, suffering, fear, stress, injury and death to legalised game birds, non-target birds and other species e.g. swans. There is NO scientific evidence that these birds damage the environment, crops or need culling (Australia's eastern seaboard has been in the grip of drought for the last 8 years - bird populations are suffering anyway).
It is extremely difficult to understand how the practice of disturbing and flushing out flocks of duck and quail for the sole purpose of killing them can be considered 'sporting'. These beautiful and gentle birds live in their own natural habitat for nine to ten months of the year undisturbed, most with their lifelong mates.

Species shot in Queensland
In Queensland, there are six species of duck, and two species of quail that can legally be killed each year in the name of ‘sport’.

The duck species are:
• Plumed whistling duck
• Wandering whistling duck
• Maned duck
• Grey teal
• Hardhead
• Pacific black duck

The quail species are:
• Stubble quail
• Brown quail

Slaughter in the Air - Facts and figures
2002
    - Registered shooters: 402
    - Birds killed (bagged)
    - 11,061 ducks
    - 1,225 quails

2003
   - Season cancelled

2004
    - Registered shooters: 379
   - Birds killed (bagged)
   - 11,562 ducks
   - 2,839 quails

The Regulations
When a season is declared certain regulations apply that affect the:
• times when ducks and quails can be shot
• number of birds that can be shot every day
• species of birds that can be killed
• manner in which birds can be killed e.g. they cannot be shot at rest

Studies into ‘clean’ kill
A mathematical analysis carried out by Dr G. Russell showed that shooters with a shots per bagged bird ratio of between 4 and 10, will wound approximately 50-150 birds for every 100 birds bagged.

This was also highlighted in a particularly gruesome laboratory experiment conducted by Winchester, (a company that manufactures both arms and ammunition) which indicates the percentage of ducks injured. The researchers tied live ducks to sleds, which moved along at constant speed. A shotgun was fixed to a stand and set up to fire automatically as a sled attached to a live duck moved past. Shooting was therefore conducted under 'ideal conditions' as the gun was completely steady, perfectly aimed and the sled with the ducks moved across the line of fire at a constant speed. Findings reveal:
• When the ducks were 30 metres from the gun, the wounding rate was low
• However at 40 metres, 8% of the birds were not injured badly enough to be classed as 'bagged' (eg they were injured but probably would have got away from the shooter)
• By 50 metres, 50 birds were injured but not 'bagged' for every 100 birds 'bagged'.
So between 40 and 50 metres the injury rate increases sharply with shooters less likely to be able to retrieve ('bag') the injured ducks.

Taking into account this information and understanding that shooters would not possibly be within the 'perfect range' for a definite kill, shows how many ducks are really left injured or left to suffer a slow agonising death.

Partnerships with the environment
Despite the rhetoric of shooters groups and the Department of Environment who state they are in a 'conservation partnership' to assist the wetlands, there is absolutely no scientific or environmental reason to allow recreational duck and quail shooting. And certainly is no humanitarian reason. Any rehabilitation work done in wetlands should be done for the sake of the animals, the environment, and for generations of Australians to enjoy. The wetlands should not be kept stocked with water birds and in good condition so the department can service its clients – the shooters. The question needs to be asked: how much of this wetland work would continue if duck and quail shooting was banned in Queensland? Possibly not much, and it is this attitude towards our wetlands and water birds that is very disturbing.

Lead shot poisons both birds and the environment
Sadly, the deaths do not stop at the end of the shooting season. The weapon commonly used by a shooter is a shotgun using lead pellets. With hundreds of shooters carrying out this ‘sport’ an enormous amount of used lead shot falls directly into the water and lodges into the top few centimetres of mud. Birds of course do not have any teeth, and when they forage in the mud for food they look for hard bits of grit that will grind up food in their muscular gizzard (stomach). Birds that feed off the bottom of the wetlands pick up and swallow the lead pellets as grit. Once in the gizzard, the pellet is broken down and the lead is absorbed into the bloodstream. This causes chronic lead poisoning, resulting in a slow, agonising death over a three-week period.

Lead shot was banned in
• SA in 1994,
• Victoria in 1999, and
• for recreational duck hunting ONLY was banned in Queensland from November 2003.

However, lead shot is still allowed for recreational quail shooting, and for duck shooting on farm damage mitigation permits.

When the WA Government banned recreational duck shooting in 1990, the then Premier, Dr Carmen Lawrence, in a media release stated:
"Our community has reached a stage of enlightenment where it can no longer accept the institutionalised killing of native birds for recreation."

Animal Liberation (Qld) involvement
ALQ continues to lobby all 89 state MPs on this issue to gain sufficient support to affect a ban. We have initiated two e-petitions resulting in over 1,500 signatures. We also continue to gather signatures on our duck postcards for distribution to the relevant individual state MPs. We have called upon our members to directly contact their own state MP either through a personal visit or letter, and to also write to the Minister for the Environment, Ms Desley Boyle.

In 2004, ALQ became part of a coalition of animal rights/welfare and environmental groups working together to see that a total ban on the recreational shooting of ducks and quails happens. The other groups in this alliance are Birds Qld, RSPCA, Wildlife Preservation Society and the Queensland Conservation Council. This coalition has held several protests to show the community’s disgust for this slaughter.

What you can do
• Write a polite letter to the Minister for Environment Ms Desley Boyle demanding a permanent ban on the recreational shooting of ducks and quails in Queensland.

• Write (or make a visit) to your state MP and ask him/her to vote for a permanent end to this barbaric practice. Call us and we’ll give you a helpful Fact Sheet that will help you with your personal visit.

Who to write to or personally visit
• Please write or personally visit your State MP. Contact Queensland State MPs

• Please write to the Environment Minister.
Hon. Ms Desley Boyle
Minister for the Environment, Local Government, Planning and Women
PO Box 15031
City East Qld 4002.
Fax: 07 3221 9964
Email: elgpw@ministerial.qld.gov.au

Some facts you can include in your letter:
• Cruelty is inherent in the recreational shooting of ducks and quails, and cannot be removed unless the sport is banned.
• Many birds are left to die in agony from their injuries, or will be permanently impaired due to shotgun wounds.
• The killing of birds for ‘sport’ or ‘tradition’ may have been considered acceptable in the past but it is now considered totally unacceptable by the vast majority of the community.
• Even experienced bird watchers have great difficulty in distinguishing ‘game’ from ‘non-game’ birds when they are in the air many metres away or flushed from cover. It is therefore impossible for shooters to correctly identify these birds.
• Numerous ‘non-game’ birds are also killed and injured during shooting seasons.
• The meagre resources of the Environment Protection Agency should be used for the benefit of wildlife, not so fewer than 400 people can kill birds for ‘fun’.
• Duck hunting has never been allowed in the ACT, and was banned in WA (1990) and NSW (1995). In Victoria and SA the number of hunters has been greatly reduced due to public awareness of the barbarity of this practice.
• Water bird population has been continually falling since the mid 1980s.
• Habitat destruction is also causing numbers to fall and hunting only adds to this dilemma.
• Hunting ducks and quails with little care for their welfare directly conflicts with the Animal Care and Protection Act 2001.