RSPCA urges Minister to meet community expectation and stop 2024 season
RSPCA South Australia has accused the Select Committee that conducted the Inquiry into the Hunting of Native Birds in South Australia of failing to do its job and being out of step with community views on duck hunting.
Compelling evidence of bird suffering and the SA community's intolerance for the inevitable wounding of birds that occurs every hunting season was brought before the Inquiry. However, neither concern was given priority in the committee's final report which (unlike the report of a similar inquiry in Victoria last year) has recommended the cruel recreational activity be allowed to continue in SA.
The committee heard evidence that:
- A rifle fires a single bullet, whereas a shotgun sprays hundreds of pellets randomly towards flying birds.
- Birds on the periphery of the pellet spray are usually only wounded - to be killed outright, the pellets need to hit the birds' vital organs. Regardless of the shooter's skill, wounding is inevitable.
- Some wounded birds fly on with pellets embedded, others drop wounded, hide and die slowly over hours or days from their wounds, or are killed by predators they cannot escape.
A hunter who shoots feral animals with rifles told the committee that he did not hunt ducks due to the high wounding rates.
The committee viewed footage taken by observers (not the regulator) on Saturday 18 March – day one of the 2023 season – in just one location. The footage showed hunters:
- Dropping wounded ducks onto piles where they were left to flap helplessly
- Provoking dogs to snap at wounded ducks
- Using ineffective and inhumane methods in attempts to kill wounded ducks, including swinging them around by the neck (known as "windmilling") and stomping them into the ground.
In its final report (released last month), the committee admitted it did not know "whether the SA public is supportive of some level of wounding of native birds or whether there is zero tolerance of shotgun wounding during open season".
RSPCA SA Animal Welfare Advocate Dr Rebekah Eyers said that if the committee was unconvinced by recent polling and by feedback to the Animal Welfare Act Review[1], all of which showed strong community demand to end duck hunting due to wounding, then they should have commissioned their own research.
"That's their job, to gather key information and to meet community expectations," Dr Eyers said.
"The committee's given a green light to another hunting season despite recent SA polls confirming that support for a ban exists not only in metropolitan electorates but also regional ones[2].
"In addition, almost 90% of respondents in marginal and key duck hunting seats said it was important that animals killed for food should be killed quickly and humanely - anyone who has seen the footage taken on the first day of the duck hunting season in SA last year knows this is far from the reality."
The RSPCA is not opposed to killing animals for food, but is opposed to killing animals by methods that do not guarantee a quick, humane death.
"We don't talk about "wounding rates" and "wounded animals escaping" in abattoirs because (generally) a standardised killing method is used to contain, stun and kill animals," Dr Eyers said.
"No amount of tweaking to duck hunting regulation can magically transform the shotgunning of native birds in flight into a humane method of killing."
Two committee members opposed the committee's recommendation to allow duck hunting to continue, including Labor MLC Ian Hunter. Formerly the Minister responsible for signing off on each season (from 2013 to 2018), Mr Hunter is now free to express his personal views, which he did in a statement attached to the report:
"…..to support duck and quail hunting necessarily means supporting deliberate cruelty to animals which are wounded and left to suffer a slow and agonising death or crippled.
"Duck and quail hunting in South Australia should be made illegal."
RSPCA SA is also concerned by media reports[3] that on 23 September last year, while the inquiry was ongoing, four of the committee's seven members wined and dined with shooters at an event organised by CHASA, the most prominent lobby group for hunters in SA. In subsequent social media posts, committee members wrote -
- "It was an honour to be asked to speak" at the dinner - Sarah Game MLC
- "We, the Opposition, affirmed our continual support for CHASA tonight…." – Nicola Centofanti MLC
- "May conservation and hunting long continue under CHASA's watch." - Ben Hood MLC
Also in attendance was committee chair Reggie Martin.
Dr Eyers said the actions of the four committee members brought into question their independence and impartiality when evaluating the evidence brought before them.
RSPCA SA is calling on the State Government to reject the committee's final report and announce no season for 2024.
The organisation also urges the State Government to meet community expectations and prohibit native duck and quail hunting in the upcoming reforms to the state's Animal Welfare Act.
[1] https://cdn.environment.sa.gov.au/environment/docs/967728-BA-Animal-Welfare-Act-Consultation-Outcomes-report-FIN-V3.pdf
[2] Automated phone poll conducted by uComms between 25-27 Sept 2023 across all of regional South Australia, total respondents 1035 - 53% support a ban
[3] Border Chronicle, Bordertown - 17 Jan 2024 - page 55
Three Australian states have banned recreational duck hunting due to welfare concerns - WA in 1990, NSW in 1995 and Qld in 2005.
