Media Release
5 February 2009
Brumby Government’s decision to devastate native waterbirds
Animals Australia today labelled the Brumby Government’s decision to allow a recreational duck
shooting season this year as environmental vandalism.
Glenys Oogjes, Executive Director of Animals Australia, said “Permitting a duck shooting season
against the advice of the Department of Sustainability and Environment is incomprehensible.
Victoria is in its 13th year of drought, waterbird numbers in eastern Australia are down by 82% over
the past two decades, yet the Brumby government have given shooters a green light to decimate
the remnant populations of our native waterbirds.”
“Can Minister Jennings be confident that in the half light before sunrise and after sunset that the
three species of ducks that he is claims will be protected this year won’t be blasted from the sky?
Shooters will simply discard illegally shot birds if inspectors arrive on a wetland.”
Animals Australia labelled Minister Jennings suggestion that a shorter duck shooting season will
somehow make this a ‘sustainable’ season a joke. Most shooters shoot on the opening weekend
and at Easter, which falls within the allowable dates.
The animal welfare aspects of this ‘blood sport’ has led to each of Western Australia, New South
Wales and Queensland banning duck shooting. Shooting flying native waterbirds with shotguns
causes terrible suffering – with reliable estimates that one bird is wounded for every 3 birds shot.
The pellet spray of a shotgun means pellets hit untargeted birds in a flock, and there is no
marksmanship training or expertise required to obtain a duck shooting licence.
Department of Sustainability officers had assessed that of 191 of Victoria’s ‘wetlands’ surveyed,
some 54% are totally dry, that ‘stream flows’ in the west of the state are less than 10% of long term
average levels, and waterbird breeding levels are minimal. Given the continuing drought and low
waterbird numbers across eastern Australia (similar to the past two years where a moratorium was
in place), the Department advised against allowing a season in 2009.
“There is overwhelming support for a total ban on duck-shooting in Victoria. The Department of
Environment and Sustainability advised against it, yet the Brumby government has effectively given
shooters ‘the key to our wetlands’. This decision is so obviously wrong that questions urgently
need to be asked to determine why the shooting lobby has such undue influence over the Brumby
Government,” Ms Oogjes concluded.
For media comment:
Glenys Oogjes Executive Director, Animals Australia Mob: 0414 312 552
Animals Australia Office 03 9329 6333
Animals Australia Inc. 37 O’Connell Street, North Melbourne 3051
NEWS 
