COALITION AGAINST DUCK SHOOTING
MEDIA RELEASE Monday 8 December 2008
Peter Walsh misleads the public
National Party member for Swan Hill, Peter Walsh, has been deluded by duck hunters and is
misleading the public in his push for the Victorian Government to call a duck shooting season at a
time when north-west Victoria is basically bone dry. Very little water equates to very few
waterbirds.
Laurie Levy, Campaign Director of the Coalition Against Duck Shooting, today said: “Mr Walsh
needs to explain to country Victorians just how he intends to fill the wetlands with water in north-
west Victoria. Somehow, I don’t think his watering-can is big enough. Or will he instead rob
irrigators of their water just to keep his shooter mates happy?
“Walsh also claims that pressure is coming only from radical animal rights activists to ban the
recreational shooting of native waterbirds.
"This is misleading the public and is simply untrue,” Levy continued. “The RSPCA is not a radical
animal rights group and neither is the government’s own Animal Welfare Advisory Committee
(AWAC) which has repeatedly called for an end to Victorian duck shooting on cruelty grounds.
Mr Walsh appears to be unaware that 75% of Victorians want the recreational shooting of native
waterbirds banned according to a Morgan poll conducted in October 2007. However, the
percentage jumped to 87% once respondents were informed that waterbird numbers across
eastern Australia since 1983 have declined by 82%, that one in four birds are wounded and that
three states have already banned the activity.
“It was the Queensland, NSW and WA premiers, Peter Beattie, Bob Carr and Carmen Lawrence,
who banned the recreational shooting of native waterbirds, not animal rights activists.
"Walsh also maintains that duck shooting is well regulated and controlled," Levy continued.
"However with only a small number of wildlife officers available to keep track of shooting across
the whole of Victoria, this is impossible. But even with police, DSE and Parks officers present on
opening weekends, illegally shot protected species such as threatened Freckled ducks, Blue-
billed ducks, Musk ducks, swans, cormorants, ibis etc. are continually brought in to the mobile
veterinary clinic by our rescuers.
"The environmental damage caused by duck shooters is massive. Until lead shot was banned,
duck shooters pumped tens of thousands of tons of lead shot into the wetlands which will
continue poisoning birds for many years to come. They also lobbied for the unnatural filling of dry
wetlands in order to attract birds (to be shot), causing raised salt levels and drowning River Red
gums. The Kerang lakes clearly show the degradation caused by shooters. They have also used
the wetlands as rubbish tips, leaving behind spent cartridge shells, beer bottles and cans, plastic
and general rubbish as well as non-biodegradable hide material and unburied toilet waste.
"Our native waterbirds must be fully protected all year round as they are in three other states.
The on-going twelve-year drought shows no signs of abating and combined with the predicted
ravages of climate change and global warming, these birds face a huge struggle for survival.
Allowing shooters to destroy our waterbirds for recreation is totally unacceptable to the majority of
Victorians,” Levy concluded.
Media contact:
Laurie Levy, Campaign Director - Mobile: 0418 392 826
NEWS 
