Kangaroo Politics

[Tj]

There is a bit of talk in the news of late about kangaroo culling which has come about due to the federal government releasing a draft of its guidelines of acceptable methods of kangaroo culling. While the bow is not a practical tool for culling large numbers, this document also dictates that the same methods must be applied to recreational harvesting, and these guidelines prohibit the use of bows. The draft can be viewed here http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/trade-use/invitecomment/pubs/draft-code-kangaroos.pdf

This is important in two ways. The first is that the document states that the only humane way to hunt a kangaroo is to use a firearm implying that bows are inhumane.

The second concern is that there are moves afoot in NSW for recreational hunters to be allowed to assist with controlling kangaroo numbers. If the document is released as it stands, bowhunters will be excluded from this.

It might be worth a letter or an email to Minister Garrett
http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/garrett/index.html
and suggest that bowhunting is not inhumane.

[spiderbait24]

i would say that the bow is not as faster working as maybe a rifle, but if the shot is placed properly it is very humane.

[wayoutwest]

Why would you want to shoot roos for anyway what the hell could you get out of it.

If you come back is for culling reasons be realistic its way more efficient to let a few pro roo shooters on the property to clean them up plus the pro's can sell them.

IMO its unrealistic for bowhunters to fight for culling rights.

[bear]

Why would you want to shoot roos for anyway what the hell could you get out of it.

Plenty of meat thats what;) it may be illegal but be realistic anyone who's spent any amount of time living in the bush knows it's a very popular pastime to go roo shooting:D I would never condone those morons who shoot them pet roo's in suburbia, but if someone knocks a roo for some meat I cant see any problem with that:D it has been proven afterall to be the healthiest red meat in the world :D and there's plenty around!

BEAR

[jindydiver]

It may seem as if there is an implication that bows are inhumane, but you might be reading too much into it. The guidelines are for commercial harvesting and are used as a reference (but thankfully not a baseline) for the law as it relates to recreational hunting of roos (QLD and TAS). That doesn't mean we shouldn't look at what is happening and do something to help fight the anti's.

The guidelines apply a standard that was worked out to allow the hunting (commercial and recreational) of roos while placating the anti-hunting groups who oppose it outright. We might see them changed (made tougher) through pressure from those anti's (the review is after all about giving dissenters a second bite at it), or we might see them adopted as they appear in the draft, but for certain we will never see the guidelines weakened to allow bowhunting of roos (or anything else the anti's see as even more barbaric than the base fact that roos are being killed).

This example of an attempt to have commercial code being applied to a recreational situation should be a reminder that we are under attack from many directions. If the anti-hunters get their way with this they will as a minimum have it made mandatory that recreational roo shooters must do the same shooting tests as the commercially accredited shooters. If this is allowed then a precedent will be set and how long will we have to wait before the NSW DECC (formally NPWS) SOP's for deer shooting are made mandatory for recreational hunters. For those that don't know the SOP's, they include head shooting with center-fire rifles only and that would mean no bowhunting of deer in NSW.
I am sure there will be people here (as there are elsewhere) claiming that this is just so much paranoia, but you can believe that there are people out there looking for ways to chip away at your hunting, and you can be thankful that there are people out there who are fighting them so that when the anti's fail the dreamers can pretend the threat didn't exist.

[wayoutwest]

Your right abou the meat bear ive eaten alot of roo ive been told that i am able to shoot roos because i am of "aboriginal descent".
Anyway im curious on who does fight for us?

[GOLDGT]

Read the other day in the news that they are thinking of using shootguns on joey,s at close range to cull them. If i was the roo and had a choice i would want a nice clean head shoot with a high powered rifle.

[KungFu_Rambo]

from what ive heard about the roo shooting (know nothing about the deer) the RSPCA has made quite a few reccomendations, such as banning the shooting of roos with obivious joeys and finding a way to humanely kill a joey. I personally have no problem with the commercial roo shooting, its the weekend unlicensed shooters i dont like (the RSPCA also reccomended banning these weekend shooters). As for the bowhunting not being humane, i say Bull$h!t to that, but really, who would you want to go bowhunting a roo? if you like roo meat buy it from the shop or a commercial shooter, at least your supporting a local industry. Ill look into this a bit more at work.

[Glenn]

Back in the 70's a kangaroo was shot legally with a bow on the tag system. This was never followed up and a great opportunity was lost maybe forever...Glenn...

[Tj]

My main concern with the code is the following extract

"When shooting a kangaroo or wallaby, the primary objective must be to achieve instantaneous loss of consciousness and rapid death without regaining consciousness. For the purposes of the Code, this is regarded as a sudden and humane death."

While I understand that this is for the purpose of the code, because this would represent what is agreed as humane death by federal and state governments I feel that it could be used against bowhunters in the long term. While I don't pretend to know the exact details, the recent cat case involving one of our members seemed another place where this type of a standard was applied. I am not paranoid enough to think that this is a conspiracy, but I do think that it is another step down a slippery slope.

I am not for a moment suggesting that a bow is suitable for commercial harvesting. I personally will be writing to suggest that the code should be changed so that the emphasis should be on the hunter/culler preventing unnecessary suffering so that it is along the lines of the NSW Game Council Legislation which does not require constant updating to keep up with technology changes and advances in our understanding of animal welfare. This would also allow the use of a bow for recreational hunters.

If recreational hunters were allowed to take roo I certainly would as it is a meat that I already enjoy and buy. If you have tried "roo vindaloo" the sweet meat combines superbly with the sourness of the sauce, I highly recommend it. It is a nice lean meat and my biggest problem with it is my dogs like it even more than me.

[GOLDGT]

Yeh i can see your point TJ. To me it seems that as the city,s get bigger more people forget where meet comes from. If it was,nt for man hunting and eating red meet we would be still living in the dark ages.

[jindydiver]

Anyway im curious on who does fight for us?


An example....
I personally will be writing to suggest that the code should be changed so that the emphasis should be on the hunter/culler preventing unnecessary suffering so that it is along the lines of the NSW Game Council Legislation which does not require constant updating to keep up with technology changes and advances in our understanding of animal welfare. This would also allow the use of a bow for recreational hunters.




You too could join the fight by making yourself aware of these issues and getting involved ;)




And you are right TJ, it is true that we see in legislation like this the institutionalisation of the belief that only "instantaneous" death can be humane. The people that believe this prefer to ignore that there are very few examples of "instantaneous" death in nature and that it is not "inhumane" for an animal to linger for a time after the killing blow has been struck as long as the intent was to kill (not injure) and the animal suffers no unnecessary distress. There are way too many people out there who buy the animal liberation line that is is somehow cruel to kill something just by the very fact that it is a human doing the killing. These people, I suspect, also believe in fairies.

[wayoutwest]

Tj after you put it like that i think its a good idea.

Jindy i would but i have the IQ of about -10:confused:
but when i do come across any anti hunters and they say its inhumane i ask them what is a humane death they say a quick one which from experiance doesnt happen naturally in the wild.

[jindydiver]

Tj after you put it like that i think its a good idea.

Jindy i would but i have the IQ of about -10:confused:
but when i do come across any anti hunters and they say its inhumane i ask them what is a humane death they say a quick one which from experiance doesnt happen naturally in the wild.


I am sure you are no thicker than the rest of us :D
And yes, anti-hunters (and animal libbers) have a hard time understanding that there is a natural world and there is also a perfect fantasy world where everything lives a perfect life and there is no such thing as death or pain, and that of these two worlds only one really exists :lol:
Just keep explaining to the anti's that their perfect world doesn't exist and you will be working in your own way to help keep the balance ;)