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Media Release

Monday, March 25, 2013

Illegal slaughter includes 40 rare and endangered Freckled Ducks to be displayed outside the Premier’s Office today – Levy calls for action on Box Flat bird massacre

1 Treasury Place, East Melbourne, at 10am, Monday, March 25, 2013

The Coalition Against Duck Shooting will be displaying 40 illegally shot, rare and endangered Freckled Ducks outside the Premier’s Office at 10am today, together with a protected swan and many other protected and game species that were recovered by rescuers on the weekend.

Campaign Director, Laurie Levy, said today that the birds were recovered following a tip-off of the illegal slaughter of over 200 rare Freckled Ducks and around 2,000 other protected and game birds on the Box Flat floodplains near the town of Boort, in northwest Victoria, on the Opening morning of the 2013 recreational duck shooting season (on Saturday, March 16).

An investigation into the Box Flat bird massacre, announced by the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) last Sunday, March 17, “appears to be more of a cover up of the crime scene than an investigation” with rescuers finding 40 rare Freckled Ducks at the wetland this weekend, Levy said. “If DPI was serious about its investigation, why did rescuers find 40 of this endangered species a week later? Surely if they are serious, they would have swept the wetland for carcasses for evidence of the true extent of the illegal slaughter.

“Following the Opening of the 2013 duck shooting season, information was leaked to us that DPI was trying to cover up a massacre of birds at the Box Flat floodplains near Boort. It was estimated that around 2000 birds were slaughtered including mainly game species, but also 200 rare and threatened Freckled Ducks, threatened Blue-billed Ducks, around 50 swans and other protected species including birds of prey.

“We believe the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) tried to have this wetland closed to shooting because of the large numbers of threatened species such as Freckled and Blue-billed Ducks, but DPI, with its huge conflict of interest, left it open for shooters,” Levy said.

“Approximately 150 mainly local duck shooters were present on the Opening morning.  We were informed that members of the Field & Game Bendigo branch were also present (however, we have no evidence they participated in the slaughter), and that a similar unreported incident took place on this floodplain last year.
We have been told that even though DPI is now investigating, the full extent of this incident will never be made public as the vast majority of birds would have been removed before the investigation commenced.”

Levy went on to say: “This weekend, duck rescuers searched this wetland for dead and wounded birds. Forty dead, rare and endangered Freckled Ducks were recovered as well as a swan, grebe, coot and a large number of game species that had been shot and illegally left on the water to rot. There were also large numbers of wounded birds on this wetland which rescuers were unable to catch.”

Following this incident, the Coalition Against Duck Shooting is calling for the sacking of Game Victoria Director, Simon Toop, a long-time duck shooter. Levy said, “We believe that all Game Victoria compliance officers and staff who are duck shooters and members of the shooting organisations have a serious conflict of interest and should be moved to other jobs within DPI that are totally unrelated to duck shooting. These officers include Rodney Carter, Anthony Ball, Heath Dunstan, John Turnball and Stuart McGlashan.

“The DPI’s Game Victoria officers are only there to serve the shooters, not to protect native waterbirds. They are the gamekeepers. And with the transfer of management of duck shooting seasons from DSE to DPI in 2011, there is no one looking after threatened species like the endangered Freckled Duck, which is one of the ten most rare waterbirds in the world,” Levy said.

Victorian Greens Party MP Sue Pennicuik also raised the matter of the Box Flat bird massacre in Parliament last week: http://vicmps.greens.org.au/content/adjournment-duck-hunting-wetland-closures

UPDATE: Another 10 dead Freckled Ducks have been found at two other wetlands near Boort, where there were no DPI compliance officers to police hunter conduct.  

For further information, please contact: Laurie Levy, Campaign Director  Mobile: 0418 392 826


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Feature Stories

The Coalition Against Duck Shooting's wrap up of the 2011 duck shooting/rescue season video...


Media Release: DEPARTMENT OF PRIMARY INDUSTRIES
WITHDRAWS TRUMPED-UP CHARGE (REFUSING TO KILL A WOUNDED BIRD)
AGAINST TONY MURPHY, DUCK RESCUER,
IN MELBOURNE MAGISTRATES’ COURT TODAY.

2012 aug 13 Court Victory

Photo: Court victory, Laurie Levy, Campaign Director, Tony Murphy and lawyer Daniel Beecher

Related: ABC News TV Footage 13 March 2012 & Radio 3AW Derryn Hinch 13 March 2012

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Editorial

Premier Ted Baillieu has said that his government "will not tolerate animal cruelty” and that  “a person who commits an act of animal cruelty can face penalties of approximately $14,500 or one year imprisonment”. The premier then announces a 2013 recreational duck shooting season. Hypocritical?

To make the situation even more farcical this year, the Baillieu Government, through its Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh, is actively trying to recruit and blood children from only 12 years of age, to take up duck shooting, in an attempt to try to rebuild the dwindling numbers of Victorian duck shooters, who presently represent only 0.4 per cent of Victoria’s population.

The Coalition Against Duck Shooting has called for the RSPCA to place undercover inspectors out on the wetlands to start prosecuting blatant acts of cruelty by duck shooters.  We believe that if the RSPCA is successful in court, then this will be the most effective way to bring recreational duck shooting to an end once and for all.

Rescue teams will back on Victoria’s wetlands during the 2013 duck shooting season to help our native waterbirds – the innocent victims of Victoria’s politicians.

Laurie Levy, Campaign Director

 

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History and Victories

2007 & 2008

Moratoriums called in Victoria and South Australia. The rescue team travelled to Moulting Lagoon, the entrance to Freycinet National Park, on the east coast of Tasmania to confront the shooters and protect waterbirds after the Tasmanian government refused to call a moratorium.

2008

Three states in Australia have now banned the recreational shooting of native waterbirds – Western Australia (1990), New South Wales (1995) and now Queensland (10 August 2005)

2005

Queensland’s Premier Beattie becomes the third state Labor government to ban the recreational shooting of native waterbirds.

The Age editorial (19 March) again calls for the recreational shooting of native waterbirds to be banned in Victoria.

The numbers of duck shooters in Victoria drops from 95000 in 1986 to 19,400 today, although only small number were active on the state's wetlands in 2005.

View our Opening Weekend 2005 article

2003

The Sunday Age editorial (12 January) calls on the Victorian Bracks Government to ban the recreational shooting of native waterbirds in Victoria.

The Victorian government calls a moratorium. Rescue team travels to Tasmania for the opening weekend of their duck shooting season.

2002

The Bracks Government's own Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (AWAC) recommends that the recreational shooting of native waterbirds be banned in Victoria because of the inherent cruelty.

2001

Lead shot banned in Victoria.

1995

Premier Bob Carr bans the recreational shooting of native waterbirds in NSW, the second state Labor government to ban the activity.

1993

The Age newspaper editorial (24 March) calls for duck shooting to be outlawed. The first sentence says: 'Duck shooting is not a sport, it is an obscenity'.

1990

The recreational shooting of native waterbirds is banned in Western Australia by the then Labor Government.

 

Latest Poll

Latest Morgan Research Poll - Majority of Victorians want duck shooting banned

Open Letter to Premier John Brumby

The Age (page 5) Thursday 27 November 2008 - click on image or link to view article.

This advertisement was proudly supported by Voiceless, the fund for animals.

Latest Morgan Research Poll - Majority of Victorians want duck shooting banned.

View Morgan Research Poll PDF

- Read Poll Finding - Read Summary Report

This poll was made possible due to a grant from Voiceless.

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