CADS’ campaign has seen recreational duck shooting banned in three states and the numbers of duck shooters in Victoria decrease from 100,000 in 1986 to approximately 11,000 active duck shooters today (just 0.2% of Victoria’s population). This has been brought about by changing public opinion. CADS’ rescuers are frontline fighters who represent the interests of native waterbirds in the media, on the wetlands and in the courts.
In the 1980s there were 100,000 duck shooters in Victoria. In 1986, a group of 15 rescuers went to Reedy Lake, part of the Connewarre wetlands near Geelong, where they challenged around 8,000 shooters. Wounded birds were recovered and rushed to an on-site veterinary clinic.
For the first time native waterbirds were given intrinsic value as rescuers put themselves in danger to help wounded birds.
The campaign took off because of the powerful media coverage on television news that night in Victoria and across Australia.
Images of kindness and compassion will always win the hearts of the public over senseless acts of gun violence.
The public now regard duck shooting as a barbaric relic from the past. Recreational duck shooting was banned in Western Australia in 1990, in NSW in 1995 and Queensland in 2005.
By changing public opinion, the number of duck shooters has dropped from 100,000 in 1986 to approximately 11,000 active duck shooters today.
Today duck shooters make up less than 0.2 per cent of Victoria’s population.
The recommendation of Labor’s own taxpayer funded Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into native bird hunting was totally ignored by Premier Jacinta Allan, who has been a longtime supporter of duck shooting in Victoria. “It’s repugnant that the Premier has no empathy whatsoever for the shocking suffering and brutality that recreational duck shooters will inflict on hundreds […]
The Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry select committee recommends an end to the recreational shooting of native waterbirds.
Native bird hunting inquiry gathers evidence from key organisations on second day of public hearings. The Legislative Council Select Committee listened to representatives of Field & Game Australia, RSPCA Victoria, SSAA Victoria, Coalition Against Duck Shooting, Australian Cypriot Sport Shooting Association – ACSSA & Wildlife Victoria. Transcripts will be available at a later date: vicparl.news/45xNZrI
