THE Sporting Shooters Association of Australia has slammed animal rights and welfare organisations for using “crude” data that “falsely infers that banning duck hunting would somehow be a political winner for the government”.
A media release from RSPCA Victoria included new data, in partnership with Animals Australia and Wildlife Victoria, showing the number of duck hunters in marginal electorates compared to people who actively support the three animal organisations, which are united in calling for a ban.
SSAA Victoria said each animal rights organisation used a different criterion for what constitutes a “supporter”, with some as “spurious as people who have clicked on one of their campaign links over the past five years”.
“From a data perspective, it’s fundamentally flawed,” SSAA Victoria said in a statement.
“From a political perspective, it’s total nonsense.”
SSAA Victoria is the state’s largest organisation representing the interests of recreational shooters and hunters.
“In 2016, in the wake of a scathing independent review of RSPCA Victoria’s operations, their chief executive, Dr Liz Walker, went on a PR offensive to convince the Victorian public (and the parliament) that the organisation had learned its lessons,” it said.
It referred to a statement made by Dr Walker at the time: “We certainly understand that over the past few years there have been issues which we have campaigned on, and their tone and the way we have done that definitely impacted on our trust with our stakeholders and we apologise for that”.
Last year, RSPCA and SSAA Victoria each commissioned “credible” research into public opinions on duck hunting in Victoria.
RSPCA research was statewide, and SSAA Victoria research focused on seven Labor-held outer metropolitan and regional electorates.
Both asked: “Would you support new rules on duck hunting to protect native species and allow hunting to continue, such as introducing mandatory training for duck hunting licence holders?”.
RSPCA research found that 62 per cent of voters, statewide, would support such a change, and SSAA Victoria research found that 56 per cent of voters in Labor-held electorates would support such a change.
“It’s little wonder that this year, instead of conducting credible research, the RSPCA went out to hoodwink the government with dodgy data … the real stuff doesn’t tell a story that the animal rights movement wants people to hear,” SSAA Victoria said.
RSCPA Victoria again reminded the government it had just weeks left to adopt or respond to the recommendation of a duck shooting ban from the Select Committee Inquiry into Recreational Native Bird Hunting.
“The Select Committee made its recommendation to ban native bird hunting based on clear and considerable evidence and we cannot see any reason why the Allan Government would not accept and implement that recommendation,” Dr Walker said.
“The injury, pain, suffering, distress and death of our native birds through hunting is completely unacceptable and data shows the majority of Victorians agree.
“The evidence is there, and other states like Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia banned it up to three decades ago with people still able to enjoy the great outdoors.
“Anything other than a decision to ban duck and quail hunting for good will simply leave us asking: ‘why is Victoria different?’”
The recommendations were made by a nine-person committee, which found duck hunting had “acute animal welfare” issues and contributed to the loss of large areas of public land.
