Debate about the ethics of duck hunting was stronger than ever in the lead-up to the launch of the season last month and while the practice was given the green light by lawmakers, whether or not it should be allowed to continue has once again come to the forefront of public discussion.
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Parties on both sides of the debate made their case – some see it as an age-old practice that should be allowed to continue, while others consider it animal abuse.
For Nick Dean, duck hunting is more than just a hobby, it is a tradition.
The 52-year-old has been duck hunting since he was six, a family tradition that has been passed down through generations.
For Mr Dean, duck hunting has long been a family activity.
As a youngster he would go out hunting with his grandfather and his father, and now he continues the tradition by going out with his daughters, as well as his brother and his son.
“It’s a tradition, to put it in a nutshell,” Mr Dean said.
“That duck-opening morning for me as a kid growing up was spent with grandfather, my father, my brother and in latter years my dad, myself and my kids.”
Mr Dean has been president of the Echuca Clay Target Club for two years, and was previously vice-president of the Echuca Moama Field and Game club for six years.
When duck hunting season officially opened on March 16, Mr Dean and his family were out there once again.
“For people that are not duck hunters and haven’t experienced a duck opening, the best way to describe the excitement the night before is a little like Christmas,” he said.
For Laurie Levy, the campaign director for the Coalition Against Duck Shooting, duck hunting is not a tradition, but something far more sinister.
“Duck shooting is legalised animal abuse on a huge scale and that’s totally unacceptable to the public in Australia these days,” Mr Levy said.
“Duck shooters abuse our native water birds and that is unacceptable.”
Mr Levy argued that calling the activity a tradition didn’t stack up.
“It is not a tradition, it is a bloody slaughter that has always taken place and that slaughter is being exposed to the public,” he said.
“That so-called tradition doesn’t exist and duck shooting is coming to an end.”
Mr Levy started CADS in 1986, and for 37 years he has been campaigning to bring an end to duck hunting.
“Birds receive shocking injuries — they have smashed wings, their bodies are smashed, their bills are smashed, they are often shot and blinded and their internal injuries are terrible,” he said.
“These birds suffer. Duck shooting is legalised animal abuse and that is unacceptable to the public.”
Groups on both sides of the debate see themselves as helping the environment.
Mr Dean said duck hunters provided more benefits to the environment than people might initially think, and Field and Game Australia describes itself as “Australia's most surprising conservationists”.
“As duck shooters, we spend a lot of time building duck boxes and positioning them in wetlands for the birds when they breed to keep them up and away from pest animals,” Mr Dean said.
“We also do a lot of vermin eradication. We get rid of foxes, which are a natural predator to ducks, especially in breeding and nesting season, that’s always an environmental benefit.”
Mr Levy on the other hand said duck hunting posed a risk to native wildlife, with the potential for hunters to shoot protected and endangered species.
He added that the ethical treatment of birds during hunting season was unsatisfactory.
“The wounding rate is at least one in four birds that are shot are wounded and that is totally and utterly unacceptable,” he said.
“They claim they shoot 400,000 birds in a year, another 100,000 birds are wounded that escape and that cruelty is unacceptable.’’
Addressing some of the ethical concerns surrounding duck hunting, Mr Dean said the issue was at the forefront for duck hunters, with clay target shooting playing an important role.
“Part of that is to practice on clay targets to improve your accuracy and reduce wounding rates,” he said.
“The ethics of hunting state when you down a bird, that bird is to be dispatched immediately.
“So if I have wounded a bird, rather than continuing for half an hour, my main aim is to locate that bird and dispatch it humanely.
“That comes down to the ethics of hunting. That’s what we’re taught from a young age, are those ethics and the safe hunting.”
Mr Dean said he sees duck hunting as no different to other game activities.
“Duck hunting is no different to deer hunting or to fishing,” he said. “To use the phrase hunter-gatherer, we are out providing for the table.
“I often say to people, where do you think the food comes from at the supermarket? That lamb roast that you’re having for Sunday lunch was a baby lamb running around the paddock at some point.
“It’s food, and that’s why we’re out there doing it because we enjoy eating wild duck."
Mr Levy has spent almost four decades doing what he can to bring duck hunting to an end.
“Our role is similar to the Red Cross,” he said.
"We go into a war zone to bring out the injured victims. We go out every year during the duck shooting season to rescue wounded birds.
“We also help to stop birds from being shot — we carry flags, where duck shooters dress up in camouflage gear, we wear orange vests so that birds can see us. We carry flags to keep birds away from the guns.”
When it comes to the regional economies, both Mr Dean and Mr Levy had differing opinions on the potential benefits that duck hunting offered.
"I’m putting fuel in the car to go away duck hunting, I’m buying food and provisions while I’m away,” Mr Dean said.
“Then there’s the ammunition that I go into the local gun shop and buy. There is the hunting paraphernalia that goes along with it — all that is bought locally.
“That money is spent in regional Victoria. All the duck shooters come out of Melbourne and come up for the duck opening and weekends thereafter and all that money is spent in regional Victoria.
“We’re painting silos to get people to drive around and visit regional Victoria; well, this just naturally brings them to regional Victoria.
Mr Levy, however, sees things differently. He said he believed the boost from banning the practice would be far more beneficial.
“In regional Victoria duck shooters don’t bring in any money these days because their numbers are down to 0.2 per cent of Victoria’s population,” he said.
“They might buy some fuel at the local petrol station in regional towns, but that’s it. The money for regional Victorians is in nature-based tourism and bird watching, that’s where the money is.’’
He pointed to Phillip Island and the little penguins as a prime example of bird-based tourism.
“You only have to look at the penguins down at Phillip Island,” he said.
“Over one million tourists go down there to look at the penguins waddle ashore every night and that brings in dollars to Phillip Island every year.
“The money in regional Victoria is in nature-based tourism and bird watching, it’s an easy one. And before you can have bird watching you have to get rid of the duck shooters.”
Duck hunting has been abolished in Western Australia, NSW and Queensland, but is still legal in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.