Tuesday, 6 February 2018

Recreational Hunting on Public Lands in WA

Rick Mazza has reignited a plan for recreational shooters to have legal access to public lands for the purpose of hunting. As you'd expect the RSPCA WA is completely opposed to it but has a little trouble finding enough reasons and borrows some unrelated issues to bolster their position.

When this first came up back some yers ago the Barnett Govn was considering allowing it after a Parliamentary Committee suggested it. A decision was expected by March in 2015 and when it came it was a big no.

Lynne Bradshaw, RSPCA WA President was pretty vocal but in all the yak several unrelated issues popped up.

1) Illegal "hunters" & "hobby hunters acting illegally"

2) Pigs lower teeth being smashed out to create larger tusks in feral pigs

3) Hunting is an "unspeakable cruelty"

Firstly several things here, the RSPCA is anti hunting of any sort. To them no hunting is morally ok nor humane enough. They want all hunting banned. That's the real motivation behind their rhetoric.
But answer some of their positions...

1) There are hunters and their are poachers. There are not "illegal hunters" or "hobby hunters acting illegally".
Law abiding people who are hunting animals completely within the law are "Hunters"
Those breaking laws whilst hunting, trespassing on public or private lands and all pig dumping etc, they are poachers...not hunters.
There is no penalty for those (legal) recreational hunters, but there are for those poachers. Trespassing for one and those "pig dumping" or breeding pigs to release into State Forests to later go hunt, $50,000 fine and up to 5 years in prison.
More on criminal penalties later...

2) Lower pig teeth smashing, if it even happens is abhorrent but frankly has nothing to do with legal, law abiding recreational hunters. If they were teeth smashing or pig dumping then they need to be prosecuted to the full extent allowable by law AND have their firearms licence abolished. The idea of recreational hunters is as a part of feral pest control. Whilst the RSPCA yell down its own rabbit burrow, the pigs are being dumped by poachers, the teeth are being smashed by poachers (if it happens at all) and the killing of the pigs is being done by poachers. Whilst recreational hunters could make a good dent in the feral numbers, whilst they're excluded the numbers grow as pig dumping poachers seed the forests & only fluctuate as poacher numbers rise and fall.

3) Hunting is "unspeakable cruelty" ? Really? Why?
Because an animal dies at the hands of another?
So what do we do with hunting, ban it completely?
Well if so they RSPCA has a huge unpinned moral hand grenade in its own lap.

Is all predation to be banned? Snake eating the frog, the eagle eating the small roo or wallaby?
Do we ban all predation or only in humans because humans are a higher order?
If it morally wrong, then they will have to cite the moral code with which they make the judgement.
Christian, Islam, Judaism and every other world religion that has a moral code...would find predators hunting to be AOK, even humans hunting animals.

If you decide for yourself you don't like it, that's fine, that's a choice. But your view that you hold to be higher morally than someone else's is going to need backing on why that it.

In regard to hunting on Public Lands, I would assume :-

This to be a regulated & licenced activity, not a free for all.
I'd expect it to be a part of an integrated land management plan that involves hunting, trapping and baiting...not just hunting. Cats, dogs, foxes & pigs need eradication but you cannot do it just by hunting as there's many that turn into shy ferals and are incredibly difficult to even spot let alone shoot. There's some areas that are inaccessible to vehicles and even humans on foot, aerial 1080 baiting has to happen

If its to be a success, the Government need to apply far more hefty fines & penalties to "poachers" who hunt without permission or licence. If its $50,000 & 5 years, double it & apply a Firearms Licence Ban for Life. For a second offence, double it again. 3rd conviction double it again.
Message gets through clearly very quickly.

Trespass laws on farming properties...yes these need to be tightened and elevated. Many farmers adjoining State Forest have fences cut & gates open. One I speak with regularly in the Talbot area west of York says he'd actually be ok with poachers if they shut the gates behind them but several times a year he has to repair cut fences where poachers leave the State Forest and trespass onto the farmland.
Criminal conviction for farm trespass has to elevate and adopt the same double per offence. Convictions via field cameras has to become the norm.

Firearms hunting is never going to be a control measure on its own, but its the cheapest. You get people willing to pay a licence, willing to burn their own vehicle fuel and their own time to go hunting.

The other 2 facets being baiting and trapping, well there the relevant departments are going to have to seriously ramp activity and the Government is going to have to fund them.

With the state forest areas of Walpole being reported to have between 3000-5000 pigs decimating the peat swamps, scrub & river habitats the clock is ticking. Add to this a friend who works in the department said he'd be very surprised if the actual numbers at Walpole "were that low, its pretty bad"

Not sure of the RSPCA's view on habitat destruction, the levelling of native flora and fauna by just pigs & cats but it would be more relevant than some of the unconnected angles they've been using.

Am I happy about hunters entering land to shoot?
If its regulated as it is for burning off with signs every where yes its sure a heck of a lot safer than having poachers in the state forest with firearms and not knowing they're even there. Yes hunters would be safer to the public.

Right now we have no proper integrated feral action plan...and we need one fast.

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