Law passed to allow hunting in NSW national parks

[Maxhead]

It's about bloody time..... unfortunately politicly driven but a win anyway

http://www.news.com.au/national/laws...-1226404781447

[hekarewe]

havent laught that much at a news article in ages a win is a win!!! no matter how you get it its a win!!! i knew i kept my nsw game r licinece for a reason now if we could just get the same thing happening up here in sunny old queensland

[Maxhead]

Hahaha, wish I was there to see it. would have been a circuis!! as you say a win is a win, now for the rest of the country...

[stets]

the reality is the hidden agenda is as follows.

NSW has a known wild animal/pest epidemic at its door step, wild cats, dogs, pigs etc, allowing hunting gives the general public access to go "control" nsw's problems for them. but see the hidden problem lies in the fact that many hunters like to shoot anything that moves, so dingoes, roos, deer, etc will all end up laying dead for no reason once the person that pulled the trigger realises that they dont really want to keep or eat what they just shot.

pity really that the government offers an open slather to quench a blood thirsty hoarde that just wants to kill things.

my advice kill what you can eat and eat what you kill. if you dont want to stock your over stock your freezer full of freezer burnt meat, dont kill more than you can fit.

[Maxhead]

Yes mate, its always the 99% that get the blame for the 1% that just want to go and destroy anything they see. 4wding is in the same situation, all the tracks are closing because of the few idiots out there.
It's the responsible people that enjoy a hobby that suffer, unfortunately.

[Maxhead]

Might approach this from a farmers angle for example. If you border a national park and your cow gets through a fence that was brought down by a fallen tree that was in NP, you get a fine. If a wild dog gets onto your property from NP you loose livestock... If there were better controls in NP I could understand but unfortunately nothing happens so now the farmers have a bit more room to move to get rid of the ferals

[Silver]

the reality is the hidden agenda is as follows.

NSW has a known wild animal/pest epidemic at its door step, wild cats, dogs, pigs etc, allowing hunting gives the general public access to go "control" nsw's problems for them. but see the hidden problem lies in the fact that many hunters like to shoot anything that moves, so dingoes, roos, deer, etc will all end up laying dead for no reason once the person that pulled the trigger realises that they dont really want to keep or eat what they just shot.

pity really that the government offers an open slather to quench a blood thirsty hoarde that just wants to kill things.

my advice kill what you can eat and eat what you kill. if you dont want to stock your over stock your freezer full of freezer burnt meat, dont kill more than you can fit.

We all bring our own values and ethics to this question.

There have been feral animal control projects in Nat Parks in SA for some time. I understand they have consistently been carried out to a very high standard.

There is also R license hunting in State forests in NSW - I haven't heard any negative news from that, which is not to say that it is all done as we would like, I guess.

As to your approach Stets, that is exactly what I do when fishing. enough fish, time to go home :-).

I shoot feral animals, and while I like to use what I kill, I draw the line at eating feral pigs, esp those that are living on cotton places, cats and foxes. :-)

I have had varied experiences eating bunnies - must learn to cook them better :-). My values are that I only shoot ferals, and that I have the skills and equipment to kill them humanely. That's just me, and others do it differently.

[stets]

my concern are the native animals that have a right to be there, protected. now when a gun shot goes off no one will give a rats, at least before the rules where changed it offered some sort of consequence for poachers. i have no problem with cats, foxes, rabbits and other feral animals being controlled, but there are still pure dingoes in the high country that should be protected, roo populations should not be wiped out, possums and other wildlife need some sort of protection too. and i can assure you, its alot more than 1 in 100 people that just shoot at anything that moves regardless

[Silver]

Looking at the press clipping it seems the scheme might be like that in SA.

Here is some info from the management plan of one SA national park - Gawler Ranges National Park http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/fil...LERRNGS_MP.pdf

5.5 Introduced Animals
Introduced animals in the park include Goat, Fox, Cat, Rabbit, Feral Honeybee, House Mouse, European Sparrow and Common Starling. Of these, goats, foxes, cats and rabbits pose the greatest threats to wildlife and are subject to ongoing control programs. Fortunately, rabbit numbers are restricted to sites with suitable soil for warren construction and, furthermore, have been severely affected throughout the arid zone by Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease (formerly called Rabbit Calicivirus Disease). Additional control of rabbits includes destruction of warrens and poison baiting.
Goats have been periodically mustered and removed or systematically shot on the park and are subject to regional control. Photopoint monitoring includes evaluation of goat impacts. Numerous monitoring sites include stands of Bullock Bush (Alectryon oleifolius), much favoured by goats. The extent of browse on these trees is indicative of goat numbers and their location. The Hunting and Conservation Branch of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia has assisted in the control of goats in the park. The effective closure of pastoral watering points will have some impact on the prevalence of goats in the future, but effective control will depend largely on much larger, landscape-scale, regional programs.
Cats and foxes have been controlled in the past mainly by shooting. A systematic and regional approach to the control of foxes will be more effective in the longer term by employing poisoned baits, but cats have proved difficult to control by these methods and will probably only receive some control from opportunistic shooting in the future. A poison bait preparation area has been constructed on the park and results from preliminary fox baiting have yielded promising results.
Objective
Control, and if possible eradicate, introduced animals from the park.
Strategies
•
Collect information on the population numbers and distribution of introduced animals, determine priorities based on relative threat to wildlife and develop and implement integrated, regional control programs. In particular, participate in regional programs for the control of goats, foxes, cats and rabbits.
•
Maintain partnership arrangements with the Hunting and Conservation Branch of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia to assist with feral animal control.

[stets]

the only problem is that in nsw and most other states australia wide, the dingo in particular is not even recognised and a native animal, even though there is evidence that it has been in aus for over 28,000 years. this is due to the pastoral and farming lobbyists that want all animals that pose a potential threat to a dollar eradicated from surrounding lands (which happens to be most of australia, believe it or not) many farmers and pastoralists would like to see roo numbers all but eliminated too as roos compete with thier stock for the grasses that stock eat. some farmers want eagles eradicated as they are known to take lambs.

my problem isnt the laws, my problem is now when vigilante farmers, pastoralists or just simply gunho shooters, many of our native animals wont stand half a chance, in the lands that are designed and set aside for them.

example. a group of hunters go out and bring home a deer each. in the process of thier weekend they shoot 30 rabbits, 10 foxes, a cat or 3, half a dozen roos and any number of dingoes. with no proof that these guys took home more than a few deer and no one knows any wiser to the further destruction these people have caused.

and i have heard it all before, they shot 3 dingoes/roos/etc but they killed dozens of rabbits, goats etc good with the bad..... no any bad just isnt good enough. legislation should not be brought in without an efficient way to police this