Each year in Tasmania a 3-month open season for recreational shooting of ducks is held from early March until early June. Shooters can shoot up to 10 ducks per day throughout the season. Tasmania is one of only 3 states to have a recreational duck shooting season with permanent bans in WA, NSW and QLD. The ACT has never allowed recreational duck shooting.
The RSPCA estimates that for every duck that is killed and retrieved by shooters another is wounded and left to die a slow death. Further, annual aerial surveys undertaken down the east coast of Australia have shown a steady decline in duck numbers since 2007, with breeding rates this year seriously low due to the drought.
To cause such suffering and put further pressure on declining duck numbers just to satisfy people who enjoy killing ducks with guns is irresponsible. It’s time for Tasmania, which relies so much on eco-tourism, and which prides itself on being “clean and green” to ban duck shooting, joining the other compassionate Australian states to end this practice. We demand that recreational duck shooting is banned in Tasmania.
Dear Messers Hodgman and Groom,
We, the signatories to this petiiton, are deeply concerned about the animal welfare consequences of recreational duck shooting, and the pressure that this unneccesary activity puts on duck numbers.
The RSPCA estimates that for every duck that is killed and retrieved by shooters another is wounded and left to die a slow death. Further, annual aerial surveys undertaken by Prof. Richard Kingsford down the east coast of Australia have shown a steady decline in duck numbers since 2007, with breeding rates this year seriously low due to the drought.
To cause such suffering and put further pressure on declining duck numbers just to satisfy people who enjoy killing ducks with guns is irresponsible. It’s time for Tasmania, which relies so much on eco-tourism, and which prides itself on being “clean and green” to ban duck shooting. Tasmania needs to join WA, QLD, NSW and ACT to show compassion and environmental and social responsiblity and end recreational duck shooting. We demand that recreational duck shooting is banned in Tasmania.
