TIME FOR A LITTLE PERSPECTIVE ON THE ARROW-SHOT WILDLIFE PHENOMENON

Shooting a duck a goose (or even a duckgoose), or any other native or domestic animal with a target arrow is irresponsible and unethical. It is also, more likely than not, the act of a child and not a hunter.

Having said that, the so-called ‘spate’ of five such attacks reported today by Phil Hickey (PerthNow, August 26th, 2013 here) is anything but a reflection of a growing weapons mentality within the community, as the Greens and the Antis would have the public believe. Rather, it is a perfectly predictable response to a recent ‘spate’ of movies featuring heroes/heroines of such prodigious ability that they can shoot the wings off a fly, or nail bouncing tennis balls to a wall.

In my day it was Dennis the Menace with his trusty shanghai in his back pocket who reigned over a period of bulbul and sparrow slaughter of Biblical proportions. Society ‘banned’ the shanghai and went on its merry way, safe in the knowledge that the slaughter had been halted. 

Like hell it had!

Kids simply started carrying backpacks, in which to conceal their shanghais along with an impressive arsenal of clay balls, marbles and ball-bearings each with its own specific target or killing properties, and the hunt continued.

Boys, and occasionally even girls, will be boys!

Unlike the arrow incidents that have featured in the press of late, a bird shot with a shanghai falls to the ground with no telltale projectile protruding from its body. The casual observer sees only a dead or injured bird, whose injuries are indistinguishable from those sustained in an encounter with a windshield or window, the pellet having long-since disappeared into the grass.

No doubt the Antis will cry-out for regulation or even prohibition of bows, but how does one regulate books, trees, reeds, feathers and string? I had a bow when I was a nipper, and it was a pretty effective little demon too as I recall, but I didn’t buy it from a sports store, I made it myself, just as I made my many trusty shanghais....oops, sorry, "bait casters".

Banning or attempting to regulate the use of bows as a response to a relative handful of acts by over exuberant kids would be an over-reaction of quite stunningly self-indulgent proportions. So what’s the alternative...do nothing?  Well yes almost, although as a first course of action we could show a little respect for our youth by acknowledging that despite the existence of a world of pressures encouraging them to kill and maim just for the hell of it, the overwhelming majority will choose not to.

The Australian community – hunters and archers among them – already promotes responsible and ethical animal welfare principles, and has done since way back before Adam played fullback for Jerusalem. This should continue, but it should continue with some perspective...

• The Australian population (21mil approx) is greater than it has ever been,

• Bow and arrow are readily available and cheap in all states and territories,

• There is a profusion of video games, movies and even cartoons glamorising violence, including violence with bow and arrow,

• The capacity for the public to capture images of impaled wildlife has never been greater than it is today,

• The national media is lucky to come up with 2 dozen cases of arrow-shot wildlife annually, and

• One notorious 20klm stretch of the Snowy Mountain Hwy alone claims 400+ eastern gray kangaroos annually....and that's just the 400+ that stay put when they're rundown. Who knows how many more continue into the scrub to die slow agonising deaths just out of site?

Decreasing the speed limit on the Snowy Mountains Hwy to 60klm per hour around dawn and dusk when car/kangaroo encounters are most common would increase both human and kangaroo response times considerably, thus saving countless lives.

But while the Antis would not be inconvenienced in the slightest if bows were banned, they would be astonishingly inconvenienced if the time it took them to get to and from work [sic] doubled.  Thus, bows should be banned, but road-kills, while deeply regretted, are an unfortunate fact of life.

The Antis will say that I’m wrong, on all counts. They’re a notoriously contrary lot....though I’m sure they would not agree.

Anyway, I'll get outaya way now....

PORCINE SMUGGLERS AND MEDIA MANIPULATION

In recent weeks the media has reported a number of incidents of illegal feral pig transportation.  The first report was concerning enough, but subsequent reports have increasingly inferred that ‘hunters’ are transporting the feral menace in order to seed new hunting grounds on public lands close to metropolitan Sydney.

This morning I had a conversation with a journalist, who, while ostensibly calling to ask me what I thought about the transportation of feral pigs in general, was clearly on a fishing expedition.  She wanted to know why hunters would be intent on infesting our precious bushland with a menace as ecologically devastating as feral pigs. My response was brief and to the point – 

“Responsible conservation and/or cultural ‘hunters’ would not. Irresponsible people might. There is a difference between the two!”

What followed was an hour long conversation about the difference between hunters and people who simply derive recreational satisfaction from killing animals.  I may as well have been trying to convert the Pope to Islam, but the conversation did yield some troubling information about where the media’s slant on the transportation issue might be heading.

It was no news to me that bowhunters are about to be used as pawns (again!) in the anti-hunting lobby’s push to eliminate hunting of all kinds by means of a public fear & smear misinformation campaign.

Regular readers will be aware that I have touched on this issue before i.e. the portrayal of examples of inappropriate bow and arrow use for the purpose of painting all hunters as cruel individuals, without regard for the law or the basic tenets of animal welfare. Bowhunters are particularly vulnerable to this unscrupulous strategy. While an animal that is not successfully retrieved by a responsible shooter may be hard to distinguish from one that died of old age, poisoning or a chance encounter with a car, the bowhunter’s errant quarry may be found months or even years later with 20 or more inches of evidence still in situ. I am referring of course to the arrow.

This makes us sitting ducks for opportunists who are constantly on the lookout for a visually confronting image with which to punctuate their ant-hunting messages. Indeed it has been suggested that with the purchase of a dozen target arrows from eBay and with the assistance of a little road-kill collected by night, the dedicated anti-hunting activist can fabricate ‘evidence’ aplenty with little fear that anyone will challenge their claims or concern themselves with the expensive business of establishing the animal’s actual cause of death.

It seems that following on the heels or recent pig transportation reports, the media is developing a Machiavellian scenario with which to portray bowhunters as the very personification of ecological vandalism, cruelty and disregard for public safety. The scenario currently under development for exposure to an impressionable public goes something like this...

Hunters have been intercepted transporting feral pigs (and lord knows what else) in areas approaching metropolitan Sydney, but what could they possibly hope to achieve? After all, hunting on public lands has been comprehensively scuttled by Premier O’Farrell, and national parks in close proximity to Sydney were never going to be opened to legal recreational hunting anyway. Sure the parks could be seeded with pigs, but the first gunshot to ring-out would draw rangers, concerned citizens, police swat teams et al quicker than you could say, “Not Happy Barry!”

Likewise doggers with cages full of dogs aboard their utes. Find a utility with a cage on the back parked in a national park and in no time flat it’ll be under guard and the bush will be swarming with Rangers with open notebooks looking to 'interview' the owner.

But what about bowhunters?

They drive ordinary vehicles that betray no indication of a hunting raison d’être.  A bow and arrows can be carried in a backpack, along with camouflage clothing etc, until the hunter has walked far enough into the bush to be out of sight. The bowhunter can then assemble his/her gear and move silently through the bush until a quarry is found and of course firing a bow results in no telltale report so the public need never know they’re sharing the bush with dangerous hunters.

Could the recent spate of feral pig transportations be a preparatory measure associated with shooters’ who are concerned about diminishing access to public lands? Maybe they intend to change disciplines so they can shoot illegally, undetected, close to home?

The only way to ensure the continued safety of ‘our’ national parks is to restrict the sale of archery equipment, perhaps place the bow & arrow under the same administrative controls as firearms. After all, bowhunting is the equivalent of shooting with silencers and it should be banned!

It remains to be seen if this devious line can achieve any traction in the public domain, but the fact that the Fairfax media may be weaving such a web of deceit, illustrates just how vulnerable bowhunters are.  Moreover, it demonstrates how desperately we need a strong, cohesive and above all a vigilant and proactive representative voice for our discipline.  Without it I fear the day may soon come when we’re subjected to a bow buyback program.

Think it can’t happen? That’s what many shooters thought in 1996...and again in 2003. I know, I was one of them!

On Wednesday August 21st, 2013, a meeting will convene in Sydney. The purpose of this meeting will be to launch Australia’s first Field Archers and Bowhunters (FAB) state branch of the Shooters and Fishers Party. The meeting will include the election of basic office bearers and the discussion of initial proprieties.

The purpose of the FAB will be to further the objectives of its stakeholders. The details of exactly how we will achieve this goal will be determined after thorough consultation, but some initial priorities have been identified by listening to stakeholder feedback. They include:-

• the identification of immediate priorities,
• the identification of key long-term objectives and the development of a strategic plan,
• the creation of a reference group that will provide expert advice and guidance to the Shooters and Fishers Party’s political representatives on issues affecting field archery and bowhunting, and
• the development of robust and reliable mechanisms to facilitate regular consultation with field archers and bowhunters within the Party, to seek direction from them and determine their ongoing priorities. 

The launch of the Field Archers and Bowhunters (FAB) branch has the enthusiastic in-principle support of the Shooters and Fishers Party of NSW. 

The evening will commence with a welcome from Shooters and Fishers Party MPs Robert Brown and Robert Borsak, who will provide some background and an overview of the evening’s objectives. They will also be available to answer any questions you may have about the Party’s priorities and strategies for reclaiming ground recently lost as a result of the O’Farrell government’s abolition of Game Council NSW, the suspension of hunting on all public lands and the exclusion of bowhunting from the proposed trial of hunting in 12 NSW national parks, due to begin in October 2013.

If you are a member of the Shooters and Fishers Party who is interested in joining us on August 21st for the launch of the FAB; if you have suggestions for priorities, ideas about strategies or resources that might be of use to the FAB, or if you’re just interested in being kept in the loop, please contact the facilitator at fabnsw@gmail.com

There will be limited seating at the Sydney launch, so if you’re keen to attend please let us know as soon as possible for seating and catering purposes.

If you’re not yet a member of the Shooters and Fishers Party, for just $30 you can correct that oversight here

You may also wish to consider signing the “Barry O’Farrell – Stop your attack on law-abiding hunters” petition here

And of course don't forget the rally in Sydney on Wednesday August 14 for the reinstatement of hunting rights. You'll find details about that event here

Anyway, I’ll get outaya way now....