WHEN IGNORANCE BECOMES A POINT OF VIEW

Folk-law has it that if a lettuce leaf is placed in the nappy or in the underwear of a sleeping child, it will attract and thus reveal the presence of harmful parasites such as tapeworms, which can then be dealt with appropriately. 

Having always been somewhat sceptical of the technique’s efficacy, I was struck with a profound sense of poetic irony when, while reading the Sydney Morning Herald this morning, a piece of lettuce slipped silently from my bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich to land on my tablet’s screen, thus revealing Greens MP David Shoebridge’s latest effort to parasitise for political gain, a story about animal cruelty.

David Shoebridge MLC, Greens' spokesperson on firearms, has broadened his purview to 
cover yet another topic he knows absolutely nothing about - archery

The story, included below for the reader’s convenience, runs the headline “Call for compound bows to be banned as wildlife kills increase”, but while the plight of various macropods portrayed in the story may be cause for some concern, those advocating the strict regulation or even the abolition of compound bows as the solution, do so without providing so much as a scintilla of evidence to corroborate the allegation that compound bows were in some way involved. 

As spokesperson for a Party that claims to be an ethical cut above all the rest, surely Mr. Shoebridge would agree that making baseless allegations is a wholly inappropriate way to put a case to the public? On the other hand, as a Barrister perhaps he’s just going with a formula tried and true.

Once again (I appear to be doing it rather a lot lately) I’ll go through the story and examine the claims furnished to the public in order to elicit an emotive prohibitionist response and I'll see if I can’t apply a more rational if not exactly evidence-based slant to events. 

The public is advised that “Animal welfare authorities are at a loss to explain the cruelty that is injuring and killing some of Australia's native animals.” What the public is not told is that the archery community is equally disturbed by the injuries depicted in these oft recycled pictures. However, unlike our detractors, we do not seek to ascribe the victims' circumstances conveniently to a simplistic delight in acts of wanton cruelty. 

The motivation for targeting native fauna may be at once far more complex and perhaps not so 'hunting related' as the likes of the Greens and WIRES et al would have the public believe.

Remember, I do not claim the following scenarios are fact. I simply maintain that in the absence of a shooter, a weapon, CCTV footage or a written confession, my explanations are every bit as plausible as the scenarios the Greens and animal welfare authorities put forth as fact...

Many of these events appear to take place in quite urban environments, where mobs of kangaroos and wallabies are themselves becoming urbanised. As ranges shrink and their numbers increase, kangaroos and wallabies grow less timid and increasingly inclined to venture into residential gardens, in which state Skippy can be both destructive and intimidating. This situation grows steadily worse for the fact that animal welfare agencies and of course the Greens, doggedly oppose moves to cull macropod numbers even when they reach pest proportions. To the homeowner who grows increasingly frustrated and even frightened by encroaching kangaroos, the bow and arrow may seem a quiet and inexpensive, if patently illegal, disincentive to trespass and property damage.

Sadly, misdirected youthful exuberance is also a likely factor we have touched on previously in so many articles on this topic. With a plethora of movies and video games inspiring a desire to master impossible archery shots involving moving targets, kids are apt to get tired of shooting at static bullseyes and plastic soft-drink bottles. The solution to this is not the Greens’ first-best option in every case i.e. ever-tighter controls or preferably total abolition, but rather education, responsible mentoring and structure.

These things can be found at an archery club, the neighbourhood PCYC and, if the likes of the Greens would only cease their carping opposition to the notion, in Archery in Schools Programs. Here parents will find the advice required to ensure their kids are kitted-out with gear that’s right for the individual and kids themselves will find both stimulation and motivation in the coaching, the structured competition and the sorts of 'novelty targets' that keep them engaged and help them to become proficient in their sport. 

It is when kids begin to see some consistency emerging in their shooting that they tend to become more satisfied with static targets, ever striving to tighten their groups nearer the bullseye or the A-zone. When expert advice and guidance is lacking, kids’ accuracy is apt to remain somewhat random and in disappointment and desperation they’re inclined to seek out new targets that their immature minds lead them to believe will improve their accuracy – “Maybe if I aim at the neighbour’s cat, my inner hunter will awaken and I’ll be able to shoot bouncing tennis balls out of mid air, just like they do on tele.”

Adequate parental supervision is also essential and while I oppose the State’s regulation of every facet of life, I am a strong advocate of strict parental regulation.

Kids get bored quickly, especially in the absence of the aforementioned structure and coaching and when kids get bored they tend to stray from the path of patient responsibility to seek instant gratification instead. This is not to say they find killing native animals gratifying, but rather like a cat chasing a ball of wool, they are likely to react instinctively to a moving target without considering the consequences. It is a game to them, with no more foundation in reality than any of their video games. 

Parents should take control of the household’s bows and arrows, giving their kids access only when it is safe and appropriate to do so, at least until the child has proven her/himself responsible enough for free access. The child who cannot abide by such restrictions in the short term, is the child a parent should seek to engage in another sport.

If the child shows an interest in hunting, there are responsible, very professionally managed clubs that can cater to this aspect of archery safely, appropriately and legally. Eryk Bagshaw’s claim in the article, that shooting an animal with a bow and arrow in NSW is illegal is simply false. It is illegal to hunt native animals with any weapon in NSW (subject to some exemptions) including the bow and arrow, but bowhunting feral and game animals in NSW is a legal pursuit in the proper circumstances, with the proper supervision and with the appropriate permits where required. 

As for the suggestion that bowhunting is extremely cruel or even barbaric (emotive buzzword alert!) people who hold this opinion would do well to remember they enjoy the luxury of their opinions due to the ‘barbarity’ of countless generations who preceded them. They would also do well to consider whether it’s only white folks’ traditional hunting techniques they seek to inspire and promulgate public fear and loathing for, or whether they should cast their nets a little further to encompass indigenous hunting activities and equipment such as the spear and the nulla-nulla, used to harvest native species? The latter example we are invariably encouraged to celebrate for the great skill and rich cultural significance both the weapons proficiency and hunting prowess embody.

Black hunter  = good, noble, culture, tradition
White hunter = barbaric, evil, blood-lust, sicko

“Compound bows offer approximately twice the power of a regular recurve bow by including a system of pulleys in their mechanics” claims David Shoebridge. What unmitigated rubbish! 

The power of a bow is determined by the energy stored in its limbs and frame at full draw. Bows, of whatever style, come in various ‘powers’ described as their “draw weight”. Compound bows are not intrinsically more powerful than traditional bows simply by virtue of their pulleys or cams. Through practice and commitment the archer who chooses the simplest traditional English war-bow as his discipline may eventually draw a bow of 100lbs draw weight or more and you will find precious few compound bows to match the war-bow for 'power'. 

Mr. Shoebridge’s persistent and intentional disinformation in relation to their superior power has been concocted to imbue the compound bow with physics-defying magical powers to match their often alien sci-fi appearance. In reality, the compound bow’s great appeal lies not in its superior power, but in the fact that the “pulleys and mechanics” the Greens are so committed to frightening the public with, permit the bow to be held fully drawn with a fraction of the effort required to hold a bow at full draw in the absence of scary pulleys.

As a result, the archer can aim more effectively, making more efficient use of very finely tuned targeting sights. In short, it is the compound bow’s superior accuracy that holds appeal, not some enhanced power to render its target more emphatically dead by brute force. 

If Mr. Shoebridge’s concern is that compound bows are more accurate than other styles, in that he may have a point. But the Mongol hordes that overran so much of Europe in antiquity, shooting dirty great holes in the latest chain-mail and plate armour as they went, might take issue with the claim that compound bows are particularly efficient “weapons of death” when compared to the body count they racked-up armed with nothing better than recurve bows made of Yak horn, sinew and hoof glue.

Even if we defer to Mr. Shoebridge’s own whimsical claims and flawed logic, we still find no evidence whatsoever in his latest fear-mongering escapade, to suggest that compound bows played any role whatsoever in the injuries depicted in the article. Nor do we find the evidence in any of the other stock images trotted out when the desire to deceive  the community overwhelms him. 

Despite the claim in the story’s first photograph, there is nothing about the arrow depicted that marks it out as a “compound arrow”. This again is a fraudulent claim.

Compound bows may shoot arrows made of any number of materials, including wood, carbon, cane, aluminium, fibreglass and various combinations of same, and all may be fired from a traditional recurve or longbow with similar efficiency. There are often subtle aspects of arrow design and configuration that to the expert eye may betray the style of bow that fired it, but I can assure the Greens and WIRES that none of the arrows depicted displays any traits unique to compound bow archery. They are stock-standard, off the shelf, El Cheapo target arrows of the type no self-respecting wielder of a magical super-duper scary Rambo ballistic nightmare mega-decimating compound bow would be seen dead laying on his arrow-rest.

It is interesting that while the first image in the story claims to depict “the offending arrow heads”, none of the images depicting arrows impaling macropods is fitted with such a head, or even a camouflage patterned shaft to match. It would seem it’s an example of a shaft that offended elsewhere? Whatever its origin and relevance to this article, nothing about it marks it out as a compound arrow and unless someone has a photo of the bow that fired it, the claim that a compound bow was in any way involved must be called for the conveniently contrived bullshit it is.

The images featured depict what they always depict, the work of misdirected, poorly supervised youth, or frustrated gardener novice archers armed with basic recurve bows from which they’re launching “buy 1 get 2 free”, off the rack target arrows.  The fact that these arrows are not passing right through the animals, but rather getting stuck half way, only serves to render Mr. Shoebridge’s claim of super-bow involvement even more preposterous. 

Had the arrows been launched from a recurve bow of even moderate ‘power’, Mr. Shoebridge, the arrows would have passed clean through the animals in the cases depicted, even if fitted with simple target tips, eventually coming to rest on the ground some distance behind the target. The Lord only knows what might happen if one of your dreaded reverse overhead twin cam plutonium enriched double shot caffeine ginormous intergalactic armour piercing compound arrows was ever brought to bear on a hapless kangaroo. I can see the moon dipping from its orbit and sea levels rising for starters. 

My god, the sea levels...it was the compound bows all along!!

As to the suggestion that equipment might be inscribed with serial numbers which can be checked against some central register, notwithstanding the huge administrative cost involved in that strategy, I would dearly love to hear more about how people plan to regulate access to wood, string, kitchen tables and youtube tutorials. That’s all one needs to produce bows and arrows of sufficient quality and power to inflict the regrettable damage seen in the latest and previous articles in the same vein.

Let’s face it Mr. Shoebridge, you are a hoplophobe. You simply hate anything and everything you perceive to be a ‘weapon’, for its own sake. There is nothing responsible or noble in your purpose. You simply hate guns, bows & arrows and similar tools, and like any intolerant, petulant child you strike out at all that fails to please you or bend to your will. Once the bows and guns are sorted, you’ll start on fish hooks and filleting knives, axes and kitchen whisks that have not been pre-dulled to legislated specifications.

I'd not be at all surprised if lead sinkers and glass marbles were on your hit-list too, for their potential to redden cats' bums and  facilitate the production of particle bombs. 

Meanwhile, sensible people who are not crusaders for the Nanny State know the way to address the regrettable targeting of native wildlife and domestic pets, lies as it has for centuries, in education, guidance and responsible supervision, not more regulation or prohibition. It will never be stamped out. It can only be contained. 

It’s time you put aside the hatred that drives you, along with your chronic hoplophobia and intolerance for European hunting traditions and cultures, so the real business of education can continue unhindered by your deceitful propaganda and predictably manipulative dramatics.

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

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CALL FOR COMPOUND BOWS TO BE BANNED AS WILDLIFE KILLS INCREASE

Friday, February 13th, 2015
By Eryk Bagshaw (Journalist)

The Sydney Morning Herald

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES

The offending arrowheads Photo: G Pym WIRES

Animal welfare authorities are at a loss to explain the cruelty that is injuring and killing some of Australia's native animals. 

For four days in January a female kangaroo struggled through the bushes of a golf course in Grafton, pushing herself on until she collapsed from the loss of blood that had trickled out of her right leg.

An arrow as long as her body had pierced her calf. 

The female kangaroo shot through the leg in Grafton in January Photo: P Edwards WIRES

"This animal would have inevitably died a slow and painful death," National Parks and Wildlife area manager Andrew Lugg said. 

On Tuesday a mother carrying a joey was shot through the head in Melbourne. 

The arrow went straight through one cheek and out the other, without inflicting a fatal shot. 

The injuries suffered by the kangaroo in Grafton Photo: Patricia Edwards

The mother plodded around for days, the arrow's compound shaft eventually draining her to the point of collapse. 

In a 'barbaric' case in Canberra in November, an unknown person shot and killed a kangaroo with several arrows, leaving the animal's carcass next to a barbed wire fence.

Eight others have gone just as painfully in the past 18 months. But they are only the ones rescuers have found said WIRES chief executive Leanne Taylore.

Red-necked wallabies and wedge-tailed eagles have also fallen victim to cruelty.

"In these situations we see animals would go through horrific pain and can be alive for days or even weeks before succumbing to their injuries," said Ms Taylore.

The kangaroo shot through the head in Melbourne Photo: M Zabinskas

"The wounds become infected and the animal suffers immensely. Shooting an animal in this way is considered extreme cruelty."

WIRES Macropod coordinator Mairi Mcleod said that the incidents were made so much worse because they appeared to have been born out of pleasure.

"I think it's absolutely appalling that people feel they can do this to animals just for enjoyment, if that's what it's for," said Ms Mcleod.

Shooting an animal with an arrow is illegal in NSW under the National Parks and Wildlife Act and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

But Greens MP David Shoebridge wants the legislation taken even further.

In July he called for the compound bow to be listed as a prohibited weapon.

Combound bows offer approximately twice the power of a regular recurve bow by including a system of pulleys in their mechanics. They are used both in target practice and for hunting.

"Compound bows are extremely lethal weapons. They're designed to kill, and in NSW there is literally nothing regulating their sale, nothing regulating their use," Mr Shoebridge said. "They are weapons of death which the law simply doesn't touch."

Compound bows are still legally available for purchase in store and online.

Chair of Clarence Valley WIRES Patricia Edwards also called for "all arrows to be coded and traceable to each specific registered bow."

Archery coach Lynne Fairhall defended the availability of archery equipment.

"Archery is not a blood sport. There are people who go out and hunt and 99 per cent of those who go out and hunt are ethical hunters, are doing the right thing," Mrs Fairhall told the ABC.

The NSW Minister for Police, Stuart Ayres, said that he was reviewing the prohibited weapons list.

"Compound bows may be considered as part of broader consultation when comments are sought on the review from the general public, licence and permit holders and government agencies," he said.

Ms Taylore encouraged any witnesses to report incidents to the Police, the RSPCA or The National Parks and Wildlife Service.

"Sometimes this can lead to credible information about the incident and possible perpetrators," she said.

ends