Dead birds dumped at premier’s office
VICTORIAN ANIMAL ACTIVISTS HAVE dumped two swans and 35 other birds outside the electoral office of Premier Ted Baillieu.
The Coalition Against Duck Shooting says hunters have illegally shot down nine swans and destroyed 20 swan eggs across Victoria’s wetlands this shooting season.
The group says it is appalled by the slaughter of the swans, which they claim were deliberately gunned down by trigger-happy hunters.
“It’s got to be deliberate,” campaigner Tony Murphy says. “They’re such a huge bird, well out of shotgun range you can instantly see they’re not a duck; they’ve got that really long neck.”
The coalition found no dead swans last season.
Duck hunting season in Victoria’s Kerang wetlands
The activists collected their latest haul of illegally shot birds at wetlands near Kerang, in the state’s north west. The coalition says it has now collected 400 such birds over the six weeks of Victoria’s duck shooting season.
Tony says the coalition didn’t spot any of the 15 wildlife officers charged with regulating shooters over the weekend, and said they have rarely been sighted all season.
“The shooters know the chance of being caught is close to zero because the wildlife officers just aren’t out there as often as they should be,” he says.
Duck shooting season has been banned in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia and the coalition says it won’t rest until it is stopped in Victoria. The season ends on June 13.
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