Dear Victoria Politicians – Hunters and Animal Rights Activists Are on the Same Side of Some Issues, So Why Don’t We Try Working Together?

South Australia will institute a ban on bow hunting on December 5th, if the Premier doesn’t stop it. There is now a possibility Victoria could be next. This is all due, in large part, to a small number of very loud animal rights activists making a lot of noise about some instances of animal cruelty that have occurred, and frankly, because they are framing the wrong community as perpetrators. Make no mistake, they have a right to be upset about the instances and images being circulated, and we as hunters do too. But – we need to help them understand why they need to join WITH the hunting community to stop such criminal activity, not ostracize bowhunters and ban hunting methods! Let me explain.

Animal cruelty is not hunting. And hunting is not animal cruelty. This needs to be said unequivocally, over and over again. And hunters need to loudly and openly denounce the pictures of the animal cruelty being shown.

Hunters hunt for a variety of reasons, but ultimately, they are sourcing food. And at the end of the chase, they are killing an animal in the most humane method, a method by which the animal will suffer the least. That cannot always be said about the creatures that we purchase for human consumption at the supermarket or local grocery store. Hunting is one of the most highly regulated activities on the planet. And while food for consumption is a highly regulated industry, the fact that it’s an “industry” and not an “activity” brings an entirely new set of factors into the equation. The ultimate goal of the producers providing animals for public consumption is to make a profit. Thus, millions of animals per year around the globe suffer terrible, inhumane living conditions and very painful deaths on their way to our supermarket shelves. A simple google search into “slaughterhouse,” “hog farm conditions,” “dairy farm conditions,” or “chicken farm conditions” will show an ongoing battle between animal rights advocates and deplorable animal welfare situations. And yet, we the consumer largely don’t have to see, hear or know about these conditions unless we try very hard to look into them.

Contrast this with the “eat what you kill” model. Most hunters are conservationists and care deeply about animals. Our hunting laws and regulations are designed to protect and perpetuate the survival of the species we hunt; healthy and sustainable populations and habitat; and minimize suffering of an animal upon killing. Those rules ensure that you cannot overhunt a species, you must hunt only during certain times of the year, and you can only hunt with certain types of weapons and ammunition. Hunters CARE about these things. They care about the wildlife they are hunting to feed themselves and their families and the health of those species. No hunter wants to see an animal suffer. And hunters provide a valuable tool in the toolbox used to maintain biodiversity and control non-native species throughout the country.

Australia’s ecosystems are in grave decline due to non-native species overpopulation, climate change, pollution and other human interventions. According to a global report released in 2023, while invasive species are a major driver of loss of biodiversity around the world, in Australia they are the leading cause of biodiversity loss.¹ Let that sink in. Australia has close to 3000 invasive species estimated to cost Australia approximately $25 billion every year in losses to agriculture and management costs.² These species must be controlled one way or another, or we will lose the valuable diverse ecosystems Australia is known for. If we begin to limit and ban hunting methods altogether, which allow private citizens to humanely harvest those animals and then eat the meat, we are left with only government culling methods, and then the carcasses are left scattered around the country, completely wasted, and we’re reliant on taxpayer funding to control those species. The balance is completely disrupted, and we will lose the fight.

As a specific example of how hunters are working in partnership to help save Australia’s biodiversity, thirty years ago a small group of South Australian hunters were recruited to help tackle a feral goat population which was decimating native vegetation and threatening wildlife in the Ikara-Flinders Ranges. Over the course of the past three decades, SA’s Conservation & Wildlife Management (CWM) program has helped return the Ikara-Flinders Ranges to their former glory with tens of thousands of feral goats having been removed from the national park. Vegetation and water sources have regenerated, and countless native animals have repopulated the region, while the reduced impact of goats and other pest species has allowed the rare and threatened yellow-footed rock wallaby population to increase from around 500 to several thousand.³

So I say to the politicians now talking about a ban on bowhunting in Victoria – instead of denigrating the hunting community and taking away one of their methods of hunting, why not instead try working with them to institute a program such as an anti-poaching reward or incentive program, which has been proven highly effective, only make it an anti-animal cruelty or incentive program? I can assure you hunters would assist with a passion in weeding out these criminals. Hunters do not want criminals perpetuating animal cruelty giving them a bad name, and they don’t want this violence perpetuated on the animals they treasure any more than anyone else does.

Instead of making enemies of the hunting community, please, educate yourself on all they do for wildlife and species preservation in Australia. Don’t make an enemy out of some of the best partners you could have in your mission. Let them join you in your fight! It might actually make a difference.

Go visit https://handsoff.au to sign the petition.

1. Expert commentary: Invasive species driving Australian biodiversity loss – CSIRO
2. Dr Andy Sheppard, Chief Research Scientist for Biosecurity, CSIRO.
3. Our CWM program a 30-year success story – Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia (SSAA)