Community opposition and wounding ignored – duck hunting continues

On Thursday 1 February 2024, the State Government announced another duck hunting season for South Australia. It will begin on Saturday 16 March and end on Sunday 30 June. During those three and a half months, hunters will be allowed to kill/bag ten ducks each, per day – two more than in the 2023 duck hunting season.

Hunters can target seven duck species in 2024 – grey teal, chestnut teal, Pacific black duck, Australian shelduck (mountain duck), maned (wood) duck, pink-eared duck and hardhead. The pink-eared duck and hardhead duck were not permitted species in the 2023 season, and its especially surprising that shooters can target the hardhead in SA in 2024, given that shooters in VIC cannot, because hardheads are listed as threatened under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988.

The recreational shooting of native duck and quail is unavoidably inhumane.

Every year shooters are caught on camera wounding (not killing) ducks in flight with pellets sprayed from shotguns, and then failing to kill the wounded birds quickly or humanely after they fall from the sky.

The footage has also shown that some shooters do not bother to retrieve wounded birds. Other shooters have been caught killing or wounding protected species and trying to hide the evidence. And some shooters have also been filmed leaving wounded birds accessible to their dogs, even holding the flapping birds up and appearing to encourage their dogs to snap at them.

The RSPCA is not opposed to killing animals for food but is opposed to killing animals by methods that do not guarantee a quick, humane death.

This outdated activity results in widespread suffering due to wounding. As such, it does not meet community expectations in 2024.

The video below shows the reality of duck shooting. WARNING: Contains graphic content. Viewer discretion is advised.

In 2023, state governments in SA and Victoria held inquiries into duck hunting

In February 2023, the SA Government announced an inquiry into duck and quail hunting in South Australia. RSPCA SA was among the groups to put in a submission strongly opposed to the hunting of native waterbirds. You can read our submission here >

The South Australian Select Committee Report

The SA Committee’s final report was released in December 2023. It acknowledged that duck hunting wounds birds and causes unacceptable risks to public safety for non-shooters and that shooters leave too much (shotgun) litter in wetlands.

The report also noted that duck hunting is difficult to police due to the vast areas where it occurs. Despite these acknowledgments, the report recommended this controversial activity be allowed to continue in SA with slightly tightened regulations.

The report included the dissenting statements of two members, including MLC Ian Hunter, who said:

“…..to support duck and quail hunting necessarily means supporting deliberate cruelty to animals which are wounded and left to suffer a slow and agonising death or crippled.

“Duck and quail hunting in South Australia should be made illegal.”  

You can read the SA Select Committee Report here >

The Victorian Select Committee Report

In August 2023, the Victorian Select Committee released its report, recommending that native duck and quail hunting be banned in Victoria. Animal welfare issues, declining bird numbers and loss of wetland amenities to non-shooters during hunting season were behind the recommendation.

You can read the Victorian Select Committee Report here >

The Victorian report also noted that compliance monitoring was “a near impossible task”. The Vic government ignored the report’s recommendation and declared a 2024 duck hunting season to run from 10th April to 5th June 2024.

Community expectations

Surveys conducted by professional polling companies over the past four years have all found that the majority of South Australians in both metropolitan and regional areas want duck hunting banned. The government’s recent review of SA’s Animal Welfare Act reported that some of the strongest feedback from the community was the desire to ban duck hunting.

Regardless of hunters’ skill, ducks will be wounded with shotguns

When a shotgun is fired into a flock of birds it is common for many birds to be wounded, not killed. That’s because shotgun cartridges, when fired, create a spray of pellets that often miss a bird’s vital organs.

An Australian study (Norman & Powell, 1981) found at least 25% of native ducks shot are wounded (not killed outright). With little formal monitoring of duck and quail hunting activities, accurate statistics are difficult to obtain. Some estimates place the wounding (injury) rate closer to 45%.

Some of the wounded will fly on with pellets embedded and some will fly on and die sometime later from pellet wounds. Wounded birds that don’t drown will likely die from starvation, dehydration, infection, exposure or predation. Many of these deaths will be slow and painful.

For the wounded birds that are retrieved by hunters, recent vision captured from the first day of hunting seasons in both Vic and SA suggests many of these will have their necks twirled (a technique known as “windmilling”) in an effort to break their neck. There is no scientific evidence that “windmilling” is a reliable or humane killing method. After windmilling wounded birds, many shooters will then abandon them without checking for signs of death.

Images: Hunters “windmilling” wounded birds.

We don’t know how many non-target birds are shot or how many wounded birds are not retrieved

We also don’t know how many shooters will fail to humanely kill the wounded birds that they retrieve.

Due to insufficient monitoring, we do not know how many non-target (including threatened) species are shot by mistake or how many wounded birds are not retrieved. Similarly, the lack of monitoring means we don’t know how many wounded birds will be abandoned by shooters before confirming they are dead.

In South Australia, non-compliance resulting in the suffering of native birds captured by observers (not the regulator) on just the first day of SA’s 2023 duck hunting season suggest non-compliance may be widespread and that it is unlikely that SA’s regulator can ensure compliance with applicable hunting regulations and laws, including the state’s Animal Welfare Act. Read more here >

The Vic regulator, the Game Management Authority, has significantly more resources to police duck hunting than our state government regulator, DEW (Department of Environment and Water). Despite having these resources, the Vic Select Committee report found that “Victoria’s land available for recreational native bird hunting is geographically vast and dispersed. This makes it improbable for the Game Management Authority to enforce compliance with hunting regulations with the resources they have.” 

You can read the full report here >

SA permit system fails to ensure waterbirds shot have a humane death

Not all waterbird hunting in South Australia occurs on public game reserves. Many wetlands used by hunters are on private properties, making them even less visible to the public and to regulators.

Whether hunting on public or private land (with landowners’ permission), recreational shooters are required to have completed the Waterfowl Identification Test (a one-off test known as the WIT) and must possess an Open Season duck hunting permit. Recreational shooters must only shoot during the declared open season and must comply with bag limits and with the Code of Practice for the Humane Destruction of Birds by Shooting in South Australia.

Compliance with this Code is a condition of the duck hunting permit. The Code requires shooters to kill injured birds humanely, but permits do not require hunters to undertake training or demonstrate competency in this crucial skill. 

  The Code also states that:

  • Only one bird should be targeted at any one time.
  • Shooting at a flock is unacceptable.
  • Injured birds must be retrieved and killed as quickly and humanely as possible.

Filmed evidence has repeatedly shown that these legal obligations – aimed at reducing the suffering of targeted birds – are often ignored by hunters.

SA is a lag state – other states banned duck hunting decades ago

Three Australian states have already banned recreational duck hunting – Western Australia in 1990, NSW in 1995, and Queensland in 2005.

When Queensland’s then-Premier, Peter Beatty, announced the ban on duck hunting more than a decade ago, he said it was “not an appropriate activity in contemporary life”.

In announcing the ban in Western Australia in 1990, then-Premier, Dr Carmen Lawrence said, “Our community has reached a stage of enlightenment where it can no longer accept the institutionalised killing of native birds for recreation”. 

Yet, more than 30 years later, this activity continues here in South Australia, despite broad community support for a ban.

Ecotourism is the future – duck shooting is the past

Research shows bird watching is highly profitable, injecting much-needed funds into regional economies.

Our native birdlife and wetlands already exist, little infrastructure is needed, and regional economies will benefit.

In addition to international tourists, Tourism Australia’s National Visitor Survey shows a growing number of Australians engage in bird watching domestically, spending money in regional economies.  

South Australia is blessed with the natural assets to become a bird-watching hub. Our state’s Tourism Plan has already committed to “..investing in emerging niche markets including bird watching…” 

In Victoria, the Winton Wetlands offers bird watching and wildlife education and its visitor numbers increase every year, whilst Phillip Island offers tourists a penguin viewing experience that has drawn millions of tourists.  

Our aim and how you can help

The only way to protect birds from the inevitable suffering caused by recreational duck hunting, is to ban it.

Right now, SA’s Animal Welfare Act is open for changes and a new regulation could be included to ban the recreational shooting of our native waterbirds.

This is a narrow window of opportunity, and your voice can make a difference. Use this simple form to enter your postcode and we’ll show you how to push for recreational duck hunting to be banned under the Animal Welfare Act.

Help END recreational duck shooting by taking these 4 easy steps to write to your MP:

1. Click the ‘JOIN THE CALL FOR CHANGE’ button
2. Head to the green box
3. Enter your postcode
4. Submit the pre-written letter or write your own