WIRES’ concern about impacts on animal welfare and conservation is shared by the National Parks Association, the Invasive Species Council, the RSPCA, the Wilderness Society and many others. The bill would allow the shooting of native animals and establishment of private Game Reserves, both of which WIRES opposes.

While feral animal control is very important in the fight to protect and preserve our unique native wildlife, the claims made that recreational hunting provides an effective or low cost option to control feral animal populations is not supported by any evidence.

The danger is that governments seem to be keen on ‘outsourcing’ feral animal control to the very ineffective recreational hunters at the expense of properly funded professional control efforts.

Most importantly the Game Councils own annual reports show that the number of feral animals killed in the past two years in NSW State Forests, on average per licensed hunter, is not even 1 per cent of the targeted populations.

Unless hunters kill more feral animals than can be replaced by migration and reproduction they do not reduce populations. For many feral animals this would require up to half or more of the entire population to be killed annually.

In addition the NSW Department of Primary Industries own guidelines state that ground shooting of feral pigs for example, is ineffective as a method of population control. 

Much of this information is reproduced with permission from the comprehensive critique written by Dr Carol Booth, Policy Officer with the Invasive Species Council “Is recreational hunting effective for feral animal control”.