Comments for the Independent Weekly:

http://www.independentweekly.com.au/news...ns/1462520.aspx

http://www.independentweekly.com.au/content/letterstotheeditor/

My online comments:

Parnell and the Greens are like a broken record. They are for the banning of all guns and all hunting, so how objective are they?

As for bird numbers, a large proportion of the duck population dies off each year anyway. If there is less water around, the die off will be greater. Hunting just removes part of the population that will die off anyway.

Hunting is a natural human activity practised for thousands or millions of years. It is not an "inhumane" practice.

Response to another online comment:
And ... to the "hidden" greenie alias:

Mark Aldridge said "I hope the hunters are very carefull in regeards to which species they shoot, Hard task when in flight".

Mark, are you aware duck hunters must pass a Waterfowl Identification Test before being able to get a duck season licence?

Protected ducks vs non-protected ducks also have quite distinct differences in colour patterns eg most unprotected ducks have white sections in their feather patterns.

To this comment from the greenie posing as an "independent" commenter:

Quote
Running a sanctury, I know first hand that duck numbers have bearly recovered over recent years, let alone some of our native ducks still remain in dangerously low numbers, I hope the hunters are very carefull in regeards to which species they shoot, Hard task when in flight, I agree with the greens for once, give them longer to recover in numbers, as if they really need to shoot more in the name of fun?
Posted by Mark M Aldridge on 18/03/2009 12:07:11 PM

PS I'm sure I've seen the name "Mark Aldridge" before, in connection with the Greens Party.

***

Letter to the editor:

Dear Editor,

I refer to your article "Duck-shooting season slammed by Greens' published on the 18th of March.

Parnell and the Greens are like a broken record. They are for the banning of all guns and all hunting, so how objective are they?

As for bird numbers, a large proportion of the duck population dies off each year anyway. If there is less water around, the die off will be greater. Hunting just removes part of the population that will die off anyway.

Hunting is a natural human activity practised for thousands or millions of years. It is not an "inhumane" practice. Actually it is a great activity enjoyed by whole families in the outdoors. Duck meat is also a very tasty low fat meat.

John H