Victoria has a problem with rogue hunters, and it’s starting to threaten the traditionally strong relationship between farmers and hunting professionals.
In the past, the relationship between farmers and hunters has worked both ways – we rely on them to remove feral animals from the environment, while they in turn rely on hunting as a business or for recreation.
But there has been a dramatic shift over the past 10 years towards a new breed of bloodthirsty hunter who believes they have the right to shoot at anything that moves and will destroy anything in their way for sport.
It is disgusting behaviour and farmers have had a gutful – especially when we’re left not only with the job of cleaning up the mess, but the bill as well. Increasingly, these hunters are driving across the state, collecting feral pigs and transporting them back to regional centres closer to Melbourne so that the hunters don’t have to drive as far when they feel like killing their prey.
This strategy has been a disaster. Pigs now have access to an abundance of food and seclusion within state parks, and their numbers have rapidly grown.
They feast on land until it’s all but destroyed, and then move further into adjoining commercial agricultural land.
They rip up crops and pastures, kill smaller animals like sheep and calves, dig holes in grain bags and destroy infrastructure.
The poor farmer is left to cover the cost of the damage out of their own pocket.
And that’s not even considering the biosecurity risk.
Pigs carry a number of exotic diseases, which can travel over long distances in a relatively short period of time.
We need to be serious about protecting our reputation for rigorous biosecurity protocols.
The potential threat of incursions to industry and the broader economy is too large to ignore.
So it’s pleasing to see the government step up its efforts in fighting this menace.
Just last week, about 100 people were caught hunting illegally at Mansfield in a joint operation between the Game Management Authority, Victoria Police and the government.
This is just the beginning. Hopefully, we see more action taken against this reckless behaviour.
Any responsible hunting group or politician would support such a move.
