By now you've probably heard the news: On the opening day of Victoria's despicable duck shooting season rescue team member, Julia Symons was shot in the face by a duck shooter. Instead of being able to take care of injured birds callously shot down and left for dead by hunters, Julia had her own injuries to see to.
Poor Julia was rushed to hospital to have 10 pellets removed from her face and hand. She was lucky not to be blinded, or worse! Thankfully Julia will recover; sadly most ducks aren't so fortunate. One in every four birds shot by hunters escape wounded, left to suffer and die slowly from their untended injuries. There's no ambulance for them.
When a hunter pulls the trigger on a shot gun, pellets are literally sprayed out. There is no guarantee what even the most skilled marksman will hit: a native duck, a protected waterbird, endangered species like flying foxes (or even a rescuer!) can become victims of these ducking brutes.
On another note, the boy who reportedly shot Julia was just 14 years old. At 14 you're not even allowed to drive a car, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes or vote - so why on earth should you be allowed to fire a deadly weapon? Actually, why should anyone be allowed to shoot animals for fun? Most of Australia has already banned duck hunting because it's cruelty to animals after all.
Hardly makes sense does it? Why are the Premiers of Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia getting away with blood on their hands? For Julia and the ducks, take a moment to ask the governments of these three states to ban duck shooting now!
Shout outs to all the rescue teams out on the water, including CADS, UPROAR, and the Duck Army. Good luck and stay safe guys, and we wish Julia a speedy recovery!
How would you feel if you were injured while protecting animals from cruelty?
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But it's nice to know at least one of the murderers had a line he wouldn't cross. But who is to say he didn't kill a mother duck. Because all over the wetlands were hundreds of baby ducks swimming in confusion and fear and desperation because their parents were dead or missing. Hundreds, probably thousands of babies destined to die from hypothermia and starvation.
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'When a hunter pulls the trigger on a shot gun, pellets are literally sprayed out. There is no guarantee what even the most skilled marksman will hit'
This is not 100% true, they don't 'spray out every where' with a 20 gauge at 100 yards you get a spread of about a dinner plate, that is not big.
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By the very nature of shotguns, even if a duck is unfortunate enough to get shot, this does not mean some of the pellets will not continue past that unlucky bird and endanger other wildlife as well
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Do we not think about our future?!
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Its amazing how there is a group of people that will go out there to save any ducks they can and try to protect them (even with there lives) while other people will go out without a care and kill and watch animals suffer. I have pulled groups of injured ducks off roads before that have just been hit and left to die in the middle of the road - I can never get the horrible image out of my head and the fact that people will go out there and cause that kind of suffering on purpose, seriously what goes through their heads. If you must shoot why not shoot targets or bottles or something that doesn't have a life and can't suffer.
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It's still a great anecdote to prove that shooting at one duck impacts more than just that duck. I've heard some horrible stories about going over the bag limit, but that's the most awful thing I've ever heard
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