Game Council NSW Code of Practice for hunters - a case study

Associate Professor A.W. English AM RFD

^{A.W. English and Associates
Cobbitty NSW 2570}

• Introduction
• Conservation hunting
• Game Council NSW Code of Practice
• Discussion
  
  
• Conclusion
• References
  
  

Introduction

The Game Council NSW is a statutory authority which was established when the Game and Feral Animal Control Act 2002 came into force in the state. The objects of this Act are:

• To provide for the effective management of introduced species of game animals; and
• To promote responsible and orderly hunting of those game animals on private and public land and of certain feral animals on public land. (Game Council NSW 2005).
  

The Council has the responsibility for establishing programs and setting standards for hunting in NSW that will be successful in fulfilling the objectives of the Act. Membership of the Game Council NSW is prescribed by the Act, consisting of 16 councillors; being one from each of 8 hunting clubs, one each from Forests NSW, Department of Lands and the Rural Lands Protection Board, one from the Australian Veterinary Association, two wildlife scientists, and one indigenous person from the NSW Aboriginal Land Council. Under this Act wild deer are gazetted as game animals, as are 5 introduced bird species – peafowl, partridge, California quail, pheasant and turkey.

Conservation hunting

The role of the Game Council NSW is encapsulated in the term “Conservation Hunting”, defined as “hunting undertaken to enhance overall environmental outcomes by managing the impact of game and feral animals and reducing their populations in natural and agricultural environments. Conservation hunting is consistent with the principles of ecologically sustainable development as elaborated in the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. There are over 8000 voluntary conservation hunters now engaged in removing pest animals from both private and public lands, the latter in the form of 372 State Forests, with over 2 million hectares opened up for hunting as at August 2008. Since the first State Forests were opened up to R-licence holders in 2007 the “conservation scorecard” stands at over 15,000 pest animals killed by hunters in NSW State forests.. At the same time the Council has a major compliance function, with successful prosecutions of illegal hunters now occurring.

The use of hunters to remove pest animals and to control game and feral animals is not new to Australia. In South Australia hunters have been used in protected areas as a part of “Operation Bounceback”. This involved accredited hunters removing feral goats and foxes from the Flinders Ranges and elsewhere, in support of the Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby program. Examples in NSW include current participation by hunters in deer removal programs in several areas of the state, and of a new population of Canada geese on the south coast, before the first birds to arrive could breed. This was achieved by a single marksman using a high velocity rifle to kill these very large birds safely and humanely.

Indeed it is these two attributes that underpin everything that the Game Council NSW stands for. It is an act of faith that human safety is never compromised when a hunter pulls a trigger or releases an arrow. In addition, the act of killing the animal must be such that no undue pain or suffering is inflicted on the animal. This is consistent with the provisions of POCTA 1979, which requires that a person who hunts an animal must do so in a manner that does not inflict unnecessary pain on the animal.

Game Council NSW Code of Practice

The Council is absolutely committed to the promotion and management of safe, humane and ethical hunting in NSW. This can only be achieved if hunters are well trained in the use of their firearm or bow, and that they can be confident that the animal will be killed humanely. In order to ensure that no licenced hunter has any doubts about what is required, the Council set up the Ethics, Education and Training Committee,. I Chair this committee, and one of the first tasks was to begin compilation of a Hunter Education Handbook. This was to be a very comprehensive reference for the purpose of educating and training hunters, and the core of the Handbook was a Code of Practice (COP).for hunters.

A COP must do two things to be effective:

    a. It sets out the standards of behaviour and the skills and knowledge required to ensure that no untoward outcome is possible, and

    b. It must be achievable by the average hunter, and it must be enforceable.


In this case the COP has been incorporated into the Regulations (2004) under the Act, which satisfies the point that a COP must be enforceable to be truly useful. NSW licensed hunters must obey this COP as a condition of licence.

Preparing the COP

The key issues considered by the Committee in preparing the COP are listed in the preamble, as follows: community safety, animal welfare, hunter proficiency, hunting etiquette and law in relation to landholders, and hunter education. There is a strong theme of hunter ethics in training courses conducted or sponsored by the Game Council, requiring hunters to accept their responsibilities to the landholder, to the game and to the environment.

Elements of the COP

The elements of the COP are listed in the Game Council NSW Hunter Education Handbook (2005) (hereafter referred to as “the Handbook”), and in Regulation 2004 to the Act. After listing the 8 points each will be discussed, with particular reference to animal welfare. It is worth noting at this point that 4 of the 8 points are directly concerned with animal welfare, .two with legal issues and two with firearms safety. They are as follows:

1.  Awareness of relevant legislation. It is the responsibility of the holder of a NSW Game Hunting Licence to be aware of and comply with all relevant legislation relating to hunting, animal welfare and the use of firearms.
   
   
2. Safe handling of firearms or bows. When firearms are used, the rules for safe handling of these set out in the NSW Firearms Safety Awareness Handbook published by or under the authority of the Commissioner of Police must be complied with at all times.
   
   
3. Permission required to enter land. A NSW Game Hunting License does not automatically authorise the holder of the licence to hunt on any land. The express authority of the occupier of the land is required.
   
   
4. Target identification and safety. A game animal must not be fired at unless it can be clearly seen and identified, and the shot taken poses no discernible risk of injury to any person or significant damage to any property.
   
   
5. Obligation to avoid suffering An animal being hunted must not be inflicted with unnecessary pain. To achieve the aim of delivering a humane death to a hunted animal:
   
   
   1. it must be targeted so that a humane kill is likely;
   2. it must be shot within the reasonably accepted killing range of the firearm and ammunition or bow being used, and:
   3. the firearm, ammunition, or bow and, arrow being used must be such as can be reasonably expected to humanely kill an animal of the target species.
      
      
6. Lactating female with dependant young. If a lactating female is killed, every reasonable effort must be made to locate and kill any dependant young.
   
   
7. Wounded animals. If an animal is wounded, the hunter must take all reasonable steps to locate it, so that it can be killed quickly and humanely.
   
   
8. Use of dogs. Dogs and other animals may be used to assist hunters, but only if:
   
   
   1. their use is not in contravention of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (POCTA) 1979 and,
   2. their use is with the permission of the occupier of the land concerned.
      
      

Discussion

Consideration of the content of the COP and of its use by hunters as a source of guidance on what is expected of them, the first point requires careful perusal of the legislation, especially POCTA 1979 and the Firearms Act 1996. The Handbook provides very detailed advice on how to locate the legislation in question, in both hard copy and on line.

Human safety

The second point concerns the safe use of firearms and hunting bows, and it brings into the discussion that there is the potential for an accident to occur every time a firearm or bow is used. All hunters know this, and take great care to handle and use their equipment safely. Before any shot is fired it must be apparent where the projectile will finish up – an animal on a skyline must not be fired at, and the risk of a ricochet from a hard surface or water must also be considered. This is more likely to occur with full jacketed military ammunition than it is with soft point or hollow point hunting ammunition. With the possible exception of water buffalo, Banteng and scrub bulls military ammunition should not be used for hunting in Australia.

There are other measures that can be taken to reduce the risk of an accident. Hunting parties must have good communications, to ensure that the location of every hunter is known at all times. Blaze orange caps or vests reduce the risk of a person being mistaken for an animal. The fourth point about target identification has both safety and animal welfare connotations – as well as ensuring that a human or a valuable horse is not mistaken for a wild animal because it is partly obscured by vegetation, it may also be difficult to see and hit the appropriate kill zone on the animal, or the projectile may be deflected by a branch. High velocity projectiles such as the .223 calibre do not penetrate heavy foliage with any certainty, and such shots should not be taken.

Animal welfare

There are those who oppose hunting because they do not believe that an animal can be killed humanely by a hunter. There is even stronger opposition from animal rights groups who do not believe that an animal should be killed by any means. This latter view is a value judgment that will not be taken any further in this discussion. On the other hand the humaneness of hunting is very much a core issue, overlapping as it does with the kangaroo harvest industry and the use of lethal control in the culling of macropods under permits issued to land owners.

The professional kangaroo shooter must adhere to the National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies (2008), which requires the use of head shots at night using a spotlight. The RSPCA (2002) has given its approval of this type of shooting, with 95.9% killed humanely with a head shot. Hunters with Game Council NSW licences are not governed by this Code when shooting introduced species of game or feral animals, but they are certainly expected to kill the animal humanely. The Game Council Handbook (2005) defines the successful shot as “one single shot that drops an animal instantaneously on, or within a few seconds of projectile impact. Death is swift and the struggle is minimal. This brings the discussion back to the Game Council NSW COP, with the fifth point being the obligation of a hunter to avoid suffering. The issues are as follows;

• to ensure that a humane kill is likely shot placement must be in the appropriate kill zone, and the shot must be taken within the reasonably accepted killing range of the firearm and ammunition or bow being used.
  
  

There are only two acceptable points of aim when hunting animals with firearms, :the head kill zone and the chest kill zone. The head kill zone includes the spinal cord in the upper neck and the chest kill zone includes the lungs and great vessels such as the vena cava and the aorta. Except at very close range hunters in Australia should use the chest kill zone. Single projectiles from rifles and shotguns kill by physically damaging bone and soft tissue with the impact energy of the tremendous concussive blow, together with massive blood loss from disruption of major vessels. Death is very quick, within a few seconds, making this a humane way to kill an animal. The concussive impact of a projectile strike to the head kill zone normally render the animal instantaneously unconscious, while at the same time producing fatal bone and tissue damage. Targeting the head kill zone with the high velocity centre fire calibres used by professional kangaroo shooters (.222, .223, 22-250), and with head shots taken at point blank range for euthanasia of sick or injured animals there is no pain with this very humane death.

Hunters should get as close as possible to the animal by stalking or other means, and should use a supported position for best accuracy, It is also essential that the rifle is zeroed for the ammunition and distance that will be used, to ensure that the firearm is shooting true to the point of aim. Failure to check that the rifle is zeroed correctly can mean that the shot is a clean miss, which may have safety connotations, or an animal may be wounded and escape to die a painful death some time later, which is also serious.

• it is essential that the choice of calibre and projectile or bow is such that a humane kill is likely . The Handbook has a table of recommended minimum calibres for game and feral species in Australia. This is guidance when hunting under general conditions, and the choice of projectile type and weight is just as important as calibre. In some states there may be a minimum calibre required by legislation, eg .270 for sambar deer in Victoria. Killing power is a function of the interaction between the animal and the projectile, and it varies with projectile calibre, weight, construction and velocity.
  
  

It is critical to understand that shot placement is far more important than calibre in achieving a humane kill. If a kill zone is missed.the animal may be wounded and move away, making follow up essential. This is very possible if an attempt is made to hit the brain at any distance, with the animal maimed with a wound to the face or jaw. As long as an appropriate calibre is used this is much less likely to happen with a chest shot.

A wounded animal

In the event that an animal is wounded and moves away, the COP requires that the hunter takes all reasonable steps to locate it and kill it humanely.. No ethical hunter would fail to make this attempt, with other hunting suspended until the animal is found and killed or is reasonably considered to be irretrievable.

Lactating female with dependent young

There are closed seasons for deer of temperate origin (fallow deer, red deer and wapiti) to ensure that a lactating female is not killed, thereby leaving a dependent neonate without a mother. This is possible with these species because they have very seasonal reproduction, being short day breeders. The rut occurs in autumn with the first offspring appearing in late November. This means that hunting of these species can only be carried out between 1 March and 31 October. On the other hand, deer of tropical origin (rusa, sambar and chital) are far less seasonal and some calve/fawns can be born in any month of the year. There is no closed season and no bag limits on these 3 species, whereas with hog deer hunting is only permitted in April, with a bag limit of one stag and one hind.

Newborn deer have a freezing reflex which is an anti-predator strategy. For a few days after birth it may be possible to locate a newborn offspring in th vicinity of where the dam was shot and to dispatch it humanely.

Use of dogs in hunting

The COP allows dogs and other animals to assist hunters in locating and retrieving game, provided that nothing is done that contravenes POCTA 1979.. Dogs are not allowed to attack the animal being hunted, and their welfare and that of the hunted animal is of paramount importance. The Handbook provides a considerable amount of guidance for anyone intending to use dogs, and this should address some of the concerns that are expressed about pig dogs and their owners in particular. There must also be express permission from the landowner to use dogs in this way.

Trespass

The Crimes Act 1900 provides penalties for hunting on private land without permission, and hunting on Crown land without the necessary permits and approvals. Gaining access to State forests has been one of the major benefits for hunters who have qualified for a Game Council Restricted license. This process, along with the Council’s compliance activities, will penalise or drive away the illegal hunters who enter Crown land to hunt. This same minority who are prepared to hunt illegally are presumably more likely to be hunting inhumanely and to ignore Codes of Practice.

Conclusion

The Game Council NSW has made considerable progress in a few short years in changing the perception that the community has about hunting. The theme represented by the use of the term “conservation hunting” is gaining support, just as the image of the ethical, well behaved hunter is displacing the stereotype. The Game Council’s Code of Practice for Hunters is the public statement of the Council’s position on animal welfare.

References

Game Council NSW (2005) . Hunter Educat.ion Handbook. Game Council NSW, PO Box 2506, Orange NSW 2800.. ISBN 1 921035 00 5.

RSPCA Australia (2002) Kangaroo Shooting Code Compliance. A survey of the extent of compliance with the requirements of the Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos. Prepared for Environment Austrlalia by RSPCA Australia, July 2002. Commonwealth of Australia.