People who are thinking of camping, fishing and bushwalking in New South Wales State Forests these school holidays could find themselves in the path of hunters equipped with bows, dogs and guns, said Greens Upper House MPs Ian Cohen and Lee Rhiannon.
“Parents should be extremely concerned for the safety of their children if they enter a State Forest that has been declared open for hunting,” Ms Rhiannon said.
“People in State Forests this coming long weekend will have no way of knowing how many armed hunters are roaming through the bush. It is madness to allow hunters and the public into forests at the same time.
“Hunters are required to wear brightly-coloured clothing to stand out in the bush – perhaps holiday-makers should also take the same measures to avoid being hurt,” Ms Rhiannon said.
The Greens today launched a notification hotline (0437 597 586) for people to report their experiences of the State Government’s ill-conceived policy.
“There are now 142 NSW State Forests open to hunting, under the guise of feral animal control”, said Mr Cohen.
“A family dog has already been killed by these so-called conservation hunters – must we wait for a more serious incident to occur before the Government overturns this reckless policy?”
“Hunters aren’t interested in eradicating pests – if they did there would be no animals left for them to hunt. Native wildlife stands to suffer at the hands of recreational shooters.
“We need strategic feral animal control measures, not a half-baked policy designed to pander to the Shooters Party and its offshoot, the Game Council,” Mr Cohen said.
Further Information: Claire O’Rourke (Ian Cohen) 0409 810 139 or 9230 3305 or Alison Orme (Lee Rhiannon) 0427 861 568 or 9230 3551
No comments:
Post a Comment