The Coalition Against Duck Shooting rescue team will target Lake Buloke, near Donald in north-west Victoria, at the opening of the 2023 duck shooting season on Wednesday, 26 April. The shooting will start at 8am.
Wildlife Victoria will also be on-site to provide emergency veterinary care to wounded birds [recovered by volunteer rescuers].
“Duck shooting is a dying activity, and Lake Buloke is a far cry from the late 1980s, when over 10,000 shooters would gather at this one wetland for the opening,” Laurie Levy, Campaign Director of the Coalition Against Duck Shooting, said today.
“In those days, it was a bloodbath. Most duck shooters used semi-automatic or pump action shotguns, and the birds didn’t stand a chance. There were 100,000 duck shooters in Victoria, and Buloke had a reputation as the toughest wetland in the state.”
This changed in 1989, when volunteer rescuers turned up at Lake Buloke with a mobile veterinary clinic to save wounded birds and recover illegally shot protected and threatened species, Levy said.
“Rescuers took on the job of protecting sentient native waterbirds when the government failed to do so. It was open slather for duck shooters, with no law and order on the wetlands during the season.”
In 2011 at Lake Buloke, a rescuer was shot in the face. She was rushed to the Horsham base hospital and doctors removed as many of the nine pellets that had lodged in her face as possible, Levy said.
“Concerned volunteer members of the public will be back at Buloke to help our native waterbirds. It remains to be seen how many duck shooters will turn up on the day,” Levy concluded.
