Queensland pig-doggers are taking out about 35,000 feral pigs every week across the state, according to research by the Australian Pig Doggers and Hunting Association (APDHA) has.
APDHA president Ned Makim said the results confirmed what hunters and rural residents alike knew – that feral pigs are a plague, particularly in Queensland – but now that knowledge could be backed up with statistically sound data.
“We’re running a data-gathering exercise called Great Australian Pig Hunt, with the shooting industry putting up about $40,000 to help fund it,” he said.
Hunters register with the program and then report how many pigs they neutralise on hunting trips.
There is already a statistically significant number of hunters registered with the Great Australian Pig Hunt and their participation allows for robust data to be collated.
Mr Makim said the figures showed that across Australia, on average, each pig hunter was taking 17-19 pigs per month, using a variety of methods including firearms, bows and hounds.
APDHA data showed more than 35,000 feral pigs were being hunted in Queensland every week, but access to hunting areas in Queensland remained an issue.
Queensland does not permit any public land hunting whatsoever, which Mr Makim said was contributing to issues with illegal hunting, as well as leaving a lot of money on the table from a state economic perspective.
“In Victoria and NSW and the NT there is public land hunting that runs successfully, generates an awful lot of money for the economy and removes a lot of feral pests,” Mr Makim said.
“It’s inexplicable that Queensland wouldn’t look at a similar model.
“We think it would put downward pressure on illegal hunting in that it would be opening up more areas to legally hunt, and would require hunters to have some sort of licensing system which would more clearly identify people doing the wrong thing.”
Shooters Union has also used the figures to call for state forest hunting in Queensland, with president Graham Park saying the Queensland government needed to get over its irrational objection to opening public land to properly licensed hunters.
Mr Park said he believed a large part of the problem was that feral pigs were not a south-east Queensland problem and thus not on the Government’s radar.
“Feral pigs are largely a central and north Queensland problem, so they’re easy for Brisbane and Gold Coast-based MPs to ignore,” he said.
“You can bet if feral pigs were digging up and toppling lamp-posts in Ashgrove or mauling people’s pets in Paddington, the government would be a lot more interested in what amounts to free feral pest control.
“It needs to be reiterated: There are more than 200,000 people in Queensland with firearms licences who would be delighted to deal with the feral pig issue at absolutely no cost to the government or anyone else,” he said.
“The fact the state government cannot get over its dislike and distrust of licensed shooters is genuinely hurting the state’s environment, and that needs to stop.”
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