AR-News: Hands off the salties, say animal lovers

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

http://www.iol.co.za/topfive.php?URL_to=/index.php?click_id=31&art_id=vn200405
09102552103C949254&set_id=1 

IOL
May 09 2004 at 10:25AM
 

Thirty animal welfare groups claiming to represent more than 10 million 
people worldwide have called on Australia's government to reject plans to allow 
trophy hunting of the deadly saltwater crocodile.

The Humane Society International, the International Fund for Animal Welfare 
and 28 other organisations signed a letter to environment minister David Kemp 
this week appealing against the resumption of croc hunting safaris.

Saltwater crocodiles, known as salties, grow up to seven metres in length and 
can weight more than a ton. 

Considered among the deadliest hunters on earth, the aggressive Salties 
inhabit swamps and waterways throughout Australia's north, or "Top End". Their 
victims are occasionally human, like a 22-year-old man taken in December as he 
fished in a river.

'Invite tourists to come and shoot our kangaroos for fun'
The Northern Territory banned commercial hunting of saltwater crocodiles in 
1971 after their numbers declined to about 3 000.

But with the population now believed to exceed 
75 000 in the wild, territory wildlife officers argue crocodile safaris could 
prove a financial boon, notably for impoverished Aboriginal landowners.

The Northern Territory's wildlife management department has for the past five 
years issued permits allowing landowners to kill up to 600 crocodiles a year 
for their skins and meat.

It is now proposing to issue special safari hunting permits to kill 25 
salties out of the 600 quota.

Local officials said big game hunters would bring thousands of dollars into 
the community for each Saltie taken, compared to just a few hundred dollars 
earned from an animal's meat and skin.

But wildlife activists said a green light for saltie safaris would overturn 
Australia's policy banning recreational hunting of Australian native wildlife.

The Humane Society International worried that shooting crocodiles for sport 
and entertainment could be "the thin edge of the wedge".

"We can just imagine the next request would be to invite tourists to come and 
shoot our kangaroos for fun," a spokesperson said. 

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    "The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those 
rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of 
tyranny. The question is not can they REASON, nor can they TALK, but can they 
SUFFER?" 
Jeremy Bentham 1748 - 1832 



         
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