I am strongly opposed to the…

I am strongly opposed to the proposal to designate the double-crested cormorant Phalacrocorax auritus, as a gamebird, to allow hunting virtually throughout the year, to allow a bag-limit of 50 birds and to allow the harvested birds to spoil. The species is widely acknowledged to be virtually inedible and its genus does not feature in human diets anywhere on the planet. Hence the hunt is definitely not aimed at allowing the harvesting of nutritious wild game. The 'allow spoiling' provision means that the Ministry expect the bird to be disposed of immediately, in the fashion of a cull.

As the bird is a slow and ponderous flier, it does not provide anything approaching 'sport'. What this proposal apparently intends is to make the species target practice for people who wish to kill things for no good reason. The proposal acknowledges that the species is not increasing and claims that the population of double-crested cormorants will not be affected by the hunt. Hence it will not have the effect of diminishing the various damages that have (mostly erroneously) been attributed to the bird. I do not believe any true hunters will be interested to hunt cormorants, so this proposal will simply allow live target practice for killers.

Many years ago our society allowed practices that we now find abhorrent (wife-beating, slavery, the incarceration of people for sexual orientation, capital punishment, corporeal punishment of children, etc..). I think that this proposal is a throwback to those times, when people just shot living creatures for fun, without any of the knowledge or skill of the true hunter. As such, it represents an extraordinarily regressive initiative and one that I wish to strongly condemn.

There are many other arguments against this initiative on biological and environmental grounds. It appears to me utterly senseless and can only have been proposed by those who are totally uncaring of animal cruelty, and unconcerned about wildlife conservation. I was as shocked to read this proposal as I would be to hear that children will be allowed to torture cats, or that husbands can rape their wives. Surely we should continue to make our rapprochement with wildlife rather than step backwards in this frankly barbarous manner.