A good piece Jeff, and should be compulsory reading for all the drones in State Parliament who are voting on the Shooters Party Bill. The RSPCA might find such accounts interesting, as I would imagine they are in breach of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1979 (NSW), an excerpt which reads in part: A person must not commit an act of cruelty or aggravated cruelty upon an animal: 'Cruelty' includes any unreasonable, unnecessary or unjustifiable act or failure to act which results in an animal being: • beaten, kicked, wounded, pinioned, mutilated, maimed, abused, tortured, terrified or infuriated; • inflicted with pain No doubt we’ll have all the duds sail in and accuse Jeff of misquoting the magazines, or how shooters are true conservationists, or how this sort of behaviour is not encouraged by “true” sporting shooters, all the while posing glib rhetorical questions about the only possible means of managing feral animals in National Parks is to allow sport hunting. Perhaps it will be passed off as “hunting porn” – just something to read while polishing one’s weapon. The fact remains that the risk of this sort of behaviour is a prime reason why this “sport” should have no role in animal management in National Parks. And just in case we hear the denials that the Shooter’s Party don’t want to hunt native animals in National Parks, here is yet another analysis by those wicked media types that refutes that statement: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/cri tter-cullers-turn-our-lives -into-roadkill-20090701-d552.html

Ha ha ha Jeff. Very good. Over 100 responses to the other piece on shooters, so you line up for another go. How "a current affair" of you !

Here's my predictions: * You won't have 117 posts as earlier this week as the shooters won't mobilise around what they saw as a political comment and are now asked "what they feel" * Anyone resembling critics of their mantra will be given names like"vegan" or "greenie" - as if it's something to be ashamed of * We'll get the tired "where do you think your steak comes from" argument as if cows are butchered by bonding Rambos * We'll get the "you don't understand" talk and "we love nature" stuff which is breathtakingly hypocritical in my books However, it is a legal practice - so go ahead and do it - but don't expect everyone to agree with you or even condone it.

Meh, I'll take up hunting when I can lawfully hunt animals that walk on two legs. The Shooter's Party is a creature of the public's own making - had they not mercilessly hounded innocent firearm owners in the wake of every massacre perpetrated by a sole nutjob, there would have been no need for a political party devoted to pursuing the interests of firearms owners. As you sow, so shall you reap. I don't get the whole fuss about native animals either - why does a Bilby have any more right to life than a feral cat? How is one species somehow more morally entitled to existence than the other? If the Bilby can't cut it, tough. As for those who take some visceral delight in plunging a knife into a pig while surrounded by flea-bitten dogs, I reckon they rank pretty low on the human worthiness scale - almost as low as those who want blanket restrictions on gun ownership.

The Shooters Party = American Colonialism?? The right to bare arms, just incase the King of England comes marching in.........But then again, a nice big massive kick arse shotty would make me feel like a man. Hand me the 12 gauge Pauline.

Why didn't you mention the two most popular Australian hunting and shooting magazines in your column? ie. Australian Shooter (250,000 readers per month) and Australian Hunter (50,000 readers per issue). Could you only find what you wanted in the fringe publications? That's a bit like damning Christianity because of the League of Rights Weekly!

Angryman, I bare my arms whenever the temperature gets above 22 degrees, but what's that got to do with shooting?

Like i said first up Jeff, every country town has an array of 4x4 with meat hooks and dog cages. The banning of using dogs to pig was tried and failed some years ago. It is a cruel hunting method, and is basicly sadistic entertainment for redneck he men. The dogs are breed to latch on and hold big pigs, they tear smaller pigs to bits. I am sure there are nice guys out there who love their rifles and shoot feral animals for food. But they are a small minority. The wild dogs that shooters want to eradicate from NP are the product of lost hounds from piging trips into NP. Guys this is 2009, what happened in the 70's has to stop, piging with dogs is cruel and unnecessary.

'Angryman' is happy to be an anonymous serf. Free people keep & bear arms - prisoners and slaves do not.

Scott, i accept the basic premise that free people can and prisoners cannot, but i don't accept the NEED for it in our country. That's the problem in the US - they can argue the premise, but to argue that there is a need for it is fatuous at best.