by Archie » 20 Apr 2017, 10:44 am
I still think that there's just a total mental breakdown that occurs at the legal level, because there's no overriding principle. It seems to me that the effective rule the laws seem to run on is:
- Non-native = pest, unless tasty/cute = game. Which is just stupid because excessive amounts of deer on farmland are clearly a pest.
- Native = untouchable (even if has turned into a pest) unless it is specifically a roo, and that specific piece of land has a permit for likely nowhere near enough roos. And even then you have to headshoot them - again something I've never understood.
The changes to landowner rights with respect to deer in NSW make sense in my mind, because they reflect that a "game animal" can become a pest animal, depending on where it is. It's not perfect but it seems to make more sense to me, that the person who owns the land is able to act to manage a pest on their property.
For what its worth I also think you should be able to shoot roos in state forest, subject to a tag system same as they do deer in the US and with the requirement, like deer in the states, that you must take out the meat. And brushtail possums for that matter.