Slaughter of muttonbirds

The short-tailed shearwater, or muttonbird, migrates to southern Australia from the northern Pacific. It arrives in September and lines a burrow with grass to lay its one egg.

It is protected in all states except Tasmania, where there a 5-week season for commercial killing of muttonbird chicks in March/April, and a 2 week season for recreational killing.

Chicks are pulled from their burrows and their neck is broken. Experienced killers can break the neck quickly with a wrist flick action. Less experienced killers hold the chick's head and swing its large body above their heads in an attempt to break the neck. This is an unreliable and often inhumane way of killing. There is no monitoring of the skill of people killing muttonbirds, and even children can take part, especially in recreational killing.

Apart from cruelty to the chicks, there is the stress of the parents at the loss of the one and only chick they hatch each season.

There are more than a million chicks killed each year. There is no bag limit for commercial operators. Recreational hunters can kill 50 chicks a day on Bass Strait islands and 15 a day elsewhere.

In economic terms, the industry is small. The salted bodies of chicks are very fatty and not widely eaten. The oil is used almost exclusively as a feed supplement for race horses. Some feathers are made into pillows and doonas.

The majority of people in the industry are aboriginal. According to Tasmanian National Parks officials, muttonbirding provides for these people a bond with their ancestors. This bond occurs for only 5 weeks of the year. It is impossible to believe that there are no other culturally relevant activities to take the place of muttonbirding, activities that don't involve cruelty.

A government report claims that no commercially exploited rookery has been destroyed, but that " some rookeries subject to non-commercial harvesting have been severely damaged through overharvesting, damage to habitat, litter, poaching, anti-social behaviour and general abuse of regulations. "

References

  1. ANZFAS, Submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport, Inquiry into Commercial Utilisation of Australian Native Wildlife, March 1997

  2. Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Reference Committee, Commercial Utilisation of Australian Native Wildlife, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra 1998