Thread: Game Animal Council (GAC) to be scrapped by Conservation Minister?

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Agreed it is difficult to pull hunters together. What is the answer ? well that can be found by asking which group is successful in pulling it's members together. That group is fish and Game. They have statutory protection of game fish. For those who doubt what I am saying, please Google search the Conservation Act and read under 'fish and Game Councils' it might surprise you just how much authority they have and how little is granted to game animals! Now moving this to a conclusion we can ask they question ' Why do introduced fish have this protection and not game animals' ? put simply because fishers buy a licence and that is where our future must also be.

The trouble with that is all our game animals were provided and acclimatized with the goal/Intention that hunting should not be only the domain of the wealthy anybody should be able to hunt, and also as a protection for some species that were in a threatened population in their home ranges.

Returning the land to pre European settlement as @Pengy suggested is flawed as the first settlers the Moriori and second settlers the Moari had already hugely modified the land with fires and hunted/destroyed habitat of many species into extinction and pushed many others to the very brink....this was all well before the arrival of the evil white man and introduction of deer/pigs/thar/cham/goats/sheep/stoats/ferrit/possum/rabbit/hare and all those other things that provided a means to stop eating each other to survive.