“Is it illegal to bow hunt in South Australia” is a common question circulating the internet at the moment. At the time of writing this article, it is perfectly legal to bow hunt on private property providing you have the land holders permission and the appropriate permit.

However this could change very quickly!

The current Minister for the Environment, Susan Close has confirmed that she intends to ban bow hunting simply because she does not agree with the practice and is heavily influenced by the RSPCA. 

The Minister has expressed she would like to see South Australia align with many of the other States and Territories that have banned bow hunting. Clearly the Minister has been ill-informed as currently Tasmania is the only State to have outlawed bow hunting. 

The Minister has also said she would like to follow through with her pre-election promise to ban bow hunting. However, this commitment cannot be found published anywhere, including on Premier’s website which details the government’s policy commitments before the election.

http://www.instagram.com/p/CUhVPuVF5vC/

Clearly the information put forward by the Minister and the RSPCA is dramatisation at its finest designed to tug on the heart strings of the uneducated.

When looking at images used  by the RSPCA  and Susan Close to push this agenda it is clear this is not the work of a hunter.

The most obvious sign these images have no connection to hunting is the arrows / bolts are field tips. Field tips are clearly designed for target archery and no ethical hunter on this planet would use them to harvest game.

Secondly, most of the animals in the photos are either protected or not a targeted species of bow hunters. 

Something that is already illegal like killing protected species can’t be more illegal by banning bow hunting.

The simple facts are:

The Minister has no intention of actually speaking to experts who are educated about bow hunting.

Susan Close has clearly made uninformed decisions and straight out lied about election promises.

The RSPCA are happy to push the anti hunter agenda, yet support using in-discriminative 1080 poison all over our National parks.