KEY POINTS:
More than 40,000 shooters will take their first crack at gamebirds country this weekend at the start of the three-month shooting season.
By the end of the weekend thousands of ducks will have been shot, much to the horror of many who believe shooters leave too many birds wounded and suffering.
National animal advocacy organisation SAFE says up to 275,000 ducks, geese and swans will be left crippled to die a slow and painful death, and a further million will be shot and killed during the season.
SAFE campaign director Hans Kriek said international research showed that 20 to 45 per cent of shot waterfowl were wounded and not retrieved.
Neither DoC nor Fish & Game had any information that suggests the wounding rates were any lower, he said.
"SAFE is therefore concerned that both departments are prepared to downplay the level of suffering caused by duck shooters when legitimate international data clearly suggests otherwise."
Yesterday afternoon, SAFE held a demonstration in Christchurch demanding immediate research into the cruelty of duck shooting.
"Three states in Australia have banned duck shooting on cruelty grounds.
"The results of independent research in New Zealand could well spell the end to recreational duck shooting in this country."
Fish & Game communications and marketing manager Ric Cullinane said hunters agreed with SAFE in the fact that wounded birds should not be left to die.
"The vast majority of hunters aren't happy with wounded birds," he said. "Nobody goes out there and takes pleasure in wounding birds."
"Most hunters on their day-to-day hunting are keen to recover all the birds they have shot and adjust their shooting and their whole procedure accordingly."
Mr Cullinane said he did not know where SAFE's wounded bird numbers came from, but Fish & Game believed they were not that high as most shooters tried to retrieve all birds.
"I can't comment on Hans' numbers but my understanding is that they are well out."
Mr Cullinane said many people these days were accustomed to buying their meat in the supermarket, and because of this believed that shooting was cruel.
However, shooting was not only a source of food for many hunters, but an effective way to manage ever-growing bird numbers around the country.
He doubted the deeply ingrained culture of shooting in New Zealand was likely to end anytime soon.
"The reality is a lot of these species would have to be managed in another way and if the population decides that they are happy to poison hundreds of thousands of birds for the sake of agriculture production, rather than have them harvested and eaten, then so be it."
DUCK SHOOTING
* Season starts today and lasts for three months
* 40,000 expected to go out shooting
* 275,000 ducks, geese and swans will be killed
* International research shows 20 to 45 per cent of shot waterfowl are wounded and not retrieved
