KEY POINTS:
A man was shot by five pellets in the face and upper body in a duck shooting incident yesterday morning.
Police and ambulance services were called around 7.45am to Patetonga Lagoon, part of a Department of Conservation managed wildlife reserve, about 20 minutes north of Morrinsville, Waikato.
The man was taken to Thames Hospital before being transferred to Waikato Hospital, where he was in a stable condition last night but still undergoing assessment. A St John spokesperson described the injuries as "minor".
Police were still investigating and were speaking to another man they believed was responsible for the shooting. One News reported that the incident might have arisen in a turf war over mai mai territory.
Duck hunter Nigel Airey, who was shooting on the same pond as the man who was injured, has been going to the area for the past 20 years.
He said the people who set up their mai mais around the pond were usually established - some had been going to the same spot for the past 50 years.
He thought around 15 people would have been there when the incident happened.
Airey said the shooting was a few hundred metres from his hut, but he hadn't heard anything until ambulance sirens sounded nearby. "That was strange, because usually we would hear shouting and that."
He did not know the men and hadn't seen the injured hunter.
Morrinsville Fish and Game club president Malcolm Brodie said that while accidents like this should "never, never happen", five pellets were not a major incident.
Hunters are being reminded to accurately identify their targets with the start of the duck shooting season this weekend.
The warning comes after the death last week of William White, 40, when a companion mistook him for a deer on the West Coast.
Shonagh Lindsay, from Fish and Game, said that while such incidents were less likely to happen in duck shooting, safe hunting was still advised.
"In terms of safety, there has maybe been one incident where a duck hunter has accidentally shot a person, so we don't have the same safety issues as deer hunters," she said. "But we would always expect hunters to be skilled and know what their target is." While the season is needed to regulate the duck population, some groups claim it is "cruel and unneccesary".
Animal advocacy organisation SAFE is offering a $5000 reward this year for information leading to any duck shooter who violates the law. Campaign director Hans Kriek estimates 30,000 hunters will shoot more than 400,000 ducks and geese during the three-month season. "Duck shooters will be encouraged to blow the whistle on fellow shooters who show a flagrant disrespect for animal life," he says. "The reward aims to encourage a better self-regulation scheme across New Zealand."
The season's end date varies, depending on the species of bird.
