KEY POINTS:
A pile of 60 dead ducks has been dumped on the side of a Tauranga road.
The discovery of the shot ducks near Route K has tainted the beginning of the duck shooting season.
Deep tyre marks in the grass at the scene indicated that the birds - four Canadian geese and around 60 ducks - looked as though they had been dumped off the back of a ute or truck.
They were completely intact and strewn over a small area on the roadside.
Tauranga City Council contractors removed the birds about midday yesterday, shortly after the council had been notified.
Council communications adviser Michelle Elborne said it looked as though they had been there a while as they were starting to decompose.
"That volume of animals dumped is quite unusual, although we have had a number of cases in Tauranga recently."
Fish and Game Regional Manager Steve Smith said if this was a case of a deliberate waste of a resource, he was disappointed.
"We promote ethical behaviour among hunters," he told the Bay of Plenty Times. "Killing animals without intent to use them is not what we advocate - that's not a part of legitimate game hunting."
However, he said most hunters obeyed the rules.
"There were probably 35,000 hunters out in the weekend and almost all of them were responsible." he said. Hunters are allowed to kill up to 10 ducks per day.
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES
