From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 17 May

I have never thought of myself as intellectually concussed; however, I have, finally, come to the realisation that, quite simply, some things are beyond my limited cerebral capacity.

TRY as I may, and God knows, I do, I am left intellectually wanting; my powers of reasoning are seriously inadequate. How anyone could wittingly take the decision to fatefully poison 406 wedge-tailed eagles leaves me lurching in despair, and pondering the fragile state of the human condition. Is there nothing we will not do to turn a profit? In the same way, I sink into a state of total hopelessness when I read about, and see images of, the annual Victorian duck shoot. This is Australia, not the United Kingdom, and any feeble attempts to recreate the hideous Glorious Twelfth is archaic and misguided. Blood sports, and duck shooting is a barbaric blood sport, should be outlawed. The sight of shooters blasting defenceless birds out of the sky, for fun, should be enough to turn anyone’s stomach; not to mention the scattered lead shot which contaminates the state’s wetlands.

In 1991, United States biologists and conservationists estimated that some 2 million ducks died each year from ingesting spent lead pellets. Consequently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service outlawed the use of lead ammunition to hunt migratory waterfowl. Australia should follow suit. The Department of Conservation and Environment estimates that, in the 1990 duck hunting season 190 tonnes of lead was deposited in Victorian wetlands; and in 1991, 235 tonnes.

Like many, I was horrified when I read the court detail of the slaughtering, using the poison Lannate, of the 406 majestic wedge-tailed eagles – a protected bird – at Tubbut, in the Snowy Mountains, East Gippsland, between October 2016 and April 2018.  A series of emails was used in evidence. Knowing they were breaking the law, and as a potential means of misleading the authorities, the culprits referred to the eagles as foxes. The matter came before the courts following an acrimonious parting between employer and employee.

The landowner, John Auer, pleaded guilty to charges and was fined $25,000 and received a 12-month good behaviour bond and a 12-month community corrections order. The former farmhand Murray Silvester, a New Zealand national, was sentenced to two weeks jail, fined $2500 and deported. The penalty was criticised for its leniency at the time, despite the fact that it was the first custodial sentence, ever, handed down for destroying protected wildlife in Victoria.

The magnitude of the killings is so excessive, the long-term impact on the population of wedge-tailed eagles across East Gippsland, and beyond, is impossible to evaluate with any ornithological accuracy. It would be extremely naïve to imagine this is the first time such an offence has been committed in this country. Quite simply, it is the first time the perpetrators have been caught and convicted.

Perhaps it was ever thus, but animal cruelty appears to be on the increase. On an almost daily basis, one receives emails from animal protection organisations, detailing the most atrocious cruelty and seeking funds to continue their work. I say again: You can judge a nation by the way it treats its animals and its old people. Sadly, we seem to fail, miserably, on both counts, and too often. It is time for the laws to be changed, urgently; and for the punishment to fit the crimes. Repeatedly, the RSPCA is legally frustrated by the degree of difficulty in pursuing offenders. It has to change!

Australia’s has, since white colonisation, earned for itself one of the world’s worst records for the destruction of its flora and fauna. The wanton slaughter of these glorious birds of prey only serves to compound the felony. Pathetic reasoning notwithstanding, both Messrs Auer and Silvester, and others of their ilk, acting contrary to the law of the land, deserve the full weight of public opprobrium and our courts of law.

Roland can be heard on RADIO 3BA, every Monday morning, 10.45. You can also contact him via [email protected].