Uhunt Mag Information

• Posted By : BRISTLE UP
• Posted On : Jun 30, 2019
• Views : 2454
• Category : PIG DOGGING » ARTICLES, TIPS & HOW TO GUIDES
• Description : HUNTING INDUSTRY WORTH $1.541 BILLION - FACEBOOK REMOVES HUNTING GROUP

Overview

• By Ned Makim
  
  Social licence. I’m willing to bet the term ‘social licence’ is not the first thing pig hunters have in mind when they grab their gear, load the dogs or post on social media. But it should be. Pig hunters, especially those of us who use dogs, tend to have a fairly narrow focus. It’s the nature of the lifestyle. Pig hunting absorbs a lot of time, thought and money and that’s not only during the hunts. It is a genuine lifestyle choice and it expands into our work and family lives as well as occupying our free time. So all that tends to block out some other things. We know some people hate our lifestyle and want us to stop. As a group, we dismiss them as fringe dwellers, nutcases who try to force on us their unrealistic view of the world and animals and control. They criticise us, call us names, and tell lies and when pig hunters feel they are under attack, they will fight back. But all that noise tends to mask what is actually going on in relation to the future of legal pig hunting in Australia. The future of pig hunting in Oz is a function of social licence. So what is that? Social licence is essentially the mood of the middle ground. It’s not what we think and not what our haters think that really matters. What matters is what the great big group of people in the middle thinks. It’s the same for logging, mining, livestock production, Australia Day and every other piece of the societal puzzle. 
  
  What the middle ground thinks is what prevails. When the anti-hunters launch a public attack on us it has two purposes. The first is to attract attention anyway they can and maybe cause some in the middle ground to question whether or not we belong in this day and age. The second purpose is to get us to react…and this is often the primary goal of the exercise. The tendency to fight back is understandable but the issue becomes how we do it because that can affect how the great middle ground sees us. It won’t matter if the anti-hunting community tells lies or appears irrational. It will matter if the pig hunting community goes on the attack, by descending into name calling, threats or, the dumbest thing of all, showing anti hunters’ ‘reality’ by publishing gory photos to either educate or punish them. It is such an obvious tactic by anti-hunting groups I am always staggered so many fall for it. Problem is the pig hunters and hundreds of them will try to show their solidarity by immediately trying to outdo one another with photos, videos, threats and personal attacks. Where do you think all that ends up? Do hunters imagine that response will change one anti hunter’s mind? It all ends up in front of the Australian public as examples of why we can’t be trusted. Over the top responses to over the top attacks are the new things that damage us. Social licence is an accepted part of running any business or lifestyle. If the middle ground believes we have a legitimate place in society or, at least, do no harm, we get to carry on. If the middle ground believes we are driven by stupidity, greed and cruelty, we get the flick. How we show ourselves to the community determines how we are seen. Things change all the time in an evolving world. 
  
  Attitudes change, laws change and that can work for us or against us. Pig hunting in NSW is a prime example. A section of the pig hunting community cried about the introduction of the Restricted Game Hunting Licence which allowed legal hunting access to certain public land. They didn’t want other people hunting where they hunted, they claimed it was a cash grab, it was just more bullshit rules. However, the key result to date has not been the access to legal hunting for thousands of people, it has been that pig hunting is specifically legal and the massive economic value of hunting can be quantified. The latest figures list hunting as the fourth most valuable sector managed by the NSW Department of Primary Industry. Beef is worth $2.278 billion a year to NSW, recreational and charter fishing $2.219 billion, horticulture is worth $1.798 billion and hunting $1.541 billion. Down the list are wool at $1.317 billion, cotton at $1.288 billion, wheat at $1.245 billion and sheep and goat meat at $973 billion. Hunting is worth more than wool and cotton production to the State. Let that sink in for a moment. That is the sort of information that is relevant in countering anti-hunting attacks. That is the sort of thing that helps the middle ground see our value. That is the sort of thing that reinforces social licence. 
  
  And we have that information because hunting is managed, and hunters are required to meet a certain standard. It is not enough on its own, of course, but it is a great foundation. Generating lots of money is great but as we saw with the suspension of the live cattle export trade, money won’t protect us from allegations of cruelty. Every law in Australia that allows pig hunting with dogs does so on the basis that there is no unnecessary suffering caused to the dogs or the pigs. What that means is there is an accepted level of suffering that can be justified. The issue is that it is not defined other than by the word ‘unnecessary’ or other words to the same effect. If it comes to the crunch, a court will decide what is necessary or unnecessary based on community expectation. Part of that process will be whether or not we can be trusted to make that sort of judgement in the field. Clumsy videos of blokes standing around watching a big pup on a little pig will be classed as ‘unnecessary suffering’. I can guarantee that. In fact, any video of dogs on a pig that is too long and doesn’t show someone moving into grab the pig and dispatch it quickly will be the same. It doesn’t matter that you think it’s reality. It will matter that the Australian middle ground feels it is unnecessary and decides our contribution to the economy and agricultural and environmental pest control does not outweigh perceptions of cruelty. Social licence protects us or wrecks us. For instance, recently Australia’s biggest Facebook hunting page Hunting Australia disappeared without warning. Facebook shut it down without reference to the operators and without explanation.This was an example of the latest anti hunter tactic. Complaints were lodged with Facebook that the page encouraged cruelty and even hate speech. It didn’t but that didn’t matter. Facebook reacted and the more than 50,000 page followers were cut off. The page was restored after some hard work by its operators but another of its sub pages has since been removed as well. 
  
  Every decision maker, every business, every anti-hunting activist is aware of and driven by social licence. We do not operate in a vacuum. Just because you hunt at night a long way from the vast majority of the Australian population does not mean you are invisible. Pig doggers stand out in communities and the acts of individuals in their towns and suburbs has an impact on the perception of us all at least as much as our behavior on social media. It is not anti-hunters who will decided if we are allowed to continue living our lifestyle. It’s your neighbours, your extended family, other road users, people you don’t know who see you and your dogs. It is also everyone on Facebook and Instagram who see dodgy photos, videos and comments from pig hunters. None of that has anything to do with anti-hunters. They can kick and scream and lie all they want but it carries next to no weight if you haven’t handed them the ammunition and if the great middle ground trusts us to manage our own affairs. Don’t break animal welfare laws. Don’t publish anything that could be interpreted as breaking animal welfare laws. Don’t attack anti hunters. Do focus on our relationship with middle Australia. Do show we are contributing members of our communities. And do think about social licence. Forget anti hunters. The people who decide whether or not you can continue to legally hunt are more likely your next door neighbours.