ROGUE BULLET FLINGERS SET TO SHATTER WOODLAND PEACE

Following successful trials, the New South Wales Game Council plans to allow sporting shooters to hunt feral animals in Hunter Valley forests. Victoria trialled and implemented a similar hunting program. This feral animal hunting has been, as far as I'm aware, incident free. Robert Bignall of the Brunkerville Residents Action Group is, however, afraid there's going to be chaos in the forests:

"Well, I think it's going to be catastrophic, one can only imagine the upsetting effect that it's going to have if somebody's sitting in the bush, bird watching and having a picnic and here comes somebody in a camouflage suit out of the bush carrying a high powered rifle which is capable of slinging a bullet many kilometres virtually back in to the suburbs of Newcastle," he said.

Anyone going for a picnic in a Hunter Valley forest might want to leave that coon-skin cap at home. Anyway, there are alternatives to shooting our furry little friends with shoulder-fired cannons.