21/08/2025
The head of a national pig hunting association says he will use the recent conviction of two South West pig hunters to teach the importance of humane hunting practices.
Manjimup couple Riley Land and Marie Parker faced the Bunbury Magistrates Court this week, where they were fined a combined total of $52,000 for committing animal cruelty.
The pair were also found guilty of promoting a prohibited activity, by filming their dogs attacking feral pigs and uploading the footage online.
Australian Pig Doggers and Hunters Association president Ned Makim said causing an animal "unnecessary suffering" had no place in pig hunting.
"The community has a reasonable expectation that people will hunt in a legal manner, and part of that is being humane," he said.
"Pigs are a pest animal certainly, but they're still an animal and they deserve the respect afforded to any animal.
"If people are doing it correctly, they're moving as quickly as possible to disengage everything involved - it's not a spectator sport."
Mr Makim said he would use the case as a "training tool".
"We may be able to pull something positive out of it in terms of education ... and longer term, we all need to be sitting around the same table with goodwill, looking for how we resolve some of these issues," he said.
Mr Makim said pig hunting will continue, given the “[feral] pig population is an absolute crisis in Australia”, but it has to be done "properly".
"It's an ecological and economic time bomb which is ticking right now, we'd like to represent the legal and ethical pig hunters and we'd like to get on with that in WA straight away,” he said.
