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I would support hunting if it was safe and effective. Unfortunately I feel it will be neither.
To be effective a significant portion of a feral population has to be removed in a short time. Where this is done by rangers or other land managers, significant numbers of professional shooters are mobilised to blitz an area. The shooting is also often part of a concerted program that includes other measure like poisoning and, in the case of rabbits, digging up of burrows. If a social party of hunters operate in a park that has (say) 1000 donkeys on it and they kill 10-20 they will have basically zero effect on the population. If the hunters operate fairly frequently but just shoot a few each time I suspect that will not decrease the feral population but they will provide a steady supply of food for scavengers, including wild dogs. But even if it is native scavengers that benefit this can still be a problem for other native species. It is well known that people feeding currawongs around urban areas allows a greater-than-natural population to survive and that in turn results in more nest predation of prey species.
The motivation of recreational hunters isn't to remove feral animals completely, after all that would ruin their fun! In fact, even significantly reducing the population is a problem for them. For the hunter a large population of easy-to-find targets is the ideal. So any good will just be a by-product and I'm always sceptical of such arrangements. Since their motivation is to shoot something, anything! how long can it be before lazy or incompitent hunters who can't locate a feral species decide skippy or some lumbering wombat is an easier target? I think the evidence is 'not very long'.
As for safety, I'm worried and so are the park staff who have to work in the area. I haven't heard any talk of closing parks but I have heard hunters suggest that park users wear high-visibility clothing to keep themselves safe. Give me a break! I'm a keen birdwatcher and so like to be inconspicuous when walking around. Why should the onus be on me to stand out like a sore thumb? In any case a bullet can travel much further than the hunter can see. I have little faith that all hunters will make sure they 'miss safely' and overseas experience supports my concerns.
I'm all for controlling feral animals but this plan is a 'fail' and a tragedy in the making.
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