Don’t Fowl It Up This Opening Weekend

This Saturday is ‘opening weekend’ for game bird season around the country. While there is a great deal of excitement and atmosphere building in the hunting community, there needs to be due consideration given to safety says Mike Daisley, CEO of the Mountain Safety Council (MSC)

“We know from our insights that 64% of all game bird hunting injuries occur in May, and that the majority of these are preventable,” he said.

“In fact, 41% of the annual total of ‘Game Bird’ hunting injuries occur on opening weekend,” said Daisley.

MSC reiterate their key message to ‘make it home’ in their hard-hitting “Early Bird” video that explores an accident while duck hunting.

“The main video, as well as two shorter 30 sec versions, is very emotive and is designed to get a conversation going within families. The video has been specifically produced to strike a chord with the friends and families of the hunters,” he said.

“The most impactful message on hunters is often from their families who are worried they may never see them again. If this is you, then we encourage you to speak up and say something before they head out the door,” said Daisley.

NZ Police are asking people to not wing it this weekend, and to refresh themselves on the seven basic firearms rules.

“We want everyone to have a safe and successful Game Bird season, and to ensure that happens, we need hunters to be vigilant when handling firearms in such close proximity to each other to avoid serious injuries or worse,” says Acting Superintendent Mike McIlraith.

“I can’t emphasise enough the importance of handling firearms safely.”

“It is critical hunters treat every firearm as loaded, always point firearms in a safe direction and to check your firing zone,” says McIlraith

The video as well as their hunting specific, insights focused video series developed with Hunters Club NZ that explores the latest NZ hunting incident research called ‘A Hunter’s Tale.’

“We’re aware that there are a lot of families that’ll be affected by incidents that are likely to occur over the weekend. The tragedy is that almost all of these incidents are preventable,” said Daisley.

“We’re keen to have a zero in the fatality, search and rescue and injury column this year. It’s 100% achievable if hunters heed the firearms safety rules,” said Daisley

“The vast majority of hunting incidents that involved a firearm can be traced to one or many of the firearms safety rules not being followed,” he concluded.

Both the videos as well as the research ‘A Hunter’s Tale’ can be found on the MSC website — mountainsafety.org.nz

MSC urge you to share the videos with your wider network, especially any families that have hunters who might be heading out this season.

Links to videos

YouTube Link — Main:https://youtu.be/AIRalpOVbF8
Short 30 sec versions ‘Mates’ | ‘Loved Ones’

Facebook Link — https://www.facebook.com/NZMSCHunting/

#MakeItHomeNZ

ENDS

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