This section deals with damage by wild birds and so on. It is designed to provide safeguards, mainly in the interests of agriculture, forestry, fisheries and game propagation, against damage to property by protected wild birds and wild animals. The situation would normally be dealt with either by direct action on the part of the Minister through his own local staff or by giving permission to the owner of the property being damaged to take remedial action himself.
Sections 22 (6) and 23 (8) enable a person engaged in activities of the kind mentioned to take immediate remedial action to protect his property where circumstances are so urgent that it would not be practicable for him to apply under section 42 for prior permission to deal with the predators. The only exception to that emergency concession is where the special category of protected wild birds and animals in the Fourth Schedule, that is, rare species, are involved. The most likely source of damage in the context of this section is deer but there could be others, squirrels in relation to forestry, or hawks in relation to penned game birds and so on.
There are opposing views as to the damage which otters cause to fisheries. On the one hand, otters are the subject of bounties paid by boards of fishery conservators but there is another school of thought which suggests that otters are a friend of fish such as salmon and trout by devouring eels which prey on their spawn and young. The proposed protection of the otter under the Bill is not being opposed by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. That in a nutshell is the object of the section.
