A GREENS MP who criticised a political rival for shooting and eating elephants has confessed to gunning down rabbits from his bedroom window — and blasting foxes and pigs.
NSW Greens politician Jeremy Buckingham slammed Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP Robert Borsak last week after he admitted eating a “quite tasty” elephant that he shot on a $25,000 hunt in Zimbabwe. In fact, Mr Borsak went further yesterday — revealing he has shot about eight elephants, along with lions, leopards and buffaloes.
But Mr Buckingham — who demanded Mr Borsak resign over his “revolting” hunting and eating habits — is no stranger to killing wildlife.
“When I lived on a farm I shot rabbits, foxes and pigs, as many people on the land have to do to control pests,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Borsak, speaking on his way back from a deer hunt in Victoria, said: “This is typical hypocrisy that you get from the Greens. Having done something quite sensible and normal as a young man, he (Mr Buckingham) is now off with the fairies.”
Mr Buckingham said in a recent interview: “I grew up in a place where you shot rabbits … no problem with that. We skinned and ate rabbits and all that sort of stuff.”
In Parliamentary debates about game and feral animal control, Mr Buckingham said: it was “nothing for us to shoot a few rabbits or other animals in the orchard with shotguns or a .22. That was accepted.
“I shot rabbits in Tasmania in the 1980s. I used to shoot rabbits out the bedroom window, no problem.”
Mr Buckingham insisted no comparison could be made between shooting an elephant and rabbits.
“There is a difference between shooting a pest to manage the landscape, and paying big dollars to get your thrills shooting an animal and then posing for a photo with its carcass or mounting it on your wall,” he said.
