Attitudes to other animals

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

 

I am posting this article (below) as an indicator of the attitudes

of humans in a world where animals are designated

" worth preserving " or " pests " because of their numbers, species or

designated value as determined by humans rather than the sanctity of the

animal's lives and spirits.

 

It is obnoxious that humans so easily poison, bait and cruelly kill any

species

that they deem undesirable. Sometimes a species is translocated by humans

from one continent to another (usually for financial gain and exploitation

of the animal). An example of translocated animals is the import of

Australian native possums by New Zealanders to NZ years ago for their fur

and meat. Now Australian brush-tailed possums are a declared pest in NZ.

When humans decide they have made a mistake

introducing foreign animals or the introduced animals are upsetting the

status quo, humans declare war on the species that they introduced.

Biodiversity is great but at what cost? If hundreds of introduced foxes are

poisoned

with cruel 1080 so that some endangered captive bred birds can be released

back into the wild, is this really the desired outcome? Evolution and

translocation

are happening around the world and animal/human problems are occuring on

most continents. If people are determined to preserve threatened species,

perhaps

sanctuaries are an answer but then the excess bred animals become a problem.

 

In the article below, the term " Patron saint of the ferals " is used in a

negative context.

I would be proud to be " canonised " one day as Patron saint of the feral

animals (but I am not worthy of the honour). In my view, any animal whose

life is taken by humans

for reason of being " unwanted " is worthy of pity, sorrow and mourning. In

some countries rabbits and foxes are treasured while in other countries,

they are despised.

Our designation of cats as " pets " or " feral " (same of pigs, dogs, horses

etc) shows humans to be specieist and arbitrary in their consideration of

the animals of other animal nations. Humans are taking their self-proclaimed

role of " God of the animals " to cause ever increasing levels of suffering

amongst all animals which is why we must all be persistent in trying to

reverse this trend.

 

Kind regards,

 

Marguerite

********************************************************

Culling in national parks

08 November 2000

Author: Public Service Association of NSW

 

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I refer to Minister Debus's media release of last week regarding the

National Parks and Wildlife Service not being above the law.

 

There are many PSA members in the Service and I am very proud of their

contribution to this State. There are no finer National Parks in Australia

than are found in NSW and they are a credit to the people who plan and

maintain them and the Government should feel rightly proud.

 

The National Parks and Wildlife Service Officers are people of the utmost

commitment and that commitment is not generated from an armchair but with

sleeves rolled up, dragging themselves through mud and creeks, through bush

and barren areas, fighting bush fires all year round and overall presenting

this State in its most beautiful and pristine and natural best.

 

The emotional ferment whipped up about the aerial culling of feral horses in

the Guy Fawkes River National Park has been used most unfairly and unjustly

to condemn a body of people who are the finest servants of this State. I

know many of the people involved and neither cruelty nor inhumanity is their

style. Their love of virgin bush, their love of native landscape, their love

of native fauna dominates their diligence day in, day out. To present these

people as being intentionally cruel and treating animals, feral or any other

kind, inhumanely, is simply not right. As a matter of fact it is wrong.

Indeed, it is very wrong, very unfair and very unjust.

 

Horses are loved in Australia and this is a feeling that is not monopolised

by the Member for Southern Highlands, Ms Seaton. So are dogs loved in

Australia. So are cats loved in Australia. However, when cats go feral the

damage they do to native fauna is horrific and there is no outcry when feral

cats are culled. Neither is there an outcry when feral dogs are culled.

Primary producers value their pigs and many of us value pork, yet we

encourage the culling of feral pigs. I don't hear many people condemning

this. I don't hear many people condemning the culling of rabbits, whilst at

the same time we may refer to them as bunny rabbits, nice and cuddly.

Nevertheless the damage they do is well known.

 

The National Parks people who cull feral animals do so humanely and do so

without any great enjoyment. The same applies to culling wild horses which

are doing incredible damage in some National Parks. I have listened to the

Member for Southern Highlands talk about dropping some food which would make

wild horses sexually impotent. However, she appears to fail to realise that

it is not wild horses' testicles or ovaries that are damaging the Parks. It

is their hooves.

 

It is less than impressive for members of the community with a particular

political bent to to perpetrate and maintain a cry of horror at the thought

of feral animals being culled. To whip this into an emotional frenzy in

attacking decent, good and altruistic officers in National Parks is beyond

the pale. Instead of talking and shouting about legal action against NPWS

Officers, it may be much more honest to commend them for their wonderful

contribution to the native beauty of this State over so many years.

 

I wonder what Ms. Seaton would say if it was on farms that animals were

culled (eg horses, goats, pigs, rabbits, emus, kangaroos, wombats, etc.).

Her party is notoriously silent on this.

 

If the Member for Southern Highlands wishes to appoint herself as the Patron

Saint of Feral Animals, then let her do so. However, it will be a patronage

not conferred by canonisation and not conferred by vox populi.

 

 

 

For further information

Contact: Maurie O'Sullivan

General Secretary

Phone: 9220 0982

Mobile: 0417 650 165

Email: mosullivan

WWW: http://psa.labor.net.au/news