Western Australia - the barbaric state.

[Guest guest]

Western Australia - The barbaric state

24/7/2001

 

The Stardust Circus has just visited Perth, Western Australia

and a nostalgic article appears

in TheWest magazine titled " The show must go on. " The

article concentrates on the people in the circus and appears to

avoid exploring the fact this circus cages and exploits exotic animal

species. Nor does the article speak in depth about Arna, the lonely circus

elephant or the fact Animal Liberation NSW

http://www.animal-lib.org.au/arna

has gone to court about Arna. The article also forgets to mention the

Australian RSPCA http://www.rspca.org.au/policies/detailed%20contents.html

opposes the exploitation of exotic animals in circuses. The West Australian

press often seem to be apathetic about the cruelty to animals occurring in

Western

Australia each week and the circus visit hi-lighted this apathy.

 

Today, many multi-tiered transport trucks loaded with sheep are driving

along the Leach Highway towards Fremantle. The sheep trucks are bound for

the live transport ships at Fremantle docks. These sheep will spend weeks

on board ships headed for countries where ritual slaughter awaits them.

A percentage of the sheep will die in transit on these horror journeys on

the ships known as the ships of shame. While most West Australians eat meat,

many do

not support the live sheep trade and some West Australians belong to an

association named PACAT http://www.pacat.org

 

This week, while sitting in a waiting room, I read about the glories of the

WA government initiative known as " Western Shield "

http://www.calm.wa.gov.au/projects/west_shield.html . In an effort to

decrease the number of foxes and cats, baits poisoned with 1080

http://www.spca.bc.ca/animalsense/Winter2001/compound1080backgrounder.htm

are regularly broadcast from aircraft over vast areas of Western Australia

to poison introduced animals. Western Shield aims to kill introduced wild

predatory animals so vulnerable native animals can repopulate areas where

their numbers are under threat. Magazines such as Landscope

http://www.calm.wa.gov.au/landscope/index.html publicise the wonders of

Western

Shield but fail to publicise the horrific deaths suffered by animals who die

from the

1080 poisoning. Such publications also do not report on the continuing

devastation

to the landscape caused by humans and introduced animals such as sheep and

cattle who have a dollar value to humankind. Nor do such publications say

there will ever be an end to the 1080 poisoning of introduced animals in

Western Australia.

 

Meanwhile in other parts of Western Australia, wild goats

http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/programs/meat/Goats/strategic.htm multiply across

large areas

turning into another cash crop for farmers. The West Australian Government

is slow to launch a fertility plan to control wild introduced goats who are

devastating parts of rural Western Australia. Could this be because some

West Australian farmers are obtaining a greater return per goat than they

are for sheep? Goats are also sent off for ritual slaughter overseas.

Imagine wild goats mustered onto trucks, sent to the saleyards and sent

overseas on live animal transport ships. Could anything be more cruel than

confining wild goats to captivity on trucks and ships? Perhaps the most

cruel fate of all is the ritual slaughter awaiting them.

 

 

In the suburbs of Perth, people sit down to their meat and chicken meals,

ignoring the

fact that the animals who became their dinners died horrific and nasty

deaths. Most

West Australians have never visited the saleyards

http://www.iinet.net.au/~rabbit/sypics.htm

and most would be shocked to face the animals who die to become meat.

Baby lambs and calves cry out in fear and most animals arrive at the

saleyards after days on crowded trucks with no food or water. Chickens in

crates on trucks speed through the night destined for slaughter to

become chicken nuggets and chicken dinners. Most people never see the

chickens screaming in fear as they are placed hanging upside down on ceiling

mounted conveyer belts to be slaughtered. Many people eat eggs from battery

hens http://www.animal-lib.org.au/freechook2000

and won’t even pay an extra fifty cents to buy eggs that are free range or

barn laid.

 

Lastly, even in the suburbs, animals are being killed and vilified. From

cats to

seagulls, the cruelty continues. Seagulls have been legally shot dead at a

local landfill tip because they soiled peoples washing and the walls of

buildings.

The seagulls are described as vermin but it is human trash encouraging

seagulls, pelicans and other birds to congregate at the tip. Pigeons are

poisoned by several local councils and a local Greens politician is going to

introduce legislation targeting pet cats

http://www.mp.wa.gov.au/giz-watson/index.html in state parliament soon.

 

There is much more cruelty in the state of Western Australia that I could

mention

but it seems pointless while those in control of Government and the media

condone the institutionalisation and legal cruelty to animals in our

society. Other " human " matters seem so much more important in our daily

paper than the lives of non-human species who suffer so much because of our

apathy and inhumanity towards them.

 

End.