Roger

Thank you for your alarming article.

I heard about this on the radio recently, but I did not realise the implications that you have so clearly pointed out. Scarey stuff.

Cheers
Kay

yes.. there is always another side to the coin.

I heard today, that the greenies of Tasmania (you know... those tree lovers and huggers, who don't want you to cut down any tree) are up in arms about PLANTING native trees for plantations.. "Oh Oh.. they will suck up all the water.. shock horror"

So, the animal libbers who want chickens released and free ranged, would prefer we all die of bird flu or dioxin poisoning :)

Its a weird world.

If ur happy and u know it clap ur hands.... (doesn't seem so geeky now does it :)

Such an intemperate and ignorant response to an intelligent article. Yes, avian flu presents real risks that we need to address in our poultry management practices - in free range and battery systems alike. We have a dozen or so chooks that we move around the paddock in a moveable wire 'igloo' - protects them from predators and also keeps them & their tucker separate from migrating birds. They seem happy enough, as are we :) Battery poultry farming pens are inhumane, and present their own problems of disease and effluent control.

As for the silly gratuitous swipe at the Tasmanian 'greenies' - my understanding is that the objection is to replacing old growth ecosystems with plantations of native trees as some kind of quid pro quo under the new forest agreement. While any kind of vegetation will act as a 'carbon sink', the problem is the destruction of biodiversity in order to make woodchips. There's got to be better ways of making packaging and paper than destroying what remains of Tasmania's old growth forests, or replacing them with monocultural plantations.

Yes, avian flu is a threat, and the poultry industry will have to amend some of its practices, I guess - but that doesn't mean banning humane methods of poultry husbandry. In my view, constructive thinking isn't enhanced by gratuitous ranting in order to provoke others.

No fear MDuck, BOAZ does it deliberately (bit bored being a greenie), working undercover you see. Bit concerned about that nursery rhyme thing happening "if you're happy and you know it..". Sounds like he might have spent too long a time pretending to be a fundamentalist christian, and it's really getting to him :)

Good on you 2 (Minuet and Mahatma :) lets list the ad hominems:

1/ Ignorant
2/ Intemperate
3/ Gratuitous
4/ Silly

and that from Mahatma alone... very scholarly :)
I think you missed my slight tongue in cheek there.. somehow..

On a more serious note, I have no trouble giving a bit of a prod to greenies and animal libbers, because when you push them on their underlying philosopy, its pretty close to hinduism by stealth.

little pens ?= freee range..hmmm I know my chickens look happiest when they can wander wherever they want. Penning them outside doesn't seem so different from penning them inside.. just a change of diet.
To be honest, I would not call 'penning' chickens humane. Except for protecting them from my neighbours dog which despatched my rooster recently...

But what I heard on the news (and to which I was partly responding)
was that it was already cleared land, farmland which was objected to being re-vegetated with Eucalypts.

I advocate responsible stewardship of both animal and vegetative aspects of life, but I hope there is enough slack to have a bit of a dig at things at times.

Mahatma.. hope ur giving some serious thought to my very serious (in contrast to my post here) thoughts about other issues and social decay etc... hope to hear your lucid assessment soon

Ahem, Boaz... another corrective is needed. The adjectives you quote could be part of an 'ad hominem' argument if I was describing you, but since they were all descriptors of your comment rather than your person, they aren't.

Similarly, your statement that "I have no trouble giving a bit of a prod to greenies and animal libbers, because when you push them on their underlying philosopy, its pretty close to hinduism by stealth" is nothing short of ludicrous - notwithstanding my nom-de-plume!

Do you have any comments that are actually about the article?