Perseus; the fact that wild animals can suffer in no way justifies our treatment of farmed animals in producing unnecessary food and other products. Your argument is exactly the same as saying that since we humans often suffer and die it’s alright for us to inflict suffering and death on each other for, say, entertainment.

Stomont; animal activists know only too well “where eggs come from” – we fight to end battery cages and every other cruel and inhumane farming practice. And an animal is only a “pest” when its normal behaviour gets in the way of you and yours making a profit. The tone of your post shows clearly that you are a speciesist and human supremacist of the first order. It is not the right of humans to “cull” any and all nonhumans who get in their way. Perhaps you can explain what it is about humans, in your thinking, that gives us the right to treat other creatures as we want.

Gusi; if you remove the “sentient part” from animals then, by definition, they are no longer animals. While you may end up having your meat grown in a petri dish why the hell would you want to go to so much trouble to produce a food which causes so much disease?

Cowboy Joe; we animal libbers are not “animal worshippers” in the same way that those who condemn paedophilia are not “child worshippers”. But I have to agree that having the majority of our population ignorant of where their food comes from is a major problem. We do our best to remedy that ignorance.

Katrina’s item is timely and relevant. Please see http://www.savebabe.com before purchasing any pork for Christmas.

I support the sentiments in the article and support more humane methods of treatment of animals in all cases. But the writer should show some more balanced reasoning when they for example, talk about the amount of animals slaughtered. That is unfortunately a fact of life. The conditions they live in and the manner of their treatment can and should be changed, but you can't really slit your wrists over the fact that they are slaughtered.

I think it's great that feral animals are being hunted. If they are sadistically treated, fine bring in the lawyers, but they are a scourge of the country, tbh. Australian natives need all the help they can get. The problem with hunting (and fishing) is that *everyone* wants to do it. Not that hunting exists. If one million people want to hunt and kill one hundred thousand thylacines....well yeah :P that sucks and is rather obscene.

It's misleading to talk about the US coat of arms bald eagle(??). The bald eagle is hardly equivalent to kangaroos that can grow to pestilential numbers.

This poem is dedicated to the unevolved, intoxicated homosapiens who lack the intellect to realise they are not superior to other species on this planet:

T'was an evening in December
He very well remembers
He was strolling down the street in drunken pride
But his knees were all a'flutter
So he landed in the gutter
And a pig came up and lay down by his side.

Yes he lay there in the gutter
Thinking thoughts he could not utter
When a colleen passing by did softly say
'Ye can tell a man that boozes
By the company he chooses'
At that, the pig got up and walked away!

Dedicated to: Perseus, Sage and Cowboy Joe.

MOS,

How about being top of the food chain? Do you think a hungry predator cares about his "right" to kill you? No he just does it coz he's in a position to, and it's dinner time.
It's called nature, and I find it sad that the people who think they are protecting it don't understand it's most basic concept, i.e. survival of the fittest.
Humans just happen to be the fittest right now, which makes us the supreme species. Therefore you are also a "Human Supremacist" by default.

Seeing as how you clearly failed basic comprehension at school, I will have to pick out the pertinent points of my post for you...

"I grew up shooting pests and ferals, and I've hated doing it, but it's a necessary evil"
"I hate that Roos are shot..."
"I refuse to participate in the shooting of any native animal"
"I will however, agree with the author that activities such as duck hunting, or any other form of "sport" hunting is disgusting, and should be banned outright."

How does that suggest the "right" to do it? You seem to think that introduced pests have as much "right" to live here, and consume the food of the natives, thereby killing them.

You write well, but are you sure you can read properly?

The tone of your post shows you are an arrogant, hypocritical, poorly educated, misguided, typically reactionary hippie, which is why your movement will never succeed.
You're just not credible, and I dare say with your attitude if it weren’t for primary producers, you and yours would simply not have made it past natural selection. You would have been ‘selected’ long ago

Are you aware of how many wild animals (not animals which were raised to be slaughtered) are killed to maintain the vast Soy bean, Corn, vegetable & Wheat plantations which you suckle from? Trust me it's many more than the average grazier ever kills to maintain food for his stock. Shall I hang their deaths around your neck? No, because I understand it to be what it is. NECESSARY.

cont'd...

cont'd...

I do work in Agriculture, but not on a farm, and not with livestock products of any kind, so I don't profit from it as you suggest, but I do assist in making sure the likes of you are fed your Tofu & bread every day.
Where does your knowledge of the subject come from other than a self righteous sense of superiority over us carnivores, presumptions, and what you read on the internet? Mine is

I looked at the website you quoted, and agree that kind of farming is disgusting.
If you were just pushing to ban cage farming, I'd join you. But you don't do that do you? You’re going after every farmer out there, which displays a gross level of ignorance, self importance, and a weak grasp of reality.

My family’s livestock is allowed to roam free across rolling hills in North & South N.S.W. There are no cages at all. It’s ORGANIC, and we engage in HRM if you even know what that is. In fact, they live a great life, and are slaughtered in the most humane way possible, unlike the animals which die to provide you with food, since they are often killed by traps, poisons or combine harvesters, and it can take days to die from these injuries.

Please learn to not only read, but to comprehend what you are reading.

Btw, Nice sparring with you :)

Dearest Dickie

Is that poem the best you can offer? I'm no bible basher but any reasonable person that has a minimal understanding of history and western democracy would agree that the bible was the beginning of the establishment of the few countries that are now considered to be free societies.

The passages about animals in Genesis are the foundations of animal welfare and not animal liberation.

You are a shining example of our education system that teaches feelings = rational thought.

Just a little reality check regarding which type of pigs you may be associating with -- Scotland Yard and the FBI have formally designated Animal Liberation Front as a terrorist group. In the US vociferous PETA frequently publicises their activities as soon as they occur. PETA while not advocating violence has been described as the PR Firm for terror. Remember respectable Gerry Adams (probably not)? Animal Libbers in the US are on record for planning "to take a hunter out completely" in retaliation for killing animals.

In 1993 in Kalamazoo, a Michigan a man was arrested for coldly shooting eight hunters over a two year period. Taxidermists regularly receive threatening phone calls and some have been burned down.

Truly spiritual individuals in contrast to the self righteous do not criticise others who are following an honest path of the heart.

Mahatma Gandhi said, "Everyone should follow his own inner voice" and has also been quoted as saying, "I have known many meat eaters to be far more non-violent than vegetarians."

More and more wild life managers are being forced to determine management policies by politics rather than science. BTW Australia has 30% of the worlds marine parks, is that rational? Often rational scientific based strategies are not employed in the USA due to fear of being sued by animal liberation organisations. Animal liberationists particularly appreciate research when it used as a stalling mechanism designed to eat up limited public funds.