I heard on the radio this morning that the Victoria Government has issued a permit to a farmer to shoot 100 Black Swans that are allegedly ravaging his Lucerne crop, due to the drying up of local lakes and loss of the Black Swans natural feeding habitat!

If this is the action that we have to take to solve a natural wildlife problem, then maybe we should be thinking about shooting all those people who are losing their homes due to interest rate increases, those that cannot afford the ever-increasing rental costs and those that are now homeless and dependent upon charitable organizations for support!....(not to mention corrupt politicians, businessmen and policemen!)

You think that this sounds silly?....Well it is really no different than this idiotic move to shoot Black Swans!

We now have a system in place whereby a starving species can invade a farmers crop for survival, he can then go ahead and shoot a hundred of the them,...( who is officially counting the "cull"? )... but if a human being climbs into our house, with evil intent at night, while we are sleeping, we are NOT allowed to defend ourselves with a gun!....Note the subtle difference?

IF he's got a permit to shoot 100, then chances are he'll accountable for those 100. 1 over and I'm sure he'll be facing prosecution if caught, hence, the permit.

If you get dingoes running through farms killing sheep you'll get the same outcome as your swans. There's no difference. Are these swans endangered, or over-populated, or somewhere in the middle?.

What's your REAL problem with them being shot, cause they're pretty or something?. What do you think your house was built on?. Animals had to die for you to be homed.

I don't condone it, but welcome to the real world.

One should start a thread on the evil side of farmers. Ive worked on farms and the whole issue to the farmer is one of dollars first and Creation second.
On one farm they drowned the pups they didnt want because they were too lazy to find them homes and it would have cost them a dollar to feed the little pups while they might have looked.

There always needs to be a Royal Commission into farmers. They have foul habits when it comes to the environment.
Many farms are garbage tips. They allow filth and chemicals to run into water supplies. They leave dead animals out in the open.
And federal governments tolerate them.

No wonder Judgment is coming (ask the committed christians).
Mankind is killing and filthing up everything.

'Thou shalt not judge lest ye be judged', eh Gibo?.

Good effort in mass generalisation and dumping everyone who owns land into one little bite sized morsel of chronic hypocrisy.

Are you ever in a good mood StG?
You seem to grump all over the place. Maybe you need to get saved by The lord?

Dear Cuphandle,

What a sad situation this is.

The following website:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/26/2315339.htm

tells the full story.

Its happening in the Gippsland Lakes and Wetlands region of
Victoria.

In Gippsland the black swans are a prominent emblem of
tourism and as the article tells us they are also an
important symbol to the local Indigenous Community.

However they apparently are becoming a pest by moving out
of the wetlands area into farming pastures and destroying
the crops. So far the swans have caused around $60,000
worth of damage to young lucerne crops.

5 permits have been issued to shoot 90 swans.

The reason the swans are moving out of the wetlands
is because the lakes are dying. Its the swans
nesting season and the farming properties are on the
edge of the listed Wetlands.

Farmers have tried to get the swans to move on - but
nothing has worked.

We can only hope that this is a temporary situation
and that it will be rectified soon.
The State need to do something about the lakes
and wetlands. It would be a pity to continue simply
culling these beautiful birds.