Meredith

I believe you have the wrong impression of those opposed to mulesing. In addition, I can assure you that there are many Australian veterinarians who oppose the ongoing method of mulesing without pain relief.

Unfortunately the industry to which I refer operates with a propensity for unscrupulous greed.

Gone are the days when Uncle Harry, armed with kitchen scissors, would take your cat and castrate him in the wash-house, amidst the wails and screams of the victim and the neighbourhood children bearing witness.

We are not opposed to mulesing but we are opposed to this surgical procedure without the benefit of a local anaesthetic. And we do not recommend anaesthesia AFTER the event as the double-dealing and debauched Yabby boasts!

And I shall reiterate the same tired old question, which, to my knowledge has never been answered by animal abusers: “If Yabby is not permitted to rip chunks off a dog's backside, why is he permitted to hack chunks from a sheep's backside?

Senate debates
Thursday, 13 March 2008

Excerpts of parliamentary speech by Liberal senator Bill Heffernan. Born in Junee, NSW, he has qualifications in Wool Classing and Welding from Wagga Technical College. He has been a farmer for thirty years.

'The cheeful admissions of a duplicitous rock ape:'

“The wool industry is in a hell of a mess at the present time—it is dysfunctional.

“We are not into animal cruelty, as some of the lunatics you see on the television would have you believe. Most of them would not know where the sun comes up. Most of them plait their armpits and smoke pot.

“There is a bit of pain inflicted. I have mulesed thousands of sheep. It takes about 15 seconds to knock the top off and, if your teeth are good enough, tear the nuts out, trim around the tail and cut the tail off with the shears.

“ So there needs to be some common sense brought to that debate.”

"How dare you speak to people like this." as addressed to meredith..

Hey meredith, go for it gal...

you must be doing something right if you attract that sort of response...

LOL

To the uninitiated, "Macropod Whisperer" is the PALE person by another name. There is also a third, and possibly a fourth person involved as well. You just have to look at the language and formatting. Meredith, what on earth did you do to become a "flamer"? I've not seen anything undeservedly offensive or inaccurate in anything you've said. Col Rouge must be "on the outer" too.

Your comment is clearly well intentioned, and informed. The UK, where I grew up, has a strong blow-fly population, yet mulesing has been outlawed there for years, and only a small percentage of farmers in NZ practice it these days. Obviously they, and farmers in Tasmania, have been able to find alternatives. And what Dickie says is quite right, it is my understanding that the animal advocacy movement is prepared to accept anaesthesia/analgesia for the procedure, while an alternative is found.

Yabby, it is quite obvious even to the intellectually challenged that people who have animals have a legal obligation to care for them. That includes sheep, irrespective of the circumstances. And from my observations of recent reports, it is not a "minority" of mulesed sheep who die from flystrike. Have you mulesed your dogs? Tjosr whose heads you haven't chopped off, that is.

As for Bill Heffernan (and I recall PALE mentioning at some point that there is some family relationship between them), the man is a thug and a bully, who should never be allowed near animals or people. As for PALE giving "ideas" to other groups - well, we can all see why it gets the response it does. Its relationship with the RSPCA is also a conundrum; in its media materials, PALE only gets a mention equivalent to that given to Animal Liberation Queensland and AAQ. I checked.

Nicky

*Most of them plait their armpits and smoke pot.*

Hehe Dickie, now we know how you pass your time in that
old peoples home :)

This is what happens, when people like you rely on
Peta websites for your education about agriculture,
so let me set you straight.

Today in WA, anyone who muleses lambs, needs to pass
an accreditation course.

Nothing is hacked, there are no chunks, nothing is
removed the size of a dinner plate, all melodramatical
claims by Peta, which are innacurate. What happened at
the time was that some station had some hoggets which
they mulesed, something that I have not heard of in 30
years. Peta then played this up as being normal standard
practise, which is rubbish. But then Peta don't care about
the accuracy of their claims, they want publicity at any cost.

No "garden shears" are used. Mulesing contractors know
how to sharpen their shears, more like a surgical instrument,
like a razor blade. Now even you would know that if you cut
yourself with a razor blade, you hardly feel the cut. It
is friction that causes pain.

A good mulesing contractor does not even cut, he simply pushes
those shears through the loose skin, each side being about the
size of a 20c piece, sometimes a 50c piece, depending on the
size of the lamb.

So its very much more like circumcision then anything else.

At that point Trisolfen is applied, which relieves the pain
from the wound and research results show, the lambs do alot
better, don't suffer stress etc, as without Trisolfen.

But of course, as you know sweet f*k all about mulesing
and have never seen it performed by today's accredited operators,
you believe in hacking and chunks etc, nobody will convince
you that your little fantasies are not true.

Just as I will never convince Boaz or Runner that their
religious beliefs are dreaming, you are just as fanatical
about your fantasies as they are. So be it

*it is quite obvious even to the intellectually challenged that people who have animals have a legal obligation to care for them.*

Nicky, what your reponse tells me is that you are a typical paper
shuffler, without a bone of common sense in your body. So are you
going to go from hobby farm to hobby farm, to check on the welfare
of their sheep? No, they will simply suffer and die, no matter
what your good intentions might be. There are enough hobby farmers
now, with flocks overrun by lice, nobody says boo.

Your comments about the UK and NZ, are once again ill informed.
If you know a little about entomology, you will know that there
are many species of blowflies, the one in Australia being particularly
aggressive. Merino sheep in particular, which are hardly common
in the UK, are particularly vulnerable to the Australian blowfly.

The problem is about the interaction of climate, breed of sheep
and species of blowfly.

But of course, our Nicky the pencil pusher knows it all, farmers
are just greedy and cruel, according to her. Whew, ignorance if
I ever saw it.

“Merino sheep in particular, which are hardly common
in the UK, are particularly vulnerable to the Australian blowfly.”

So says Yabby – an embodiment of ignorance and a fine example of the corporate cockroaches who deny everything in the face of overwhelming evidence.

Has anyone yet informed you Dumbo that Merino sheep are NOT indigenous to Australia?

Perhaps a trip down memory lane (yet a minute part of the atrocities committed within this industry) may prompt your memory Yabby though I doubt it since the live exporters charged with animal cruelty in the 90s are still the foxes in charge of the chicken coops, still being prosecuted for animal cruelty and still permitted to retain an export licence:

Sixty Minutes:

“RICHARD CARLETON: "In fact, LiveCorp claims the overall mortality rate is on the way down."

"But vet Tony Hill believes the industry-supplied figures are suspect. After his voyage on the Al-Khaleej (August 2001) where up to 2000 sheep died, routine had him report on the death toll.

"You put in a report that said, and you signed it, saying that 105 sheep died on the voyage."

"DR TONY HILL: "And that's the report the captain wanted me to give to the Saudis."

"RICHARD CARLETON: "Where did this figure of 105 come from?"

"DR TONY HILL: "He invented it.""

Now there's a thought for those who care. Why not place this evidence on a Saudi website?

“In 2000, we saw an entire shipment of deer perish during the short journey between Brisbane and Sydney. These deer were destined for Thailand . (Source: Department of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries Australia.)

“According to our informant, a former stockman, these deer "bashed themselves to death".

Dr Petra Sidholm a UK based veterinarian on the Middle Eastern atrocities:

“I've observed a slaughterman, cutting the tongue from an animal and stuffing it into his shirt directly after its throat was cut and while the animal was still conscious and struggling with its head raised above the ground."

The diabolical Yabby, brandishing axe, shears, poisons and a fat wallet, will stoop to anything, not matter how sordid.