Ah Dickie, seeing the questions about your rhetoric were becoming
increasingly hard for you to answer, its now down to ad hominem
arguments, as I would have expected. Thats cool, I have no
problem dealing with the emotionally engulfed and uniformed.

Extremism of any kind is dangerous, thats why I prefer the
informed middle ground, where win-win situations exist for all
species, something you still can't seem to be able to get your
mind around.

Thank you for that, Dickie. I have seen posts of Yabby's on other threads, so am a bit familiar with his (assuming that it is a "he") views about animals. He has no problems with animal cruelty because animals do not matter. With regard to human to human crime, my experience is that humans have more to do with getting themselves into their own predicaments and more control over getting themselves out of them than do animals, who are completely defenceless, and at the mercy of the human species. Some animals are far more privileged than others, of course, if one considers the legislative protection accorded to "companion" animals over farm animals. That is sad - both in terms of the law and in terms of its application, animals needs are given little consideration. No-one can tell me what the end result of the "drug-crazed yuppie" matter was, but reports seem to indicate that he is out there ready to do it all again. As for the cases in Tasmania, the government and the judiciary down there should be ashamed of themselves, but Tasmania is nothing if not redneck territory. It is the only state to be allowing a duck shooting season this year.
Nicky.

Well speaking as a redneck Tasmanian, let me assure everyone that animal cruelty is not limited to this State, and that there are people down here doing everything they can to prevent animal welfare violations and bring the perpetrators to justice. You are right though when you say the juduciary down here should hang their wigged heads in shame at the pathetic sentences hand down. It is an ongoing source of frustration for everyone who's trying to stamp it out. A lot of the problems lie in the accompanying animal welfare legislation - there just isn't enough support for prosecutors within the statutes.
You'll be pleased to know the people responsible for the bull incident are appearing in court on Monday january 23

Welcome, fellow redneck Tasmanian - although you don't sound like anything of the sort. You are absolutely right, the judiciary is totally shameless in how it treats some shocking offenders. Perhaps it takes demonstrations outside the courts when these monsters are appearing, letters to the papers ... we wrote to the DPP and the Attorney General and the Minister for Primary Industries and got precisely nowhere. The RSPCA should be appealing. These people should never be allowed to have animals in their "care" ever again, as happens on the "mainland". Any thoughts, anyone?
From Jenna

Thanks Jenna.
There are moves afoot to change the system but it's a long slow and very fraught process. And it's compounded by the general opinion down here that animals have little worth. To change the juduciary, we need to change the general moral concepts of the status of animals and the definitions of cruelty. Down here, ignorance is still an excuse which is readily used as a defence. As I said it's a slow process which just requires constant chipping away and a lot of patience. Animal welfare groups down here are doing their best, but the old boys club of judges are going to take a lot of convincing.

Hi Nicky

The front page of the West Australian today portrays a picture of dozens of pigs in a small compound - so cramped that some were on top of others.

"WA piggery accused of letting crippled animals die in their own filth and feed on each other."

The piggery was raided by police and other authorities to investigate claims "some pigs had eaten others which had died in the pens, animals had been forced to wallow in filth so deep they struggled to walk and had been left to die slowly."

"Pigs were captured on video gorging on the carcasses of pigs that had died in the pens."

The video was filmed by a former employee.

"Sick pigs have been left to die outside the main pen area."

Consumers eating pigs which eat pigs? Isn't this a recipe for mad pigs' (cows) disease?

Seems our inspectors all suffer from selective myopia! No doubt the "pig" in control of this operation had accreditation!

It couldn't be any worse in Canada where a pig farmer has fed 26 murdered women to his pigs.

"He would take them into a room and feed them to the pigs", Andy Bell, a past employee told officers.

These women were drug addicted prostitutes and the self proclaimed "plain little farm boy" is suspected of being responsible for the disappearance of 65 women.

That's a lot of stock feed!

I suspect the Canadian consumers will currently be suffering strong bouts of nausea!