(Background: first posted in my Abstract Building blog. Written after Erin called out the Prime Minister of Australia over the culling of camels.)
What the Hell goes on there? I've lived long enough to see Australia over-run by rabbits, kangaroos and now, CAMELS? No wonder they keep you down under.
Apparently what passes for wildlife management there is wait until there is a crisis then just kill all of whatever and make burgers.
There are places in the world where predatory species are having a very hard time, most places in the world, actually. You like to refer to your land as Oz, how about a "Wizard of Oz" solution: lions and tigers and bears. (Oh,my!) They wouldn't go after people, they'd be too full of 'roo and camel. How about some gray wolves, too?
I've read the biggest problem with exporting the camels is they have to be domesticated first, at least able to be penned. Aussie cowboys not up to that? Just to clarify this, American cowboys can take a mustang and turn it into a riding horse but Australians, had they settled the American West, would have walked from St. Louis to San Francisco?
Shelia, please.
Now, I can already hear the PETA people and the wildlife activists tuning up out of the corner of my ear about the cruelty and they're right, all the solutions are cruel. Those camels are going to die, one way or the other, or have to be broken and exported, then probably killed and eaten. The cruelty is in the lack of management that the government exercises over the animal populations.
It's time for Australia to sack up and import a threatened predator or two or many. At least when they have to "control" them, they won't have to take so much heat.
What the Hell goes on there? I've lived long enough to see Australia over-run by rabbits, kangaroos and now, CAMELS? No wonder they keep you down under.
Apparently what passes for wildlife management there is wait until there is a crisis then just kill all of whatever and make burgers.
There are places in the world where predatory species are having a very hard time, most places in the world, actually. You like to refer to your land as Oz, how about a "Wizard of Oz" solution: lions and tigers and bears. (Oh,my!) They wouldn't go after people, they'd be too full of 'roo and camel. How about some gray wolves, too?
I've read the biggest problem with exporting the camels is they have to be domesticated first, at least able to be penned. Aussie cowboys not up to that? Just to clarify this, American cowboys can take a mustang and turn it into a riding horse but Australians, had they settled the American West, would have walked from St. Louis to San Francisco?
Shelia, please.
Now, I can already hear the PETA people and the wildlife activists tuning up out of the corner of my ear about the cruelty and they're right, all the solutions are cruel. Those camels are going to die, one way or the other, or have to be broken and exported, then probably killed and eaten. The cruelty is in the lack of management that the government exercises over the animal populations.
It's time for Australia to sack up and import a threatened predator or two or many. At least when they have to "control" them, they won't have to take so much heat.
