That’s A Lotta ‘Roos
Holy crap. 😯 Yes, I know that this has not a bloody thing to do with politics, Canada, or any of the other things that I’m usually in the habit of going on and on about but still… Holy crap. 😯
Now, I know that the kangaroo is something of a national symbol in the Land o’ Oz — kind of like our beaver — but seriously, people, there is such a thing as too much being too much. This would be a good example of that, I think. It seems that there is a bit of a population problem with the little Skippies on the outskirts of Canberra…
The Defence Department wants to hire professional shooters to cull the kangaroos at two of its properties on the outskirts of Canberra, where some areas have as many as 450 kangaroos a square kilometre — the densest kangaroo population ever measured in the region.
That’s right: 450/Km²! For those of you that think a little old-school, like I do, that’s close to two ‘roos per acre. That’s one helluva lot o’ boomers and does. There’s so many of them that they’re starting to “eat through the grassy habitats of endangered species.”
Now, you’d think that when one animal becomes a problem like that — especially when, let’s face it, humans have contributed to the trouble by killing off predators — a cull would be a no-brainer. There’s too many of one species and they’re posing a danger to another. Cull the excess of the one and restore the balance.
Simple, right? Hell, to a conservationist like me, that’s just common sense. But common sense just doesn’t come very easily to the sanctimonious, busybody, “animal rights” crowd now, does it?
Under the plan, 3,200 of the common eastern grey kangaroos, which can grow as big as a human, will be shot by July.
But Mary Hayes, president of the animal rights group ACT Animal Liberation, warned that such an action would earn the local government an international reputation for cruelty.
“It is a very cruel, violent way to treat animals,” she said on Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Pat O’Brien, an activist with the Queensland state Kangaroo Protection Coalition, rejected the government’s argument the kangaroos risked starvation if there is no cull.
“This is just an excuse to kill them,” he said.
Oh, EEK! Nasty men with guns just wanna have fun. Right. Let the argumentum ad hominem get into full swing. 🙄
The fact of the matter is that there are two kinds of animals: the eating and the eaten; AKA predators and prey. When a prey population grows unchecked by predation, they will breed and increase until they start to starve. Period.
So my question to the smartass little busybodies at the Kangaroo Protection Coalition, ACT Animal Liberation and other such bunches, is this:
How do you want them to die? Quick and relatively painless (a bullet) or slow and suffering (starvation)?
Because those are the choices you’ve got. Those are the ONLY choices you’ve got; whether you have the stomach for that fact or not. Neither reality nor natural law give a shit about your delicate sensitivities.
So, what’ll it be?
