A petition that all of you might want to sign.
I came across this site [Protest against kangaroo slaughter in Australia with photographs by Ray Drew - http://www.kangaroolives.com] accidentally and was shocked again even though I knew about the slaughter last year. (warning: disturbing images) 6.5 million kangaroos are shot annually in Australia.
I wish I could say something nice or optimistic here, but I can't think of any. Maybe the fact that it has already been signed by 1143 people in less than three months. I don't know... :( All I can do is add my voice to those 1143 and hope there will be many more.
[edit: 4 Jul 2009] - I wrote the text below in another post, but it is relevant to the topic here, so I make it a part of this entry too.
Disappointments
I have found out that Australia commits large scale wildlife slaughter and is extremely hypocritical in this respect. I don't see moral right to talk against whaling, if you can't ban a medieval anti-humane industry in your own country. Using Kangaroos to attract tourists, sell products and brands and at the same time killing millions of them in the same way they used to kill Koalas, Tasmanian Tigers and tens of other species is truly disgusting.
I will keep the link to the online petition at the top of this blog at least until the end of 2009.
Looking at the signatures one can easily notice that most of them come from overseas. Australians, in their majority, do not care. Of course, if they did care the situation would have been very different.
I have traveled a lot around the world. The amount of animals killed alongside Australian roads is incomparable to any other civilized country. There are too many people here who just love running over a possum, a wombat, an echidna or a roo.
There is an ugly face of contemporary Australia, very well made up and hidden from the world. I thought that things have changed a lot in the post WW2 era. I have been very wrong. Environmentalists, wildlife carers, normal good people paint a plausible and acceptable facade, unintentionally hiding the crimes against Life.
The world often sees melodramatic images of rescued baby koalas, wombats and wallabies. Twenty babies are saved from the pouches of their dead mothers, killed in road accidents, photographed and faxed to every newspaper on the planet. Thousands, who have their healthy mothers shot for meat and skin are beheaded or beaten to death. No one mentions it. Why disturb the good sleep of the voter.
I don't want to offend readers by generalizing and saying Australians. But if there were enough responsible and caring people in this country, things would have been different. Kangaroos do not belong to Australians, they are a part of Earth's Fauna, a very unique part.
Australia is marketed as a Wildlife Paradise. It actually is Wildlife Hell.
[edit: 13 Jul 2009]
I'm trying to give more publicity to the problem through the Nature Blog Network and its members.
If you would like to know more about the problem, you can continue with these two sites:
[edit: 2 Oct 2009]
I'm not happy how NBN responded to my request, posting the info about the petition at the end of a long Community Bulletin Board behind all kinds of other irrelevant news.
Decided to leave NBN.
[edit: 4 Jul 2009] - I wrote the text below in another post, but it is relevant to the topic here, so I make it a part of this entry too.
Disappointments
I have found out that Australia commits large scale wildlife slaughter and is extremely hypocritical in this respect. I don't see moral right to talk against whaling, if you can't ban a medieval anti-humane industry in your own country. Using Kangaroos to attract tourists, sell products and brands and at the same time killing millions of them in the same way they used to kill Koalas, Tasmanian Tigers and tens of other species is truly disgusting.
I will keep the link to the online petition at the top of this blog at least until the end of 2009.
Looking at the signatures one can easily notice that most of them come from overseas. Australians, in their majority, do not care. Of course, if they did care the situation would have been very different.
I have traveled a lot around the world. The amount of animals killed alongside Australian roads is incomparable to any other civilized country. There are too many people here who just love running over a possum, a wombat, an echidna or a roo.
There is an ugly face of contemporary Australia, very well made up and hidden from the world. I thought that things have changed a lot in the post WW2 era. I have been very wrong. Environmentalists, wildlife carers, normal good people paint a plausible and acceptable facade, unintentionally hiding the crimes against Life.
The world often sees melodramatic images of rescued baby koalas, wombats and wallabies. Twenty babies are saved from the pouches of their dead mothers, killed in road accidents, photographed and faxed to every newspaper on the planet. Thousands, who have their healthy mothers shot for meat and skin are beheaded or beaten to death. No one mentions it. Why disturb the good sleep of the voter.
I don't want to offend readers by generalizing and saying Australians. But if there were enough responsible and caring people in this country, things would have been different. Kangaroos do not belong to Australians, they are a part of Earth's Fauna, a very unique part.
Australia is marketed as a Wildlife Paradise. It actually is Wildlife Hell.
[edit: 13 Jul 2009]
I'm trying to give more publicity to the problem through the Nature Blog Network and its members.
If you would like to know more about the problem, you can continue with these two sites:
Kangaroo killing in Australia
Online petition - Moratorium urgently needed: Kangaroos heading for Extinction
Online petition - Moratorium urgently needed: Kangaroos heading for Extinction
[edit: 2 Oct 2009]
I'm not happy how NBN responded to my request, posting the info about the petition at the end of a long Community Bulletin Board behind all kinds of other irrelevant news.
Decided to leave NBN.
