Thought for today...

[gemfyre]

gleaned from the lecture on animal ethics/welfare I had today.

Use of animals for teaching/research purposes has become very restricted nowdays. Some of this is for the good (some experiments are totally cruel and uneccessary) but sometimes it borders on depriving students of vital opportunities to learn properly.

Animals are also used for food, too many people are cruel to domestic animals, fishing is an accepted recreational sport, land clearing kills millions of animals pretty much every day, and in the wild most things die by being eaten alive.

So...

Are teachers and researchers an 'easy' target for concerned groups?


discuss.

Comments

[morninglord.livejournal.com]

You have to remember, a large number of the individuals that make up "concerned groups" are idealistic idiots who have lived in the city all their life and think their dinner grows in the supermarket. They hear of something that doesnt fit into their rather soft and confortable view of the world and they get all uppity about it.
Im not saying ALL people who make up concerned groups are like this, just that those people ARE out there. Ignorant people who have no real idea what they are talking about, but are just grabbing onto the small number of biased facts they have and jumping up and down on all the others that dont fit in with their world view.
Of course, politically, its even worse in australia. We have some of the STUPIDEST laws cos the majority of voters live in the city and think they know how the world really works cos they know how to open their garage doors and tune into the news stations, and the politicians pander to the majority.
Not all humans are like that.
Just a distressingly large percentage.
Stupid humans.

[terrycat.livejournal.com]

Scary. I wholy agree with wayne! i mean this shouldnt happen, if only so we can have evilly fun arguments that last weeks. However, everything he's said i pretty much agree with.
I was once told by an american that we australians should be ashamed at how we treat the aboriginies. I had to explain to them that aboriginies get more benifits than anyone else, that we arent still repressing them, that we as a people are constantly apologising to their ancestors. im not saying they have an easy life, but on the other hand, who does?
whats the point im making? the point is that its easier for someone to blame and hate me for something they know nothing about, than find out the details and actually think about stuff.
same with animal testing. admittedly, some of it IS cruel and unnessesary, but most isnt now days. people protesting labs humanely killing rats for experiments are idiots! most of these people will without even considering the irony put down rat traps or poison., which is not a nice way to go for the poor little rats.
I am being pretty general here. Not all animal rights people are hypocritical morons, in fact most i know arent. but animal rights can be treated as either an issue or as a cause, and just like any cause the ill-considered and non-thinking flock to the banner to give their pitiful lives a sense of purpose. researchers are the perfect bad guy to these people, because of all the stereotypes of mad scientists, evil experiments, soulless monsters in white coats. coupled with cute fluffy animals, and its a guaranteed target.

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Ducks.

Bloody domestic ducks on the waterways, pushing native waterbirds out of their nesting sites.

People who give a shit about the wild animals take steps to remove the ducks, either by removing them and turning them into pets, or by killing them. And all the ignoramuses are like "Oh no you can't go killing all the ducks you heartless person!! What will we throw bread to??"

Well 1) there will still be PLENTY of ducks and other waterfowl, but it will be native and 2) you shouldn't be feeding them anyway. It takes away from their ability to look after themselves and uneaten bread in the water is a breeding ground for botulism that will kill your precious ducks anyway. (Admittedly, I do sometimes enjoy feeding waterbirds, but only on the dry land, never in the water, and when they stop eating it I stop giving it to them).

I used to feel a bit like this over cats. I'd hear about people shooting feral cats and I was like "I'll look after them!" But now I'm a tad more educated. A cat becomes wild two generations down the track and cannot be a pet, it will rip your arm off. They are a plague to native species, they can't be poisoned or trapped easily (because they are the beauty that is cat), the ONLY way to get rid of them effectively is shooting them unfortunately. However the bastards that go around killing pet cats, they deserve more than disemboweling. And idiots who are too arrogant or stupid to sterilise their cats if they are not prize breeders. *grrs*

Meow

[morninglord.livejournal.com]

Not entirely true.
Catch them as kittens and they can be tamed and are just as good as domestic cats.
Our farm cats currently were feral cats caught as kittens. They tried VEWWY hard to rip of my dads fingers when they were little, but were inexplicably unable to do so due to lack of kitty strength.
Now the male cat is like a great big soft dribbly cushion that likes to melt all over the doormat in just the right place that when you put your foot down after opening the door to go out, you land right in the cradle of its curled-up-ness, so that your next unwary step will accidentally boot it halfway across the verandha.
In which case it picks itself up, looks at you askance as if YOU were in the wrong for wanting to use the door, and wanders back to melt all over the mat again once youve left.
Stupid thing. Very friendly. Good with kids. Started out feral. Its all about how they were brought up.
ADULT feral cats, however, needs to be taken out at long range with TOW missiles because trying the same thing with a club results in you losing vital bodily fluids and organs and stuff. Vicious things.

Re: Meow

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

I'm meaning adults.

Unfortunately catching feral kittens is about as hard as eliminating adult cats.