Well. THIS has got me fired up. Iìm sorry guys but I can't not go through and pull this argument apart.
Ahem.
The ignorance of these ill informed green-washers and "animal rights" people is absolutely staggering.
First of all, attempting to elevate your own sense of superiority by directing this statement not to those you are insulting but rather to what appears to be just yourself serves only to enhance your own "arsehole factor".
Secondly, YOU ignorant, ill-informed brat, you are on an ANIMAL RIGHTS FORUM. Which means that YES WE ARE ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS. Your use of inverted commas is a failed tempt to use a label we are proud of to demean us. "green-washers" is a ridiculous phrase and I refuse to acknowledge its presence.
As a frequent visitor and part time farm hand on a cattle station in the high country of Victoria, I have seen first hand the callous and viscous attacks these packs of wild dogs make on cattle. I have been approached by packs on several occasions. Any whinging, hand-wringing greenie who thinks these are innocent little puppy dogs should take a walk around down there and see for themselves the blood thirsty carnage they inflict on stock and native wildlife.
As a girl grown and raised in a semi-rural area, having frequently visited farms and having been quite close friends with the daughter of a cattle-farme, as well as living next door to and knowing very well another animal farmer, I have seen first hand the callous and VICIOUS (correct spelling does wonders for the impression one makes) treatment these farmers make on cattle. The first of these farmers having approached and traumatised a small group of children by talking to them about how much he enjoys and how he carries out slaughter.
BEFORE YOU GET SNARKY WITH ME: No, I'm not saying all farmers are evil men. In fact, the other farmer was a wonderful man. I've grown up knowing farmers and most of them are good, kind people on the whole. I'm just saying that you honestly need to consider the fact that you are trying to justify one form of violence and condemn another, far more natural violence.
Again you make unnecessary derrogatory comments here. Is it your intention to insult us or compose an argument to counter our own?
The dogs are huge. They are more like hyenas than your neighborhood mutt. They operate in silent packs, capable of taking down large cattle, often mauling countless heifers and attacking calves as they are being born. They are fearless, mangy, and aggressive. And anyone who suggests a fence will help solve the problem is proving beyond all reasonable doubt that they have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. Anyone with a dog at home knows the lengths one must go to keep your average dog from digging under or jumping over the fence. And that is with an ordinary, tame, lovable family dog, in an ordinary, backyard setting. We are talking about huge feral dogs, in untamable terrain, over thousands of square kilometres.
You're beggining to sound a bit dramatic and irrational here, utilising words and phrases which are loaded with powerful imagery yet hold little factual information. Ironically, that is what people accuse us "greenies" of doing.
Certainly dingoes are larger than your average domesticated dog, and undoubtably they are more aggressive; nobody here has attempted to paint these wild animals as fluffy little kittens. We are not fools, thank you, we are aware that this is a pack of wild, predatory animals here. So are sharks- that does not mean that hunting down and killing a shark for attacking a human being is justified.
YOU were the one who first bought up a fence right there. None of us said it. I haven't the foggiest where you got the idea from but naturally a fence will have no affect. Thank you for enlightening us to information far beyond our grasp! (If you have failed to detect my sarcasm, you truly do need serious help). We aren't suggesting fences, but it would be nice to find a more compassionate, less bloodthirsty solution to the issue. I'm not going to pretend I have that solution, but that in no way means one does not exist.
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If you're going to preach about something, I suggest you gain a little knowledge or experience on the subject matter first.
Well, "preaching" would involve us trying to convert the thinking of others on the matter when they do not share the same views as us, without any respect for the listener's desire to be "preached" to. We were having a discussion among like-minded people about our views on a subject. What you are doing is closer to preaching than what we are; yet I am not going to accuse you of preaching, as you are not quite doing so. Literally, "preaching" is an address of a religious nature, so technically, nobody here is preaching.
As for gaining knowledge or experience: I cannot speak for everyone but I know that the vast majority of members of this site do their best to educate themselves on a matter before commenting on it. For some of us, experience is a difficult thing to gain due to lifestyle, financial or other constraints. We all have varying degrees of experience in various situations- part of what we do here is share that experience. Nobody can be perfect, but one can only work towards gaining as much knowledge and experience as possibly.
I don't believe that working for a man who slaughters cows and dingoes alike will make me any more equipped to comment on the situation than another person.
And before you blame the farmers and put these feral animals first, think about how it would feel if a pest animal was coming into your yard and attacking your pets, mauling them to death for no apparent reason, destroying your livelihood, costing you tens of thousands of dollars each year and threatening your safety. I'll tell you what you'd do: like anyone in that situation; you'd shoot them.
First of all, a farmer's animals are not his pets: they are his profit. Yes, this situation would be damaging to your wallet and your livelihood (after all it is a career and a lifestyle, these men put their souls into their work), but that does not mean that you have to react with violence. If a pest animal was coming into my yard and attacking my pets, mauling them to death for the OBVIOUS reasons that a predatory animal mauls other animals to death, I would not shoot them. If a human being was coming into my yard to do the same thing, I would not shoot them, although being aware of the damage that they are doing would make it more justified. I would seek a less violent, irrational, anger-fuelled method of resolving the issue.
Pull your heads in and be reasonable.
More insults without any explanation or fact? How is anything that I have said so far unreasonable? How has anything that anyone else has said here unreasonable? Where is the logic on which you base this accusation?
Or would you prefer to see hundreds of innocent calves violently mauled to death as they're being born and left to die?
You know, I don't want that at all. That's why I'm a vegan. I don't want to see hundreds, thousands, and even millions of innocent calves and fully grown cows being killed in any manner. I find it ironic that you would have no problem with "innocent calves" being slaughtered so you can chow down on veal, yet if a dingo does it before you can, it warrants further slaughter.
Or perhaps you would prefer the native animals such as kangaroos, wallabies and wombats to be wiped out? Wild dogs are a violent, dangerous and unnatural pest.
Dingoes may not be native, but they've been here for thousands of years. Longer than livestock or English colonists. They've done less damage to the populations of native animals than we have with our cities, farms, livestock, agriculture and hunting. Of course I would never wish for the extinction of native species, nor would anyone on this site. DIngoes are less of a threat to that than we are. Maybe we should start killing humans then? Hey, don't call me a crazy hippy for saying that, I'm just following YOUR logic. Of course I would never want human beings killed. Same as I don't want dingoes killed.
Something needs to be done about them, but wringing our hands and finding flowery, inconclusive "solutions" like "building a fence" is certainly not the answer.
You're right. Something does need to be done about them. Finding what you so ridiculously call "flowery, inclusive 'solutions' like 'building a fence'" is most certainly NOT an answer, but would you kindly show me where anyone other than yourself mentioned such solutions? Just as I don't believe that the sort of solution you are suggesting will work, I also believe that violent slaughter is unnecessary and in no way a reasonable solution. Perhaps we should stop, think, apply some logic and come up with a sound, non-violent, permanent solution.
Perhaps you should "build a bridge", get over it, or take a short holiday into the real world where the products you rely on, actually come from.
I'm not entirely certain what you mean here. The world I live in is very real. It is a cruel, violent, irrational world. The same one you live in. However, unlike you the members of this forum- myself included- are doing the small part we can to minimise this irrational violence before there is nothing left for us to slaughter, or no humans left to do that slaughtering. Maybe you should seek some more education on the environmental impact of the industry you're supporting. Maybe you should read Jonathan Safran Foer's "Eating Animals" and educate yourself on the diseases created and spread by the industry you so revere.
I could go on and on, but I wouldn't want to be "preaching" now, would I?
Finally, what products are you talking about here? Your final statement is a tad on the random side. The vast majority of this forum is vegan, vegetarian, or on their way to becoming one of those. Why don't you look some of those words up and find out what products we use, then get back to us about your closing statement.
