Cruelty to animals, concluding with the mass slaughter of 33 dogs on a rural property, captured the attention of large numbers of readers, listeners and viewers this week.The difference between the attitude of townies and those in our agricultural heartland are huge and significant.
Those brought up in the country, in large part, help underwrite the economic sustainability of our country.
Their knowledge of animal husbandry is significant and, by and large, they have their own rules around animal welfare and in turn are very vigorous in protecting their farms from animal nuisance.
Townies arrive at the supermarket and see everything beautifully and clinically packaged. They have never reared lambs, sheep, calves, cattle, piglets, pigs, foals and horses. They know nothing about the trials and tribulations of their country cousins.
Over 500,000 Kiwi dwellings have one or more cats.
That furry ball of purring affection is reknowned as one of the greatest and most adept killing machines God created. In fact, cats are one of the few animals in the animal kingdom that kill for fun. Feral cats create the worst carnage amongst our native birds and wildlife above all other nuisances.
Every can of food or piece of meat fed to the cats has come from some other animal in the food chain that was slaughtered to feed them.
Out in the country, any dog that has occasion to be a nuisance to any farmers' stock must be, and should be, destroyed immediately.
Farmers do not call on the services of the SPCA, they just do what the agricultural rulebook says.
I struggle at times with the romantic notion that surrounds any discussion on animal welfare. Undoubtedly cruelty to animals is unacceptable but people who do not understand the death and destruction that occurs in order to feed all their beautiful purring or barking four-legged friends cause me dismay.
Concern over animal welfare has been huge. They are not children, they do not have the same rights as humans apart from not being treated cruelly. The only time animals have been equal or more equal than humans is in Planet of the Apes or George Orwell's Animal Farm.
I have no time for people who elevate animals above humans.
The gulf between town and country has grown dramatically in the last generation. We used to visit more and have more connections with the countryside and a greater appreciation of the ups and downs that our country folk are subjected to.
Farming animals is not easy and I could go to any farm and find an animal in distress, not because the farmer wanted it to be, but the nature of farming is that animals can and do get injured or become sick.
So not subjecting a sick or struggling calf or lamb to a 24/7 watch could be seen as cruelty.
We need to reflect, breathe in and understand the ups and downs of farming, the fact that animal deaths are huge in this country and that a large number of our pets feast off a large number of those slaughtered.
Just imagine that we have pet ducks, in fact imagine 500,000 NZ households having one or more pet ducks.
The very notion or thought of a duck-hunting season would be reprehensible and disgusting to all duck owners.
Just replace your furry, little kitty with a duck and ask the Save the duck society what it thinks about duck hunting season.
Sunday News, January 31, 2010