I read news on kangaroo leather soccer shoes being banned in california. Some Australians are puzzled about the ban, and stated statements about culling kangaroos helping the ecosystem and even preventing the kangaroos from starving to death. It reminded me of the seal hunt and how people are always trying to control nature - when there's too many, kill them. I think it's silly to do so because nature always exist in a state of balance. When it isn't in equilibrium it will try to bring the balance back. Like if there are too many kangaroos, there will be too little food and their population will fall, eventually bringing the balance back. When there are too little kangaroos, there will be more food and their population will go up to the balanced state. There's actually no need for humans to do anything about it. I can't help but think the underlying reasons are always greed and profit.This piece of news also brought back a memory from the past. When I was young we had a piece of kangaroo skin in our house. I remember I used to love sitting and lying on it. I don't know if I knew at that time that it was something that was really cruel. Now thinking back, I realised that as young children, most of us did not make the connection and were not taught so, if we had the chance to see the link between skins and suffering, I am sure many of us would want to cross over to the vegetarian side much earlier.
News source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/us/25kangaroo.html
Picture source: gladstone.uoregon.edu
11 comments:
Well, the same argument was given when I visited New Zealand. The people there said that when we see a possum, we should kill them because they ate too much of NZ's vegetation and are destroying the forest at rates higher than replacement. So there goes their argument for the benefit of the natural environment. I do not know which side should I take.
I dun think killing possums is the way.. eventually when their numbers grew too much, there will not be enough vegetation to support them, and their population will decline again. With that, the amt of vegetation will increase, and so does the possum numbers, and the cycle repeats.
We never kill humans because there are too many because it's wrong, we also dun kill those illegal loggers.. likewise it's wrong to deprive animals the right to live just so that we htink they are destroying the forests.
The problem is that possums aren't native NZ animals. So they don't have a natural predator to keep their numbers down. If they continue to eat, the whole forest will be gone. Hehe...
From your argument, it would really mean the whole forest is gone before the numbers of the possums will die down.
Oh.. in that case, by natural selection it may cause the vegetation population type to change, those vegetation with no defence against possums will reduce in number, while those that arent affected will grow and flourish. Unless the possum eats every young shoot. I don't know how difference in plant diversity will affect NZ though. But I don't believe killing them is the way to solve things hehe
See this reference:
http://www.kcc.org.nz/pests/possum.asp
Ah... that's bad, but I still dun believe killing possums is the way... hmmm.. do u?
I don't too. Hehe.. to tell you the truth, I love animals with fur than the trees. I never actually love trees before. :P
I felt very scared entering quite a few eateries in NZ because they have so many possum hides every where (on all benches) and many deer heads on the wall. So horrible!!!
Ah! You must learn to be a "treehugger" then! hehe... without the trees we all die! :D
That's terrible you have to sit on their skins! It reminds me of the kangroo skin again. That's definitely not a veg eatery u went to am I right? I wonder why ppl have so much pride in hunting a defenceless animal.
Hehe.. I didn't sit on the skins.. I pushed away the tall stools by the counter bar and ate while staning.. ;)
And yes, this restaurant is definitely not vegetarian. I ate baked beans, hash brown and fried eggs there (it's their breakfast set which includes sausages and bacon).
typo. Not staning but standing
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