Geneva - Israel has expanded its total ban on humanitarian supplies entering large areas of the Gaza Strip as part of its ongoing genocide, waged since 7 October, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said on Monday in a statement emphasising Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon against civil
Dr John Kingston, Veterinary Advisor to Australia's National Dingo Preservation and Recovery Program, says that the internationally beloved dingoes of Fraser Island (K'Gari) have all but disappeared from their beach territories as government authorities condemn survivors to a cruel death by starvation.
Dr Kingston said he was appalled at the condition of dingoes observed during recent NDPRP visits to the island.
‘Dingoes said by government and animal welfare authorities to be naturally lean are revealed as starving and probably doomed to extinction in photographs taken on the island for the NDPRP’, Dr Kingston said. ‘Hip bones protruding, backbone, ribs, muscle wastage, are all evidence that there is not enough food for these animals.
‘The Fraser Island dingoes are a semi-domesticate, an apex predator unique in the world, in that they form a bridge between the wild and humanity. Upwards of 80% of visitors to Fraser Island-K’gari wish to see a dingo in the wild. Is it any wonder, with seeing dingoes in this emaciated state that people want to feed them?
‘I don’t believe there is any veracity in the argument that feeding dingoes makes them aggressive. There is no scientific evidence for this at all. And yet it is an argument consistently raised and repeated by government authorities and their scientific advisors. This false belief was shown to be based on misinterpreted data in a paper by Rob Appleby, Bradley Smith et al, and another by Arian Wallach and Adam O’Neill. Prior to 1994 when the feeding of dingoes was stopped on Fraser Island, there had never been an attack by a dingo on a human.‘Therefore,’ Dr Kingston says, ‘it is imperative that feeding of these dingoes commences. There is also no data to prove government statements that the dingoes will overpopulate the Island if supplementarily fed, as dingoes self-regulate their own numbers. These imaginary problems never occurred during the thousands of years the dingoes were fed. We call for random food drops immediately.’
The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, which has legal responsibility for the animals’ welfare has consistently rejected conservationist concerns.
And the RSPCA, which once warned that the QPWS could be prosecuted for animal cruelty over its use of dingo traps on the island, now seems to back management policies, also referring to ‘skinny dingoes’ which it says are naturally lean and in good condition.
‘The photos show young females from the same territory, not old enough to reproduce and obviously not subject to pack support or discipline, now being pregnant, a sign of a species in crisis’, he said.
‘In a stable dingo pack, alpha females suppress breeding amongst other female pack members, so they are more able to help care for her pups and raise a successful litter.
‘Where are the animal ethics, and can we as a nation of animal lovers continue to watch as these animals slowly die a cruel death from starvation?
‘Do we wish for our overseas visitors to see the way we treat these precious iconic animals?
‘Where is Compassionate Conservation in all this?’
Dr John Kingston, BVSc,
Veterinary advisor
National Dingo Preservation and Recovery Program (Inc. A0051763G )(NDPRP)
These photographs are of horses at Barmah Vic, and Singleton NSW. As we are aware, they are not native to this country. They were introduced here by pioneers/settlers to help settle this land. They were carted off to war - 300,000 - never to return. They ploughed the fields and transported goods/settlers all over this country. They are used in entertainment, such as rodeos and racing, and even left to die in paddocks. At the end for many are the knackeries, some for overseas human consumption. Horses are not even recognised as “livestock” in Acts of parliament. What a bum deal these magnificent animals have endured from mankind. Now they are being slaughtered by this government, in the name of being ‘feral’ and destroying the land. (Photographs copyright Renee Neubaur. Sincere thanks from Candobetter for permission to use them.)
In my opinion the damage they do to the land is exaggerated. Pigs and other animals do more damage. The committee that are already looking after these horses are doing a magnificent job and I say that Parks Vic should include the local committee there to manage these horses.
In Singleton (NSW) they were shot, destroyed, “culled,” killed, or whatever, from the air by helicopter. Our leading animal welfare organisation, the RSPCA agreed to all of this and called it “culling.” I call It murder.
There are other means of controlling the increasing population and for management of these horses. I think the people that have claimed “ownership and control” of this problem (Parks Victoria) have got it all wrong. They do not listen to the experienced hands-on experts that can help solve it.
- Keep herds intact so that stallions can limit who breeds, as they normally do. If you shoot them and the older mares and fragment the herd, the younger ones get to breed, increasing fertility.
- To encourage lower fertility in an intact herd, limit the brumbies' territory - probably by fencing. Ensure, however, that they have adequate territory to remain healthy.
- You can also geld all males.
All these things can be done by the self-elected custodians already there (the committee).
Regarding the brumbies at Parks Victoria at Barmah: The RSPCA is ‘advising’ on their condition, health and welfare, but it is only volunteers that are that are hands-on, keeping the animals fed. Many horse loving Victorians are donating.
These horses are starving, as you can see in the pictures, as Parks fines anyone who feeds animals. Some have suffered and died; some are still suffering - but a voluntary brigade is now feeding them. That is how the horses' lives are being prolonged, but it is costing volunteers thousands of dollars. Neither Parks Victoria nor the RSPCA help financially. They wait until the horses get to the body score of no return then shoot them. This is a cruel kind of neglect.
Parks Victoria have placed signs at the park entrances, warning that “feeding of animals in this park will incur penalties.” In itself this indicates that Parks Victoria are the custodians and/or persons in charge of these horses. Under the laws of the Prevention of Cruelty To Animals Act, (section 9 (f) ) they are therefore obliged to:
”supply proper and sufficient feed/drink/or shelter”
or be prosecuted by one of the two enforcement agencies privileged to enforce this act of parliament. These agencies are the RSPCA or the Department of Environment and Primary Industries, both of which are, at present, silently passing the buck! I have written to both agencies asking for their help but the response has been silence.
The RSPCA have a duty of care and must obey their own policies of the “five freedoms”[1] set out in their own charter, with a mandatory obligation to investigate and follow procedure’s under POCTAA (Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act) to treat Parks Victoria as an alleged perpetrator for not following their duty of care as per the “Act”.
'Observing a forebearance' which allowed custodians to do nothing, was repealed a few years ago. Now anyone can be charged with an offence if they know that offence is being committed. No one person or government organisation is exempt from prosecution/investigation under POCTAA. Case law has now shown this in judgements/ prosecutions, such as Victorian Railways Board v. Snowball when RSPCA successfully prosecuted Railways Victoria for cruel transportation of horses. As the chief inspector/inspectorate coordinator for near two decades at RSPCAVic, I was there, in the court.
In essence the RSPCA must dissolve their MOU’s (memorandums of understanding) between other animal law enforcement agencies and abide by duty of care, for the sake of these horses - not “feral animals” but horses that were introduced by us in pioneering Australia.
The brumby control situation is at present itself out of control. The latest effort, in February 2019, occurred at the Singleton army base, a place with grasslands which horses have made their home. This control effort could have been described, in my opinion, as a killing field, where many horses were slaughtered by aerial shooting. In this awful way of “culling” animal herds, foals may be left behind and any injured horses will suffer. Singleton can only be described as the horse killing fields of Australia, and a blight on our “lucky” country. It has to stop now.
The cruelty and abuse of animals must be controlled ASAP and federal and/or state governments must support an independent office of animal welfare as, at present, the only agencies privileged to enforce this strong Act of Parliament are the RSPCA, which is a charitable society, DEDJTR (now divided into DJPR and DoT)[2] and VICPOL. The RSPCA has to rely on the sympathy of the commmunity and donations to generate their standing. This is unsatisfactory.
Article by Barrie Tapp, Animal Cruelty Hotline Australia. Phone 1800751770 to report cruelty/abuse.
[1] “Our animal welfare philosophy is grounded in the belief that the welfare of an animal includes its physical and mental state and that good animal welfare implies both fitness and a sense of wellbeing. The RSPCA considers that an animal’s welfare should be considered in terms of five freedoms:
1. Freedom from Hunger and Thirst
2. Freedom from Discomfort
3. Freedom from Pain, Injury or Disease
4. Freedom to Express Normal Behaviour
5. Freedom from Fear and Distress.
[2] The Victorian Government changed, from 1 January 2019, the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources (DEDJTR) into two new departments – the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR) and the Department of Transport (DoT).
Two videos: Day after day, they are discovering piles and piles of food, heating gasoline, medical equipment, and weapons in east Aleppo that are enough for hundreds of thousands to stay alive for years, coming from Turkey, Qatar, the US, and Saudi. Yet, they were stocking them and leave the civilians to starve, to keep the lies on the Syrian government and blame it for all the starving of the people.
These piles of wheat might be enough to feed all Syria!
and this is a short clip from Reuters, however I didn't find the original source.
PROTEST TODAY (Now!) 11 AM St Kilda Beach, behind Luna Park. See: http://stopthetrawler.net/national-day-of-action-to-stop-the-super-trawler/ So many threats to our oceans, bays and rivers….where to start? One of the most worrisome issues at present is the massive Super trawler Margiris on its way to Tasmania and set to start vacuuming up our mackerel and red bait fish stocks.
The Margiris is part of the heavily subsidized European trawler fleet, and is the subject of recent allegations of overfishing stocks in the South Pacific and off West Africa. The company Seafish Tasmania has proposed a joint venture with the Dutch owners of the vessel and they plan to catch 18,000 tonnes of small bait fish for freezing into 20 kg blocks and exporting to Nigeria for $1/kg for human consumption. Meanwhile, our major supermarkets are offering us Nile perch and various other tasteless species imported from Africa. How crazy is this?
If our government had the guts to say NO, this wouldn’t be happening. Please try to convince Federal Ministers Joe Ludwig (Fisheries) and Tony Burke (Environment) by sending emails as suggested by Save Our Marine Life-The Big Blue Army, at: http://www.saveourmarinelife.org.au For more interesting information see also Super Trawler heading our way http://www.westender.com.au/news/1342
If you care, please join the Stop the Supertanker protest National Day of Action this Saturday.
In Melbourne, it’s on at 11 AM at St Kilda Beach, behind Luna Park. See: http://stopthetrawler.net/national-day-of-action-to-stop-the-super-trawler/
Whilst there wasn’t a peep in the mainstream media, Lloyd’s List Shipping News reported that the magnitude 5.5 earthquake that hit Victoria on 19th June triggered an environmental requirement for the Port of Melbourne Corporation to recheck its underwater toxic dump off Mordialloc for possible damage. We’ve heard nothing more since.
When then Federal Environment Minister Garrett gave his final approval for the Channel Deepening Project, the PoMC’s Environment Management Plan proposed annual visual checks of the dump site- and presumably a requirement for checks after unusual events such as an earthquake.
What is sadly missing from the EMP is any obligation to regularly test the water quality on and near the dumpsite for possible leaching of pollutants and toxicants from the +3 million tonnes of contaminated and toxic sludge PoMC dumped there from its Yarra dredging extravaganza.
Local Liberal MP Neale Burgess is promising depressed local businesses that 4000 ongoing jobs would be created for the Hastings area from the State government’s pumped up proposals for the Port of Hastings. See: http://www.peninsulaweekly.com.au/news/local/news/general/hastings-port-a-goer-say-libs/2611198.aspx
That’s amazing, because we have learned that container operations at the Port of Brisbane are run remotely from Sydney, with container movement being entirely done by robotics. Apparently, global technology company Cargotec has acquired advanced software as well as 23 highly-skilled workers for the automation of straddle carriers from Asciano (parent company of Patricks who are also the operators of Port of Hastings). …….So what are the other 3977 workers that Hastings has been promised going to be doing??
Add to this Minister Napthine’s idea of driverless trucks trundling up and down to and from the Port of Hastings and it makes you wonder then what the supposed 4000 jobs in the Port of Hastings will entail. Poor old Hastings shop keepers hanging out for more business might be in for a shock.
Check out this link to the ABC TV Big Ideas program which talks about robotics in port operations. http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/stories/2012/06/25/3530523.htm
Blue Wedges Editor
See also: Super Trawler protest photos of 12 August.
The principle that there is a perpetual tendency in the race of man to increase beyond the means of subsistence is usually attributed to political economist Thomas Robert Malthus. The Malthusian Trap is the theory that, as population growth is ahead of agricultural growth, there must be a stage at which the food supply is inadequate for feeding the population.
This was originally devised by Malthus in An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798, arguing that food supply expansion is linear whereas human growth is exponential.
Aid agencies have accused the world's richest countries of "wilful neglect'' in failing to fund appeals to save millions of Africans from famine.
Somalia's neighbour Djibouti yesterday appealed for $US21 million ($A19.5 million) from international donors to help deal with a drought that has left about 120,000 of its 900,000 citizens vulnerable.
Nearly 11 million people are at risk of starvation in the Horn of Africa, including 500,000 children who are suffering from imminent, life-threatening severe malnutrition, according to UNICEF. 1.6 million additional children under five years old are severely malnourished.
“This humanitarian crisis is caused by an unprecedented drought in the region, where families traditionally rely on livestock and farming for food. Food prices have spiked, crops and livestock are failing, and rivers are at their lowest levels in recent memory”.
Nothing is being said about their unsustainable population growth, that this aid is supposed to compensate for.
High levels of population growth is exacerbating food shortages in Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. Unless we address population growth and provide reproductive health with aid responses, the children we save now will be bringing their families to the same feeding centres in a few years time.
Addressing population growth has to be the most important goal of the human race.
The director of the Australian Demographic and Social Research Centre at the ANU, Professor Peter McDonald, says that the amount of funding for family planning programs has reduced dramatically over the years.
The population of Africa is expected to triple by the end of the century, and lack of access to or knowledge of family planning and contraceptives is a serious issue around the world that needs to be addressed.
Aid, community action and access to family planning must go hand in hand else it is a matter of throwing funds at the inevitable problems further down the track.
The economies of these countries are doing badly and standard of living are ranked among the lowest in Africa. Since the severe drought of 1984 that was reported to have caused the death of more than a million people in Ethiopia and Eritrea, these countries have not been able to meet their household food requirement.
Malthusian Trap is a consequence of human numbers outstripping the ability to increase food production.
Horn of Africa's human population growth that is estimated at 3.2% annually. Nearly half the current population is under 15 years of age thus unable to contribute to the economy. The increasing population continues to put pressure on the already fragile land.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country at 158 million, is expected to grow to 730 million by century's end, making it larger than Europe's projected population of 675 million.
Together the population of 11 African nations - the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia is expected to reach 2.4 billion by 2100, representing about a quarter of the world's population at that time.
The population of Ethiopia has doubled from 46 million to 84 million since Sir Bob Geldof raised 150 million in aid. The private donors should stop until they agree to manage their family sizes, and destinies.
We know not to put more sheep or cattle into a paddock than there is feed to make them healthy, yet people and non government organisations still continue to deny human population sizes in addressing or recognising the problem.
The raging monster upon the land is population growth. In its presence, sustainability is but a fragile theoretical construct. To say, as many do, that the difficulties of nations are not due to people, but to poor ideology and land-use management is sophistic. Harvard scholar and biologist E.O. Wilson
Unlimited population growth cannot be sustained; you cannot sustain growth in the rates of consumption of resources. No species can overrun the carrying capacity of a finite land mass. This Law cannot be repealed and is not negotiable. Dr. Albert Bartlett, www.albartlett.o rg , University of Colorado, USA.
It took nearly 130 years for the world population to grow from 1 to 2 billion, but the recent growth from 6 to 7 billion has occurred in only 12 years. Such is the “success” of our own species, we could easily end up being victims of it!
Recent comments