Saturday, January 29, 2005
Update on the mulesing debate
As those of you who read the comments will note, a Mr Yobbo left a grumpy comment that I didn't link to his pro-mulesing site. In the interests of open communication (and not at all because he says he voted Democrat last election), if you want to read views on his site in support of mulesing, you can click here or here and here. Or try this one, which is by his sister and I personally think does best.
To add just a bit of extra comment of my own - arguments about sheep not being able to survive in the wild or what PETA's overall agenda is, or that current breeds of sheep would become extinct, all seem to me to be beside the point (even though there are some interesting debates to be had on those matters). If mulesing is unnecessarily cruel, which I believe it is, then we should seek to stop it if that is reasonably possible, which I also believe. For a bit more info on the viability of alternatives to mulesing, here's a couple of articles from The Australian and from Stock & Land outlining the views of sheep farmers from Benalla in Victoria and the Snowy Mountains in NSW. Finally one last link to a comment on the issue by the eminently respectable, totally mainstream, utterly middle-of-the-road RSPCA. |
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