DianaNorway encourages bare bums in Oz
March 14th 2008 05:10
It's been a strange kind of day: weather so hot you can fry an egg on the road outside, ghastly gusty northwind blowing topsoil hither n thither.
I was stunned by the heat and enjoying a 'lie down' when my father in law dropped in to return one of the utes.
We were in our cool sitting room with refreshing drinks when my young collie puppy, sheep-dog-in-waiting, rushed in carrying something proudly in her mouth: a certain battery operated toy she had found under my bed!
Mouthing all over its wonderful purple plasticity, she enuthusiastically set it off, which gave her a huge fright!
My embarassment was extreme.
Pop didn't know what to say or do. He went puce. I worried about his heart.
Leaping out of my seat I grappled with the slippery gyrating object and removed it from our sight. After a brief strained conversation he left.
But here is what I really wanted to talk about: mulesing!
Norway is notable in its efforts to legally ban the import of Austrlian wool from sheep it considers to have been 'mistreated' as a result of mulesing.
Possibly influenced by PETA , do politicians in Norwayfully understand what, why or even how this animal husbandry task is carried out? After all, if you live in a country knee -deep in snow most of the year, how could you grasp the reality of 38 degree Celsius heat with a high level of humidity? And the resultant flies thereof?
You can't.
But 'graphic' photos from Germany have been shown, which would be enough to put anyone off.
Is Norway now intending to ban meat, fur, fish and all other animal by-products from around the world (or produced locally) to keep inline with their views? If not, are they not being rather inconsistent?
But who cares?
The result is the same: Australian wool is seen as being produced under 'inhumane' conditions and boycotted as a result.
Who cares,once again?
Proabably not the average person on the street, who is lucky if they know what a Merino is, let alone mulesing. Wool growers care and presumably the Australian government, for whom the whole issue is a gigantic headache.
One of the things I find interesting is how mulesing has got such a bad name, yet there are a whole host of other horrible procedures animals go through in the name of farming and nobody seems to be jumping up and down about them. (personally I always feel sorry for fish)
PETA is pretty radical and would be happy to ban all use of animals for consumption or indeed any human need. I am not saying I disagree with them, but I am fascinated by how certain practices, such as mulesing, seem to have caught the 'horror' imagination of the the public and governments to the extent that Norway is banning our wool!
Let's talk about wool as a product.
If you forget about the nasty mulesing (which by the way is not done by all farmers; my family don't do it, though many of our neighbours do) wool is about as natural a product as you can get. Sheep in Australia enjoy large, open spaces free of chemicals and toxic products. They have minimal intervention and grow fleece which has many wonderful properties.
Compare it to the production of cotton, which has to be sprayed heavily with cancer-inducing chemicals, or would you like me to tell you about the production of synthetics and how this affects the environment? You could look it up yourself maybe. It is not a pretty thing.
One more thing on a positive note: scientists have made a break=-hru in the breeding of a bare-bummed sheep and are doing their thing with chromosones and dna to get this out in the paddock in large numbers asap.
Gotta go. Kids home from school.
I was stunned by the heat and enjoying a 'lie down' when my father in law dropped in to return one of the utes.
We were in our cool sitting room with refreshing drinks when my young collie puppy, sheep-dog-in-waiting, rushed in carrying something proudly in her mouth: a certain battery operated toy she had found under my bed!
Mouthing all over its wonderful purple plasticity, she enuthusiastically set it off, which gave her a huge fright!
My embarassment was extreme.
Pop didn't know what to say or do. He went puce. I worried about his heart.
Leaping out of my seat I grappled with the slippery gyrating object and removed it from our sight. After a brief strained conversation he left.
But here is what I really wanted to talk about: mulesing!
Norway is notable in its efforts to legally ban the import of Austrlian wool from sheep it considers to have been 'mistreated' as a result of mulesing.
Possibly influenced by PETA , do politicians in Norwayfully understand what, why or even how this animal husbandry task is carried out? After all, if you live in a country knee -deep in snow most of the year, how could you grasp the reality of 38 degree Celsius heat with a high level of humidity? And the resultant flies thereof?
You can't.
But 'graphic' photos from Germany have been shown, which would be enough to put anyone off.
Is Norway now intending to ban meat, fur, fish and all other animal by-products from around the world (or produced locally) to keep inline with their views? If not, are they not being rather inconsistent?
But who cares?
The result is the same: Australian wool is seen as being produced under 'inhumane' conditions and boycotted as a result.
Who cares,once again?
Proabably not the average person on the street, who is lucky if they know what a Merino is, let alone mulesing. Wool growers care and presumably the Australian government, for whom the whole issue is a gigantic headache.
One of the things I find interesting is how mulesing has got such a bad name, yet there are a whole host of other horrible procedures animals go through in the name of farming and nobody seems to be jumping up and down about them. (personally I always feel sorry for fish)
PETA is pretty radical and would be happy to ban all use of animals for consumption or indeed any human need. I am not saying I disagree with them, but I am fascinated by how certain practices, such as mulesing, seem to have caught the 'horror' imagination of the the public and governments to the extent that Norway is banning our wool!
Let's talk about wool as a product.
If you forget about the nasty mulesing (which by the way is not done by all farmers; my family don't do it, though many of our neighbours do) wool is about as natural a product as you can get. Sheep in Australia enjoy large, open spaces free of chemicals and toxic products. They have minimal intervention and grow fleece which has many wonderful properties.
Compare it to the production of cotton, which has to be sprayed heavily with cancer-inducing chemicals, or would you like me to tell you about the production of synthetics and how this affects the environment? You could look it up yourself maybe. It is not a pretty thing.
One more thing on a positive note: scientists have made a break=-hru in the breeding of a bare-bummed sheep and are doing their thing with chromosones and dna to get this out in the paddock in large numbers asap.
Gotta go. Kids home from school.
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