ten bloody eighty

[Lorne Johnson <>]

Hello birdlovers... Lorne here...

1080.

Mmmm.

I gotta say I hate the stuff for the sheer fact that it puts 'pest' animals through hideous pain when they die. Any animal being tortured is hard to cope with I reckon. But, I can see that we need to keep our feral populations under control and protect our Australian mammals, particularly those that are rare and endangered. Scott O'Keefe's prior e-mail re. 1080 was thoughtful and logical. I think its good his company and the RSPCA are raising money to look for solutions to using 1080. To Tony Crocker - with all respect, I think you need to have a serious think as to how wiping out 90% of a deer population in NZ is a 'truly wonderful result'. Are you an animal lover? Are you a true birdo? I also think 'stirring the proverbial' is often needed. I like it. Withour stirring, we all stagnate. If Noisy Miners didn't stir Channel-billed Cuckoos we wouldn't have such good views of them in flight!

Yes I vote Green. And God bless Bob Brown in parliament last week. Yes I'm pesco-vegetarian. Yes I do eat fish. Yes I probably have eaten fish that have been tortured by fisherman. Yes I'm not an expert on 1080. Yes I'm a major animal lover, with a strong Buddhist heart. Yes I don't believe any animal, whether what we like to call feral, for the sheer fact that they mess up our farms, or an original inhabitant of Australia should be tortured, killed, wiped out.

Blame our English ancestors for the feral ancestors, don't blame animals for doing what comes naturally to them (like huinting, eating, walking the land) and lets find solutions to 1080.

Enough of the ranting, I'm sounding like the highly political self I was on this birding-aus several years ago.

Have a good one all,

LGJ.

PS - A tangential piece, but with that sophisticated, evocative Channel-billed Cuckoo observation, still birding realated, so don't cut me down!