Hi Brian,
I'm glad to see that someone out there understands this issue. Its one I've
become quite passionate about through living in the outback and seeing the
shocking impact these massive destructive animals are having on fragile desert
lands. Its not as off topic as you might imagine: having seen remote waterholes
which once provided a lifeline to breeding reed warblers, crakes & grebes
completely wrecked by camel herds, not to mention all the long-lived quondong
and pittosporum trees smashed as they search for browse I am convinced that
their impact on desert birds is tangible and significant.
I am increasingly horrified that deluded animal rights campaigners sometimes
seem to be hijacking the debate which makes the politicians nervous about
backing the cull. In recent years they have used every cynical argument to
undermine the proposed cull, some of them even advocating sending the camels
for halal slaughter as some sort of a 'humane' alternative to aerial shoots.
Of course their goal isn't to help out the camel meat trade- its simply to
sabotage the cull.
Despite all the talk, the camel meat industry is a pipe dream- it has never
gotten off the ground for good reasons. I buy camel meat regularly but I must
say the quality is extremely variable. Most Aussies don't want to eat it and
the much vaunted Arab markets for the meat have never materialised.
The cull might seem like a waste to some from a distance but considering our
desert soils are the least fertile on earth letting these huge animals be
re-cycled back into the ecosystem is probably the best use for most of them. We
cheerfully put blood and bone in our gardens but seem squeamish about doing the
same for our deserts.
I personally would like to see the camel fully eradicated. Presently, with no
predators and no significant population containment pressure at all they are
simply a plague species and have no place in the ecology of the outback. Our
predecessors created this problem so we have a responsibility to sort it out.
Mark Carter
Alice Springs
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