I wonder who else saw that rather curious documentary on TV some years ago
(I've seen it on TV at least twice) about the "bird people" from the Arabian
marshlands (I think that was where it was). In that these people have what
we might think an extraordinary and totemic relationship with a whole range
of water birds, (rather one sided of course - the birds are just birds).
They build bird masks to move among them and use them as pets and in
ceremonies. As I recall it all birds are protected from hunting for food,
except for the coots (that look almost the same as ours, so presumably taste
the same). The Coots are migrants there and when they arrive, they are
harvested for food with great gusto and cruelty. The end message is that
among all these birds, these people are only (or almost only) interested in
eating coots.
Notwithstanding respect for our local laws, I don't regard killing a coot as
necessarily different from killing a duck. Not that I am in favour of either
idea for wild fauna. Apart from issues of cruelty, conservation, danger to
other people, etc, I am unhappy with the philosophy that ownership of the
needed weaponry gives person A some kind of illusion of the right to take
wild fauna for their own benefit, with no input to the system, that person B
without this, would not.
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Debbie Lustig
Sent: Thursday, 23 May 2013 3:52 PM
To:
Subject: Shooting coots
With three weeks of the season to go, Coalition Against Duck Shooting
rescuers have retrieved fully 224 dead coots and taken 30 wounded coots to
veterinary care. If you find this unacceptable, please write to the Premier,
your local state MP, and the shadow Opposition Leader, Daniel Andrews.
===============================
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
