Goodbye To Common Sense As Kangaroos Starve
Miranda Devine, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald is ruing the death of common sense in regard to protests against the kangaroo cull in Australia’s capital city, Canberra.
While families mourn the loss of loved ones following the earthquake in China, and the typhoon in Myanmar (Burma), protesters in Canberra mourn the so called ‘murder’ of these animals that are trapped in enclosed lands near the city.
The fact is that the sheer number of animals means that it is impossible to move them, and left to their own devices they will simply starve to death, as many others are doing as the drought continues to take its toll here.
One would have thought that putting them down before they starved would be more humane.
By allowing them to remain, and to continue eating what grass remains, authorities would in fact be condemning other, endangered, species as well.
The thing that fascinates me is the description of this action as ‘murder’. While no one likes to see animals suffer, I think that this is a bit rich.
I recommend Ms Devine’s article as a good read, and a warning about the way that society might possibly be heading in its regard not only to animal welfare, but the ill and infirm among us as well.
Tie Me Kangaroo Down by Rolf Harris.
Written by Rolf Harris in 1957, this song was apparently inspired by the calypso style of Harry Belafonte.
The song features Rolf’s famous ‘Wobble Board’, an instrument invented by Harris himself, and made out of a sheet of masonite.
Of course, the song doesn’t make much sense, but then, neither does lamenting the murder of kangaroos…
Lyrics:
There’s an old Australian stockman, lying, dying,
and he gets himself up on one elbow,
and he turns to his mates,
who are gathered ’round him and he says:
Watch me wallabies feed mate.
Watch me wallabies feed.
They’re a dangerous breed mate.
So watch me wallabies feed.
Altogether now!
Tie me kangaroo down sport,
tie me kangaroo down.
Tie me kangaroo down sport,
tie me kangaroo down.
Keep me cockatoo cool, Curl,
keep me cockatoo cool.
Don’t go acting the fool, Curl,
just keep me cockatoo cool.
Altogether now!
Take me koala back, Jack,
take me koala back.
He lives somewhere out on the track, Mac,
so take me koala back.
Altogether now!
Mind me platypus duck, Bill,
mind me platypus duck.
Don’t let him go running amok, Bill,
mind me platypus duck.
Altogether now!
Play your digeridoo, Blue,
play your digeridoo.
Keep playing ’til I shoot through Blue,
play your digeridoo.
Altogether now!
Tan me hide when I’m dead, Fred,
tan me hide when I’m dead.
So we tanned his hide when he died Clyde,
(Spoken) And that’s it hanging on the shed.
Altogether now!
© 1960 Castle Music Pty, Ltd.
Words and music by Rolf Harris
And in case you didn’t know…
Wallaby/Wallabies – macropods similar to kangaroos only smaller…
Shoot through – leave, take off, go away
didgeridoo (or didjeridu) – a wind instrument used by indigenous Australians.
cockatoo – a parrot
LOL Ken and I both laughed at the last line. I’d heard the song before, but apparently NOT the original version, since both the first and last verses were new to me. 🙂
While I’ve always hated the idea of senseless killing, mercy killing, which is what I’d group this with, makes perfect sense, however sad it might be. Do the same protesters call it murder when someone takes a beloved pet to the vet to be put to sleep instead of letting a painful and debilitating illness make their last days a torment? But yet they’d rather see the kangaroos die miserable, painful deaths instead of being killed mercifully? Makes absolutely no sense to me!
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Typical Aussie humor I guess… 😀 ‘So we tanned his hide when he died Clyde….’
It’s a pity that the protesters in Canberra can’t see the forest for the trees – while no one wants to take the lives of animals unnecessarily, what is the cruelest option? Let them starve to death, or put them down humanely?
From my experience with kangaroos, especially older ones, they are very difficult to herd and corral, let alone capture, and suffer from stress very easily.
We lived on a property for a while, and tried to care for a couple that were injured on neighbors’ fences, but it was the stress that took them.
They used to feed on our back lawn of an early morning, and it was a treat to sit and drink coffee watching them!