Wildfires in Australia - Please #GOVEGAN And What About the Aboriginals?!
Yesterday I saw the footage of a road in a town in New South Wales, Australia full of carcasses that was published on the facebook page of The “New” Batlow Hotel. https://www.facebook.com/thenewBatlowHotel/videos/1447552922118205/
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Source: Facebook
I was horrified to see this massacre of animals caught by the fire and not being able to flee because of the fences along the road. You can see kangaroos but you can also see cattle... And suddenly it reminded me of a holiday I had in Australia in the ‘90s. I went with a friend to Perth. We decided to go from Perth to Monkey Mia, an inspiring place where you can meet wild dophins along the coast (https://www.sharkbay.org/place/monkey-mia/) of Sharks Bay.
From Perth to Monkey Mia
You can see on the map that the first part of the road was reasonably green. But higher up in the north we saw desert, a lot of bare red soil, with bushes, no water. Hardly any trees and amidst those bushes in the middle of nowhere sheep, dying sheep, carcasses of dead sheep from time to time. So when I saw these dead cows, and also the footage of burned sheep in the South of Australia https://nypost.com/2020/01/08/video-shows-scorched-sheep-roaming-fire-ravaged-australia/ and although I am devistated by what is happening there right now, it makes me think, it makes me angry and it makes me remember those sheep left to their own devices. How can a farmer leave his animals in the middle of nowhere without water? And how can a farmer leave his animals in the middle of nowhere knowing that wildfires are a risk? How can a farmer still farm without giving his animals the appropriate care.... and if he can’t why is he given the right to continue to do so? And why do people in Australia, in the rest of the world as a matter of fact, still want to contribute to this slavery of animals by eating their flesh?
Another thing that shocked me yesterday was the message from Gaia asking supermarkets to stop selling kangaroo meat. Despite the fires hunters still keep on hunting and shooting these poor animals because it seems there is a demand!
Since 2019 Gaia has been calling for an end to the selling of kangaroo meat in Belgium. I was happy to read this morning that a major supermarket already has taken kangaroo meat off their shelves.
So thank you Gaia, once again for your persistence and your wonderful work for the voiceless.
And then another thing that horrified me was the culling of camels.
Culling of thirty dromedaries in Australia
At first I was disgusted. Let these animals live! But these poor animals are also suffering, because there just isn’t enough food, there isn’t enough water. A question that I am asking myself is whether in stead of culling, contraception would be a solution for the future.
Again, it has been the humans, who have been responsable for them being there. Imported into Australia from British India and Afghanistan[1] during the 19th century for transport and construction during the colonisation of the central and western parts of Australia, many were released into the wild after motorised transport replaced the use of camels in the early 20th century, resulting in a fast-growing feral population. Read more about them on wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_feral_camel And this is not the first cull!
So again human error leads to the death of thousands of innocent animals.
And last but not least what is the effect of these wildfires on the Aboriginals? There is hardly anything about it on facebook. Aboriginals are living directly from the land and don’t farm like the non - Indigenous peoples do. We have been in Alice Springs and we have seen the problems they endure. So I looked it up. Below a part of this article https://theconversation.com/strength-from-perpetual-grief-how-aboriginal-people-experience-the-bushfire-crisis-129448
“Colonial legacies of eradication, dispossession, assimilation and racism continue to impact the lived realities of Aboriginal peoples. Added to this is the widespread exclusion of our peoples from accessing and managing traditional homelands. These factors compound the trauma of these unprecedented fires. ...
As Australia picks up the pieces from these fires, it’s more important than ever to understand the unique grief Aboriginal peoples experience. Only through this understanding can effective strategies be put in place to support our communities to recover.
Perpetual grief
Aboriginal peoples live with a sense of perpetual grief. It stems from the as-yet-unresolved matter of the invasion and subsequent colonisation of our homelands.
While there are many instances of colonial trauma inflicted upon Aboriginal peoples – including the removal of children and the suppression of culture, ceremony and language – dispossession of Country remains paramount. Dispossessing people of their lands is a hallmark of colonisation....
The decimation caused by the fires deeply impacts the existence of Aboriginal peoples and in the most severe hit areas, threatens Aboriginal groups as distinct cultural beings attached to the land. As The Guardian’s Indigenous affairs editor Lorena Allam recently wrote:
Like you, I’ve watched in anguish and horror as fire lays waste to precious Yuin land, taking everything with it – lives, homes, animals, trees – but for First Nations people it is also burning up our memories, our sacred places, all the things which make us who we are.”
Please read the whole article.....and a previous article that appeared about the fires when they started in november last year:
The Aboriginal people suffer! And there is nothing, or almost nothing about it in the press.
When will we learn? When will we start to think of other people? And when will we stop eating animals which is the main cause of suffering of non-human animals, whether they are domesticated or wild? When will we care about the planet and act to stop climate change? What do I need to do to convince you once more that going vegan is the quickest, simplest, cheapest and healthiest way that you can really make a difference, for yourself, for the animals, for the climate and for the environment? And you can start today!
You can read more about eating meat and climage change in this article on our site Anti-speciesism.com.
For those who still believe that the fires in Australia have nothing to do with climate change we recently wrote this article . And the bushfires are making it even worse. https://time.com/5759964/australian-bushfires-climate-change/?fbclid=IwAR2bpUhaMZZibsvdsF7DTve5wHaMakamesbCp1QOOiark6uOUEltHy0Ql6o
And please ignore the message that the wildfires were started by nearly 200 arsonists. Only a handful of fires were deliberately ignited. But that didn’t stop people from spreading misinformation. Read more here: https://www.vox.com/2020/1/9/21058332/australia-fires-arson-lightning-explained?fbclid=IwAR0e4odhvfz_QMKbCraj_W4rtR3K_RiyXR6U3kVkSI_N75cmIv601Yj8taY
I feel with the population of Australia. I feel especially with the animals of Australia. I admire the people who help and who give donations. But are they aware of what they do if they are still eating animals? And why don’t they want to fight the cause of all these problems in stead of the symptoms? I wish I could be there to help. But I can’t. We have too many responsibilities here. So this is it, this is my way. Please think of going #vegan! this year. Because “We are not from another planet, we are from the future!”