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Futile anthropomorphic empathy

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watch out around sunrise and sunset...

There is nothing so sad as a person who does not recognise that a badly injured animal is actaully better off dead than having its suffering increased by futile anthropomorphic empathy.

Devastated witnesses said they were sure the kangaroo could be saved and said they never would have called the police to Cusack Lane at Jimboomba if they knew of the fatal outcome.

“He just put his earplugs in and shot the animal,” said one man, who asked to remain anonymous.

“There was no warning – but the poor animal could have been saved.

“It had a sore paw but it was not believed to have broken legs or a broken tail.”

The Queensland Police Service yesterday backed the officer from Jimboomba station, who they said had previously worked as a paramedic.

“Both (the kangaroo’s) legs appeared broken and it was visibly distressed,” police said in a statement.

“The kangaroo’s tail also appeared immobile which indicated paralysis.”

Sadly I have on occasion had to make the same judgement as the policeman in this story and I can tell you it is never an easy decision to make, and the act is harder to do than you may think it will be. You tell yourself that what you are doing is a kindness. The reaction of witnesses is understandable but it also shows a lamentable disconnect form the realities of life and death for wildlife when they meet the solid moving mass of a car on a road. Living where I do I have had heaps of near misses and a few times when I have “wiped out a wobbly” because sometimes they do just literally jump out in front of cars . The policeman did the right thing here and it is only suburban delusions about the abilities and resources of veterinary science that is suggesting otherwise.

Cheers Comrades

8)

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24 Comments

  1. Ray Dixon says:

    Latte lefties? I don’t think there’s any exclusive connection between the left and animal lovers Iain, but there’s certainly a connection between the extreme right and guns. So in your case, what did you use?

  2. Iain Hall says:

    Ray
    I used a 22 rifle on one occasion and gassed* an injured pup another time. shooting is better I think.
    *with the exhaust from the car.
    But I don’t claim that there is any “exclusive connection” here Ray I only tagged it thus because a lot of Latte sippers are vegetarians who generally are keen to see all animals as the same as people….

  3. Ray Dixon says:

    I get it – if you eat red meat you’re not a latte leftist and you should pack a gun in case you mow down a roo?

  4. Ray Dixon says:

    I hit a roo once and it did a fck load of damage to my car. I went and checked to make sure it was dead but when I noticed its head was on back to front I realised it was. I didn’t have a gun with me but if it’d been alive I was so pissed off with it I would’ve kicked it to death.

  5. Ray Dixon says:

    And I drink lattes.

  6. PKD says:

    I have to wonder if Iain likewise adovcates euthanasia for the terminally ill Ray?

  7. Ray Dixon says:

    I think Iain would use the less traumatic car exhaust method on humans. Unless they wouldn’t sit still, then he’d have to shoot them.

  8. Pkd says:

    Well, if the pedestrian insists on jumping out in front of his car, then I guess finishing en off is the least he can do!

  9. Pkd says:

    heh, a cyclist wouldn’t get the luxury of even the exhaust – iain would just reverse back over him to finish the job!

  10. Ray Dixon says:

    Well, he wouldn’t want to see him suffer with those broken legs.

  11. PKD says:

    What a humanitarian! :)

  12. kae says:

    Ray
    You’ll have the RSPCA after you for that admission… they’ll be watching!
    And Iain, you’ll have the RSPCC after you!

  13. Ray Dixon says:

    I would no sooner kill an animal than cut off my own arm, Kae. But what is the RSPCC?

  14. Pkd says:

    Cyclists Ray, cyclists!

  15. Iain Hall says:

    Yeah when it comes to Loonies in Lycra, mercy is entirely unnecessary, they really are carp of roads and you should get a bonus for potting the buggers… ;)

  16. Ray Dixon says:

    Iain, Bright is the epicentre for cycling in Australia. We have the best railtrail cycling track in the country too, running 94 kms from Wangaratta to Bright with a fork out to Beechworth. Do you know where most cyclists prefer to ride though? That’s right, on the narrow highway, often 2 abreast making it hard to get around them. One got hit from behind by a bus full of school kids going to the snow recently and he died. A 50+ year old from Melbourne. It was 7.30 in the morning!That’s terrible for him and his family but it also traumatised the kids in the bus. He just shouldn’t have been where he was.

  17. PKD says:

    He just shouldn’t have been where he was.

    Thats bollox Ray – he had as much right to be there as the bus. And what do cyclists do where the are no paths or rail trails, hmm? They need to use the road. Same argument for taking a car when there’s no trains or public transport as an alternative…

  18. Ray Dixon says:

    I’m suggesting that he shouldn’t have been riding in front of the bus on a narrow winding highway that has no safety lane. There are purpose built cycling paths around here and plenty of them, but surprisingly more cyclists use the Great alpine Road.

  19. PKD says:

    And maybe the bus driver should’ve been more careful. Or maybe there should be a safety lane or widening done to reduce the risk of careless drivers mowing down peds and cyclists.

    Just becuase there are dedicated cycle tracks doesn’t mean you can’t use shared tracks and roads instead.
    Maybe by your thinking we should also ban motorbikes too given the take up the same space, but go much faster and more dangerously than unpowered bikes?

  20. PKD says:

    Ray,
    On the Tac safety page about motorbikes…

    http://www.tacsafety.com.au/jsp/content/NavigationController.do?areaID=12&tierID=1&navID=2B63301D7F0000010080CB01C9E47EBA&navLink=null&pageID=162

    “Of the 303 people killed on Victoria’s roads in 2008, 43 were riders of motorcycles. This represents 14% of the road toll and yet only 3% of vehicles registered in Victoria are motorcycles, with only 7% of Victorians holding a licence to ride a motorcycle.”

    …and…

  21. PKD says:

    This is only 2001 data from NSW, but it paints a picture. Heaps more motorbike crashes than bicycles…

    http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/trafficinformation/downloads/3_2001.pdf

    So you want to ban bikes from the Great Alpine road – ban the powered ones!

  22. Ray Dixon says:

    Steady on, it’s looking like ‘PKD Day’ in the sidebar here. Look, I’m merely suggesting it’s not a good idea to ride a slow moving bicycle on *some* roads. Calm down, bicycles are banned from certain roads and maybe there’s a strong case to ban them from busy highways like the GAR in those places where Vic Roads is yet to add a safety lane for them. They’ve done a lot of the GAR but not that stretch where the bloke got killed.

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