Ethical thoughts on a cat colony
I would like to share with you the story of some little souls. This true story happened in Queanbeyan but similar stories happen in very many places.
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These little souls I knew were kittens and cats that were cast out from their homes or simply abandoned by their human owners. They survived in an eroded gully and followed nature’s designs.
It was not their choice to live without shelter or food. The choices were made by human decisions.
I have been told that they were bad for the ecosystem. In my observation and studies of history and civilisation the one species uniquely bad for the ecosystem is human. Humans damage and destroy the planet’s ecosystem on a scale never matched by all feral animal species put together. Indeed the very existence of feral or introduced species always originates in human actions in the first place. Therefore we may not see these animals with irrational hate but compassion.
Over many years I got to know these little souls and share a little glimpse of their daily struggles and joys. Sometimes I buried one of their little bodies when disease, exposure or other events overcame them. I tried to re-home as many as I could and some are now living with me. I am writing this in reverence of all life. I am writing this to try to raise awareness of our human actions and thoughts in the time we have. I do not have the answers how tomanage introduced species and leave that to the authorities. But I would like to speak for those who cannot speak and reason that sentient beings should not be bought thoughtlessly like plastic toys. And then thrown out or abandoned once the novelty of the purchase has passed or cute little kittens grow older and their bodies change just like ours do with age. By the time you are reading this most of these little souls are dead. We all share but a little time here.
Martin Zierholz, Queanbeyan
Are the Olympics worth it?
There were some scintillating performances at the Olympics but any metrics will show that The Games were not that good for Australia. Whether we count total medals won (or Gold) or the number of athletes and teams that did not perform up to expectations, it shows we are slipping.
It’s not only the Olympics but our other flagship teams and sports as well. The rest of the world is not catching up – it has caught us.
Why? One answer is the cuts to elite sports performance funding. In the past when national performance was down the Government threw truckloads of money at high end international competition. It worked for us then and it is working at present for England. Unfortunately though, it puts the highest level of international sporting success only within reach of the richest nations. It also opens the door to nationality swapping and poaching of athletes, coaches and sports scientists.
A more sustainable approach is to put the effort into developing young talent as without this there is only a small pool to draw on for elite development.
Better incentives for young people, more effective governance in clubs and better infrastructure are all needed to improve the opportunity and potential for more and better champions to emerge. With Australia’s relatively low population it is even more critical to identify and develop our young talent.
Hand in hand with this approach is to not ignore nutrition and lifestyle. How many young champions are lost to obesity from poor dietary choices and/or lack of opportunity and encouragement? Our culture needs to shift to one of placing more value on active, healthy and fit young people.
Active participation in a well organised and supervised sporting club will lead to far better economic, social and health benefits than playing computer games or looking for Pokemon.
Kevin Chamberlain, Queanbeyan