09/04/15

Mid last week brisbanetimes.com.au first broke the story of 55 greyhound carcasses being found in bushland near Bundaberg. They’re the same mob that stole a copyrighted photo that I took one day at Warwick of a hopeful apprentice named Carly-Mae Pye. When Carly-Mae sadly passed away following a fall in Rockhampton brisbanetimes.com.au just used my Warwick photo – without permission.

Last Thursday The Courier Mail ran a front page story on the discovery of “55 carcasses”. The Courier Mail are the same mob that rang me some years ago wanting photos of a Brisbane race fall involving an apprentice jockey named Mandy Radecker. It was expressly agreed between both parties that they would credit the photos to Justracing. They lied – they produced my photos but they never did credit them – so again my copyrighted photos were in essence “stolen”. Those two incidents give readers a quick overview of the wonder that is “mainstream media.” They have a holier than thou attitude and consider themselves above all others in society – fancying that they call the shots. The Courier Mail hierarchy were told in no uncertain terms by me the same day they ran the Mandy Radecker story to never ever ring me for a photo again. They never have – which is good.

So the moral for society is to not place too much emphasis on what these “mainstream media” mob say as it’s all directed from the top. The Courier Mail did their utmost to get Campbell Newman re-elected at the latest State election via bagging the bejesus out of the Labor Party at every opportunity. But some of the public aren’t stupid and disregarded what The Courier Mail was trying to shove down the throat of readers, with the end result being that Annastacia Palaszczuk is now Queensland Premier of a Labor Party government. But as soon as “mainstream media” got a whiff that there was an alleged former problem involving Labor Party Member for Cook, Billy Gordon, mainstream media swooped, calling for a new election and all this allied drivel. It now looks like the media fell on their sword on that one. I wish I was the new Premier – geez I’d make sure The Courier Mail paid for running a constant campaign against me and my party prior to the election. And they wouldn’t even know what I was doing – but I’d severely limit advertising and so on, in their paper, such that it cost them dearly financially.

So as I stated earlier, on this day one week ago, Queenslanders awoke to this supposedly sensational story which required front page billing of “55 carcasses” being found at Bundaberg. I didn’t write any retort at the time. It’s their paper, so they can put whatever they like on the front page. I much prefer to take one step back and smell the roses and think things through – then reply.

So The Courier Mail story went into no detail whatsoever on many relevant facts to the case – moreover it wanted to get another sensational story on the front page about the greyhound industry. That industry has been copping a bagging lately, so why not continue to kick it in the guts the same as that entity did to the Labor Party before the election.

For starters everything about the “55 carcasses” story is really thin on many facts that are surely relevant to the case. Let me advise a couple after I walked away and smelt the roses – rather than going off what I’d call “half cocked” in the interests of sensationalism. For instance were the “55 carcasses” placed there over one week, one month, one year or 5 years? If it’s a week it’s a concern, if it’s five years it wouldn’t rate a mention, as they might have died from old age and/or from an outbreak of parvo virus, which affects canines – and so on and so forth. But why let the as yet undetermined facts get in the way of a good story.

Then the Police Minister, Jo-Ann Miller, came on television news that evening and called the people that were responsible, “oxygen thieves”. I didn’t know that there was anything illegal about an owner shooting a dog, a horse, a cow, a cat, or any animal species that he or she owns that is not protected by law, so until we get some facts as to 1) who owned the dogs, 2) how these 55 animals died, 3) over what period did the deaths occur, why do other people need to suddenly all join in the debate? In short they have very few relevant facts, so if I was Police Minister I would have advised reporters that I would comment “in due course, when I have some relevant facts, which will obviously take a considerable time as there will be autopsies done and so on and so forth, I will make a statement”.

In fact since I’ve read that front page story in The Courier Mail last Thursday I’ve concluded that many in our society simply “go off half-cocked”. With very few facts to go on – everyone goes off in tandem. So in essence something that starts as a small fire suddenly becomes an out of control bushfire in almost a heartbeat.

And if “55 carcasses” of greyhounds being discovered in bushland is front page news as far as The Courier Mail is concerned, then how come Queensland having its worst Easter road toll in 20-odd years is only a Page 8 article in the same fish and chip wrapper on Tuesday of this week? The Courier Mail, in the article that was only worthy of Page 8 status on Tuesday 7/4/15 entitled “Disgrace on roads as eight lives lost”, noted in the opening paragraph that “Queensland has experienced its worst Easter road toll on record as eight families struggle to come to terms with the loss of their loved ones.” Now I must say that I would have reasonably thought that eight human deaths on Queensland roads in just a few days over Easter was really catastrophic news, which required a front page story with an accompanying headline something like: “We must stop this senseless slaughter right now” and a relevant photo, preferably not stolen from a decent and hard working person like me, of a really bad car wreck. And many thousands of Australians die each year in medical stuff-ups. A 1995 report on the matter suggested “18,000” people die each year in hospitals in what are preventable deaths in hospitals. On 30/8/2006 on the Sunrise program on Channel 7, the AMA President at the time, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal disputed the “18,000” figure as being “from a 1995 report” but wouldn’t confirm or deny that the figure was now lower. So maybe The Courier Mail could do something constructive like an update on a really important story like that one, as it should be a good front page article? But that’s why I would make a lousy newspaper editor – eight people being killed on our roads or thousands of preventable deaths in hospitals annually is nowhere near as important as “55 carcasses” accumulating over an as yet totally unknown timeframe.

Interestingly had the 55 greyhounds, or whatever breed they are, been taken to a veterinarian for “euthanasia and disposal”, the story would never have even made the news. It’s only the fact that they were shot and/or died by an as yet undetermined cause that caused the story to come out.

And in any event if The Courier Mail is so dramatically concerned about “55 carcasses” being found, why don’t they do other front page stories on some of the other problems that happen in our society regarding the sad deaths of animals in numbers? I was brought up on the land and I really think it would be good if every person could be raised on the land, as put simply, they would have a far better appreciation of how life works. I can think of numerous events that happen daily in our society which involve animal deaths, which never get a mention anywhere, so either 1) no one cares, or 2) society is totally oblivious to the facts. Let me mention a few that have always concerned me. How does the general public think that milk is available in supermarkets every day, seven days a week? Yes from cows is correct. The only problem is that for the cow to produce milk she first has to have a calf to make her lactate. Soon after the calf is born, the dairy farmer must immediately get rid of the calf, so the mother will keep producing milk in the months to come. So we have several options to get rid of the calf. If cattle prices are bad and say drought conditions prevail, an owner may just shoot the calf, or if prices are okay we can take it to a calf sale where it will incessantly bellow for its mother. If that calf is lucky it will be taken home by another farmer who specializes in raising it on milk supplements until it is old enough to wean. But that’s the happy ending to that dairy cow and calf story – most calves go to the meatworks. Few days old – and it vanishes off the face of the earth. The dairy farmer has a business to run and it involves milking cows. That’s how the family survive financially. They have to make life and death decisions daily. Society doesn’t question their right to do that.

When we as a society need to develop more residential areas to live in, or to develop a coal mine – what’s the first thing we do? Knock every tree down in the area. Stuff the koala mother and her baby that are sitting high up in a gum tree pushing out zeds. Just knock the tree over with a big bulldozer and the koala and junior will probably die when they plummet to the ground at about 100 kilometres per hour from 30 metres up the gum tree. If the koala doesn’t die when it hits the ground, it can fend for itself and flee into a nearby yard to be ripped apart from some land owners domestic dog – not a greyhound. But 99% of society and “mainstream media” turn a blind eye to those atrocities because you see that animal cruelty of monumental proportions is okay and it’s allowed to continue unabated all “in the name of progress”. The fools in governments think that if they put an underpass under a highway that the koalas will be able to read a sign and follow the instructions and just cross safely under the road. Have you ever heard anything so stupid in your life – I haven’t. But it’s the governments of different political persuasions way of telling the public “we care about our animals and our wildlife”, after the same people have sadly done nothing to try to save entire koala colonies from being knocked out of trees.

When I was a child, if a female cat had kittens they were impossible to get rid of as no one wanted cats, because they kill native birds and all the rest of it, so as soon as the cat had her kittens, the kittens were put in a tied sugar bag, complete with a big rock – and dropped over the side of a creek to drown. No one cared. I guess no one still cares about the plight of cats today where the supply far outweighs demand. How many kittens are drowned daily? No one cares.

When I drove back into Queensland last week from interstate I noticed a sign on the Queensland/New South Wales border that if you keep a rabbit in Queensland the fine is $44,000. That’s how big a pest they are considered to be, yet society didn’t care about them and for decades many died a terrible slow and painful death with myxomatosis. These days they gas them down their burrow. How many rabbits will get gassed and/or shot today around Queensland? A hell of a lot more than “55” I’ll give you the nod. But no one cares.

Then week-in-and-week-out young blokes head off out west with their four wheel drives onto properties with their pig dogs to let them maim and/or kill wild pigs. It’s been happening for decades and will continue to happen for decades to come – but no one cares about the cruelty that happens to those feral pigs. In fact in America pig dogs hunting wild pigs are made into popular television shows. They show in graphic detail how the pig dog brings the feral pig down whilst the pig screams in agony. That’s called “entertainment” – and nowadays people so inclined from around the world can watch the “entertainment” from the comfort of their own lounge room.

And thank God some people with some understanding of animal welfare got involved to stop poor battery hens being locked up in a small cage for life. Well these hens could live in the “small cage” until they stopped laying, then they were ripped out of the cage and taken away in big semi-trailers to become fertiliser or whatever becomes of the poor wretches. But humans have financially supported the concept of battery hens for decades, by buying non-free range eggs.

I dare say that many people who were aghast at The Courier Mail’s front page story on “55 carcasses” either drink milk and eat non-free range eggs and/or live in a modern home in an area where koala bears once thrived – but are no more.

Maybe “55 carcasses” is a story for Page 20 or whatever, but if you are going to have some balance in the debate it might be advisable to also look to other human actions within our society that affect copious numbers of our animals.

Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au there’s the fourth and final montage of photos from Marburg last Sunday and Doomben last Saturday. On www.sydneyracing.com.au there’s a couple of harness racing stories, whilst on www.melbourneracing.com.au Sydney racing is perused, which I guess is a bit Irish.