Paragons of Virtue

It's nice to see the sympathy and caring of the animal rights lobby on full display.

The compassionate folk over on the "ban live export" facebook page had a fair bit to say about the farmer in WA who had to make the heartbreaking decision to cull his flock of damara sheep.

Too bad their "compassion" goes only so far.

I don't suppose they've realized that since the domestic market won't take damara sheep, a ban on live export would mean thousands more damaras would have to be culled in a similar fashion? Then again, why let the facts stand in the way of a good old farmer bashing session? The actual welfare of the animals matters little as long as your right, right?

We see this narcissism time and time again from these self appointed paragons of virtue who (with no real world knowledge or industry experience) pass judgement upon those "greedy" and "immoral" people who dare to make a living raising livestock.

I wish I could say that the tragedy of the entire live export debate was captured in the ridiculous ignorance displayed by the keyboard crusaders above, but I'd be wrong.

Or the fact that many of these peoples sense of compassion and fairness stops with the animals but I'd be wrong there as well.

You may think the real tragedy is the often explained but always ignored negative animal welfare and human consequences of a ban on live export but your way off the mark.

The tragedy of this whole mess is that our weak minded politicians (I'm talking to you as well Mr Colin Barnett) actually listen to these people and consider their views when they make decisions that affect the people who actually have skin in the game.