Letter from a friend. “What else in the woods”

Animal Holocaust in an Australian Carpark

As human beings, what right do we have not to afford equal privilege to animals as we bestow upon ourselves?

I learnt recently of the extermination of Indian minor birds by a council in the centre of Sydney, Australia. Indian minor birds apparently post a threat to native Australian birdlife and are deemed to be pests. Cursory discussions explored ways to remove them from council boundaries, with extermination by gassing the finally agreed method. Thus, as my friend walked past a public car park on a sunny Friday afternoon, she witnessed first-hand the dispassionate extermination of these beautiful creatures. Two officials enticed several birds into a large cage before covering it with a specially designed plastic sheet. The cage was completely covered except for a hole the size of the exhaust pipe on their council vehicle. The hole was filled with the metal exhaust pipe from their car which one of them held in place as the other started the engine. What followed was the extermination by gassing of these animals. Within two minutes the job was complete, the plastic sheeting removed to reveal six lifeless birds in the cage, dispassionately thrown into a box for later disposal. When asked, the RSPCA, with equal dismay, advised that this process was the approved way to remove these birds, apparently pests to native birdlife.

Mahatma Gandhi (1989 – 1948), Statesman and Philosopher said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.”

Extermination by gassing in the Nazi holocaust is testimony to the potential of human beings to exert outrageous discrimination on a category of persons deemed to be a threat to privileged others. Unspeakable violence perpetrated upon sectors of the human race is a reflection of a scarcity consciousness intolerant of diversity and richness of lifestyles, opinions and worldviews.

The example in this article of the extermination of birds is a salutary reminder of the ‘thin end of the wedge’ on the journey to Holocaust. When we set ourselves up as superior creatures on the earth, choosing who to share our environment with, we play a part in the larger holocaust for which we are all responsible. We must each ask ourselves ‘Where are we affording ourselves greater privilege than other living entities on this planet? Where are we dominating and controlling with scant respect for the interdependent nature of our existence on earth?’ Whatever category of abuse we are outraged at – whether of children, animals, environment or other, we must each ask ourselves ‘Where am I doing this in my life?’ What we see in our world is a reflection of ourselves and if we want to change what we see, we must first change ourselves.