How can so much time, money and effort be committed to destroying the home of a beautiful, harmless vegetarian native animal to save a dog that is a certified dangerous breed attempting to kill a wombat. And to make matters even more stupid, the RSPCA has further wasted resources in securing carers for the “homeless man's” other two dogs, one a hunting dog.

How about everyone gets their priorities sorted out. I must say, that for a 'homeless man' he must be doing OK considering he keeps blooded dogs. I am assuming that the decades old home of the wombat won’t be returned to its original state now the fools with shovels have finished tearing it up. The whole maniacal farce makes me sick.

As a resident of Nowra for 25 years i would like to express my anger and frustration at the immense waste of time and energy that went into finding the dog that chased a wombat down its burrow near Nowra showground. 

I would also like to back up the opinions expressed by 2ST radio on Thursday when one of the announcers rightly mentioned that this homeless mans attack dog tried to kill a protected native animal, coming so soon after the wombat slaughter near Kangaroo Valley. This dog, classified as a dangerous breed of dog, roaming free in public grounds, tried to attack a protected species and yet no one seems to give a minute’s thought to the welfare of the wombat but runs amok trying to save a stupid dog, wasting manpower, money, time and energy. In my opinion the dog should be put down before it attacks someones child or another native animal. People should get their priorities right.  

The amazing letter from R. Croft (October 30) demands a reply.  It gives an example of the most dangerous ethical issue of our times – fundamentalism. This destructive intolerance occurs in all life issues. It certainly afflicts religions and its outcome among some Moslems is only too evident in the conflicts of the Middle East. It has led to ignorant Christians attacking Jews and others at times. Hindu and Buddhist extremists are also active in some countries.

The record of Atheism is no better. The French revolution, Nazism and Communism have been involved in the highest human death toll in history. Many people in the religions and atheism are pacifists who oppose bloodshed. The problems come from the hotheads who use ideology to promote their ambitions.

Clearly R. Croft is ambitious to exterminate religion, or at least Jewish and Christian teaching, from our schools. Dredging up extreme ethical items from Jewish and Christian scriptures with no balancing examples is certainly not a scholarly method, merely a fundamentalist rant.

None of Croft’s examples is taught in school SRI classes. All teaching is by approved curriculums and any volunteer who teaches otherwise is disciplined – as I presume would also be the case with ethics classes. I have no problem with ethics classes, except that people have to choose between pupils attending them or SRI. 

When we draw from ancient sources it needs to be with care and historical science and we will then find great wisdom. Caring and respect are built upon the Golden Rule (Matt 7:12) which many religions share.