Dogged by dogs backflip
Premier Baird tried to do the right thing, banning greyhound racing in July because, as he said at the time, a special Commission of Inquiry had found "damning" evidence of the "unnecessary slaughtering of tens of thousands of healthy dogs". He subsequently did his now infamous backflip, betraying the hopes of thousands of compassionate supporters.
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Greyhounds are treated like machines. Many are "discarded" as puppies in the name of "selective breeding". Others are shot or bludgeoned to death when they’re deemed too old, injured or slow to continue racing.
All over the world, people no longer wants to support an industry that subjects these gentle, sociable animals to a life of servitude and misery. The greyhound racing industry - like many of the dogs used in this cruel "sport" - is dying.
If Mike Baird had stuck to his principles on banning greyhound racing, he would have left a lasting legacy of compassion and been remembered as one of the great Premiers of this state. What a waste.
A. Fruno, PETA Australia
Commonsense dumped
We are facing an increase in tipping charges due in part I am told by the rules set down by the Environment Protection Authority. The increased restrictions to what is accepted at buy-back centres is an incentive for people to resort to dumping in the bush.
To give you my own example, I am a 79-year-old pensioner who is about to downsize. I have been a gardener for 50 years and have a garage and home full of useful stuff. The other morning I took some of it to the buy-back centre but most was refused, including a perfectly good tent, painting gear, an exercise ball, beach chair and and a steel work table with laminate top.
My options are to dump in the bush; pay the tipping fees; or put the tent in the garbage (it will just fit) and next week, having cut up the work table, put that in the garbage as well.
Since I am a member of the National Parks Association, I reject option 1; as I am a pensioner on limited income I am reluctant to use option 2. That leaves me with option 3, putting it all in our garbage bin over the coming weeks.
There is makes no sense at all.The garbage is landfill; that is what they are trying to reduce. When politicians and bureaucrats win, commonsense goes out the window.
J. Brooks, Mollymook
Sea level lunacy
The CSIRO predicts that the Shoalhaven area, with its 165 kilometres of coastline, will be one of the coastal regions in Australia worst affected by the impact of climate change induced sea level rise.
Recently, Shoalhaven City Council’s Strategy and Assets Committee reviewed council’s current (minimalistic) sea level projections of 0.23m by 2050 and 0.36m by 2100.
They had before them a new submission signed by 10 of the community members of council’s natural Resources and Floodplain Management Committee urging council to adopt more realistic projections and pointing out that its current policy articulation was one of the least coherent of any council in Australia.
The need for a review of the existing projections was supported by council’s general manager, professional staff, and appointed climate consultants.
The committee nevertheless voted to reject their professional advice and to maintain its current projections, despite acknowledging these have an 85 per cent chance of being exceeded.
The new mayor and five councillors did support the need for changed projections but were voted down by seven councillors who clearly decided that the fact based scientific evidence should be ignored.
What were thy thinking?
