November 25, 2009Comments are closed.cats
The killing of six cats by Mildura Council using a firearm, when they had an available vet to administer lethal injections, has caused cat-lover outrage both nationally and internationally. However, the council remains unrepentant.
Mayor Glenn Milne released a statement saying the officer acted lawfully.
”Whilst destruction of animals via gunshot is not normally the standard procedure, it can be performed in certain circumstances,” he said.
”We regret that this has caused concern amongst the animal welfare community, however this is an accepted method that council can use. There were no malicious intentions by any member of staff.”
The Age
Mildura Council CEO Mark Henderson also defended the actions of the council worker stating the only apology they needed to make, was for the location that the animals were shot at… it should have been done away from a questioning public.
The resulting community debate has been centered around whether shooting was an appropriate method to kill a cat and whether it’s more or less humane than a lethal injection.
What doesn’t seem to be even questioned is, did these cats have to be killed at all?
The idea that killing is any kind of kindness is bogus when the animals involved are, as they were in this case, young and healthy. The debate is so centered around the best technique to kill these animals, what no one is asking is are there programs that we could be using to keep these cats from entering shelters in the first place? And when they are impounded, are these cats unworthy of any kind of life, simply because they’re feral?
Faced with council animal management departments who unapologetically choose to use barbaric methods to take the lives of these animals and who promote a culture of protection for those doing this killing, how can we expect compassionate life-saving programs to develop? When cats are considered little more than garbage to be disposed of, how can we ever see improvements in shelter performance?
Not only should we reject outright the idea that the best we can do for these animals is death, we must demand that legislation is passed which sees them protected. Just as we have legislation which protects animals from the abuse of the public, we must have legislation that protects them from shelters, regardless of who is in charge and how much or how little they value life.
