Save our Rats
“Save our Rats”, “Save our Rats”
The chant is gaining strength outside the Oak Bay Municipal Hall
January18, 2915: Headline news in the Times Colonist today: “Activists to cast eyes over deer cull in Oak Bay”
An earlier article in the Times Colonist was titled: “Killing deer is not pretty, Metchosin mayor warns.”
The ongoing discussion of whether ”to cull or not to cull” seems to inspire considerable debate. Some have felt the ‘rat’ should be given the same consideration as deer and rabbits. Personally, I would not kill an animal unnecessarily, but will admit I have happily culled a few rats over my time in West Saanich. I have also killed animals for food (Lynn and I ran a small farm for several years). For those who hunt and kill a deer, moose, rabbit or other animal and then put the meat in the freezer, I have no problem, but go out and kill a grizzly, mountain sheep or other animal living in the wilderness just for the thrill of it or to gain trophy, I have a problem.
Close to 100% of people I know, except for a few vegetarians, vegans and others (like our friend Andrew), eat beef, pork, chicken, duck and a hundred other kinds of animal and bird products that cover our grocery store shelves. Those poor animals and birds are often raised and then killed in rather nasty ways, yet we really don’t give a damn as we just want the end product that is nicely wrapped in plastic.
Back on the farm, believe me, we often came to love a cow, pig, sheep, chicken or even an ugly ducking just as you might love your dog, cat or horse, We once had to tell the kids (Jay, Kari, Christine and Sean) we had sold the 
steer and bought other meat as there was no way they were going to eat “Roast Ghost” for dinner, Ghost being the name we had given to that poor steer now residing on our plates. We had to lie as we didn’t want the kids picketing the driveway with their friends, besides it was to late to save our friend, Ghost.
Photo: University of Victoria Groundskeeper removes rabbit from UVIC woods. The man suggested people have been contributing to the problem by dropping off unwanted rabbits and then overfeeding them as is the case in the one he is carrying away.
In some of the worst cases, we will cull other humans by the hundreds of thousands if we think our cause is just (we cull until one side wins or we reach a stalemate and both sides call it quits). Two World Wars are good examples. We don’t even need consensus to carry out this cull if our Government just decides to jump in as did the US and others in Viet Nam and Iraq. Both those wars ended in a stalemate, but not until tens of thousands of innocent men, woman and children were killed during the cull. Many were “collateral damage” in these various wars, but that was (is) the price of carrying out a human cull.. Perhaps if we just viewed deer, rabbits and seals as people, we would not feel so squeamish about carrying out the cull.
So let’s not get so uptight about the loss of a few deer or rabbits. If you think they are infringing upon your property rights, just quietly and without fanfare do them in or arrange to have them deported to an animal sanctuary in Texas.
If you disagree, then I ask: “What do you think about rats? Don’t rats have just as much right to your protection as does Bambi, Peter Rabbit and those cuddly, innocent looking, baby seals?” I bet Sarah MacLaughlin, would never be caught carrying a sign that read “Save our Rats”.
Cheers,
Harold
(Feb 14 2016 222)
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Comments (1)
Haha, love it! We should probably eat rats and rabbits rather than beef. Also I’ve noticed that there are a lot less pests where dogs are not kept on leashes.