Our animal instincts
BEFORE my four-year-old’s brilliant blue eyes stole my heart and soul, both belonged to two other loves of my life. Firstly, a ginger-haired charismatic and largely manipulative male followed by a blond, slightly scatty but completely adorable brown-eyed girl. Both the cat and the dog ruled my life until our daughter arrived and while Harrison the feline is now our Lord in Heaven, Bella acts and is treated like our second “child”. I reminisce about Harrison and the 15 years I had with him. I felt if I couldn’t have the real thing with Mr Ford, unconditional love from a cat would be good enough. It was more than enough. Having a pet is a huge responsibility but what a human receives in return is priceless. I love most animals; others I respect. I know my feelings are not unique, particularly in this part of the world.
However, I wonder if our love for animals is starting to cloud our judgment.
Animals dominate the news in Far North Queensland; mostly it is about debates on what to do about them.
They need saving. They need relocating. They need feeding. They need loving. Don’t we all ...
If it’s not crocodiles, it’s bats. Wild dogs are replaced with garden-destroying pigs.
A carpet snake here, a brown killer over there.
And then there are the Northern Beaches wallabies. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. There are few topics that are so emotive as animals.
Pets, predators, pampered pooches — watch your fingers as the knives come out.
All of a sudden usually polite people grow claws and begin growling like a bear. But mention the homeless and eyes glaze over.
A crocodile takes a human’s life because they make the fatal mistake of swimming in the ocean and watch out for the insults. No argument it’s foolish but pause a second; it’s still a human life.
A bat must be relocated with kid gloves and 32 million laws are put in place, because if they aren’t, there will be an uproar. But never mind those living under the stench and faeces or the income that could change lives by finding a commonsense resolution.
Cute kittens are dumped by the side of the road and 300 storm the pound to adopt.
But humans ignorantly step over itinerants lying on a footpath.
A woman dies after being hit by a car in the CBD and it was her fault because she was probably drunk.
What hope is there of a solution to the wallaby plague at Trinity Beach; after all it’s “only” footy players getting sick.