A failure to think ideas through . . .
THE media has a voracious appetite for new stories and controversial personalities.
That’s why breakfast TV, 24-hour rolling news channels and media outlets regularly give airtime to individuals eager to make statements about matters they want to bring to everyone’s attention.
But because they’re so caught up in the ‘bubble’ of their own opinions (which they passionately believe are right) they’re completely blind to what might happen if the idea they’re putting forward actually became reality.
In short . . . they fail to think it through.
Like the man on breakfast TV recently who suggested that as pets eat pet food (well deduced, Sherlock!) they’re environmentally unfriendly and we’d do well to rid the world of all cats, dogs, hamsters and your Great Aunt Jemima’s budgie.
And if the lady likes to dunk dog biscuits in her tea, she’ll have to go too!
The man made all sorts of statements backed up by statistics, including the (true) fact that cats kill millions of birds every year. Therefore, he said, we should stop breeding cats and dogs and, when the last one dies, the world would be a better place.
He forgot to mention that large birds like magpies, crows and cuckoos kill vast numbers of small birds too – and noone’s suggested a mass cull of our feathered friends.
I found it strange he wasn’t asked the big question about what’d happen if there were no cats and dogs.
How would we cope with the rapid, potentially dangerous rise of the rodent population?
There are already far too many stories in our newspapers about areas where rats are running around people’s gardens and attics, creating filth, misery and fear.
Anyone unfortunate enough
to have had their home infested with mice knows they’re difficult to get rid of.
Cash-strapped councils don’t employ ‘rat catchers’ any more so if you’re being troubled by vermin, you have to pay for professional help.
Quite simply, it comes down to this.
Which do you consider the more ‘environmentally unfriendly’?
Cats and dogs?
Or rats and mice? You’re right.
But you won’t get a chance to say that on breakfast TV!