What do animal rights activists/vegans think about culling destructive feral species?

[The Postman]

Originally Posted by southwest88

I don't have any problems with exterminating feral populations that are destroying native flora and fauna, especially if the natives have scientific, economic or even just esthetic importance. The foxes were introduced in Australia for hunting purposes, as I recall. Cats and rabbits were pets and/or food (the rabbits). The cane toads (?) I'm not sure about - are they edible?

If they're edible, along with the rabbits, then well and good, you have an incentive to hunt them down, and an economic basis to do so. Oz is a distinct case, since it's home to marsupials and many plants and animals that aren't found anyplace else. But note that exterminating a feral species is hard to do. Mammals tend to out reproduce marsupials, and even the cane toad numbers exploded there. It will be a long slog, and more likely will wind up as feral population control, rather than total extermination.

Compare the US Southwest problem with feral hogs, the coyote population across the US, zebra mussels in lakes, and so on. The feral hogs are a real problem - very destructive to crops, gardens, water supplies, fences - fast, smart, vicious, dangerous - and prodigious reproduction.

Marsupials are marsupials: plancentals, marsupials and monotremes are three groups of mammals.

Well it's challenging, but we've been making progress. And yes, Oz is a unique case, utterly unique from the rest of the world. That's why we have the worst extinction record of any country in the world.

[southwest88]

Originally Posted by The Postman

Marsupials are marsupials: plancentals, marsupials and monotremes are three groups of mammals.

Well it's challenging, but we've been making progress. And yes, Oz is a unique case, utterly unique from the rest of the world. That's why we have the worst extinction record of any country in the world.

[mod] does not meet Great Debates standards[/quote]

I assume that's a typo for placentals. But zoology isn't a hat I wear well - mostly I know how to field dress & where to cut through the joints. I should have said that plain vanilla mammals - which most of the Western World knows better than the Australian rare cases - tend to outperform the native Oz fauna in terms of reproduction, & in terms of filling the various ecological niches that exist in Oz. I'm not sure about the flora, although I seem to recall something similar - & also that the Oz soil doesn't get as much volcanism as the rest of the World, nor frequent flooding - not enough flood-prone rivers in the Outback? Which is a source of soil nutrition in the Nile Delta, for instance.

Still, here's to all of ya down under. Chin-chin!

[caitlindwarf]

I am a vegan, but I am a vegan primarily because of wildlife conservation. While I hate the thought of killing animals like feral cats, it's simply necessary to protect native species and the environment. Just like hunting deer is something myself, as a vegan, am okay with, and in fact there is a possibility I may eat deer or boar meat one day, if it's culled from an overrun population. The issue is never black and white.

[mainebrokerman]

when animals are overpopulated they suffer 100x more than if humans kill them..

ive seen coyotes chewing on a deer that's on the ice.....
and that deer is moaning with its guts being ripped out..

if not enough food....animals starve a slow suffering death..


when I go hunting....that deer dies quickly no suffering..

if I butcher a cow or pig,,,, that animal dies quickly no suffering..


man has interfered with some eco systems....some animals shouldn't be where they are ..
we have overpopulations of deer because we killed off the wolf and mountain lions decades ago..
now some places need culling because of overpopulations,

these are mercy killings....