A dear friend of mine told me one of the most incredible stories I ever heard. He actually saved a pod of 50 whales from beaching. The black pilot whales were approaching another pod of stranded whales dying on the beach in Tasmania. They had already been beached themselves and rescuers had successfully returned them to sea, but they were coming back! Michael went out in a boat with friends in wetsuits (it's cold!) to try to make them stop coming in to shore. The whales ignored them and kept swimming past them towards their dangerous fate. They kept trying again and again to obstruct their path with the boat and scare them off by splashing oars. And then Michael said I'm going in, even tho it was against the law to be near or touch the whales. The whales were swimming quite fast and he hung onto one swimming toward the shore. He moved his way forward and jumped onto the next whale in front. He kept moving up until he reached the whale at the very front. He was riding the lead whale and holding his/her flippers. He encouraged and steered the whale to turn and the rest of the pod followed. He turned the whales away from the beach and rode with them far out to sea where he finally let go. His friends in the boat caught up with him to pick him up. Michael told me and friends this story after watching the film Whale Rider at the cinema. We were all in awe of his story. I highly recommend watching the New Zealand film about a mouri girl.

Dear Michael is an environmentalist and is involved in countless campaigns including protecting Tasmania's old growth Forests and regenerating degraded areas. I am amazed and inspired with the work he has done. Here's the thing. He calls himself a vegetarian... Until presented with a kangaroo burger!!!

Can u please help me answer the question to this stumbling block? I have come across a block to veganism many times in the past and ever more recently by people who we could assume are more aware about global issues than others. These people potentially could be vegan due to their sensitivity and awareness about other issues but wont. They think it's acceptable to eat camels and kangaroos. I wouldn't have bothered asking you about it, but I just keep meeting more and more people who believe this is ok. Some of these people call themselves vegetarians, some of them are fish-eating-vegetarians, but profess to being open to eating camels or kangaroos when optioned.

They say the animal had a good life in the bush and did not live in a horrible factory farm.

They say that it is good for the environment because for kangaroos they don't emit much methane, nor cause erosion, nor eat grain, nor impact on native animals or the local ecology because they are native. Also there is a myth that they are overpopulated, but in fact various species are at risk of becoming endangered, and it is also not monitored. Most people do not know the roo populations are very young and not many mature adults are capable of reproducing. Kangaroos cannot be fenced or farmed or bred and a taken only from the wild, so any increase in roo meat consumption for the sake of shifting demand from cow meat, cannot result in an increase of producing more kangaroo meat. Kangaroos are shot at night. Many go into the bush injured to die slowly.

One of the biggest reasons of support for eating wallabies and kangaroos is that the aborigines do it. These "sensitive" and "green" people have a respect for the indigenous people and often get involved with aboriginal rights campaigns. Eating kangaroos seems to be some kind of spiritual thing tied in unison with sustainability. Ethics to the greenies equals sustainability. They cannot separate the two issues. If it's sustainable, it's ethical.

And eating camels helps the environment because there are so many of them they are a pest and will be shot anyway. Camels live in large numbers across Australia and do cause some environmental damage, but nothing compared to the cattle and sheep who they compete with. Also they cant be that serious about eradicating camels because after culling operations they let the population come back and just do it all over again. It is a small industry but a profitable one. Many camels are exported live to middle east. Most camel meat and kangaroo meat is exported. Camels endure long journeys to specialist camel abattoirs.

As we know, it comes down to a moral issue! Which is separate to environmental issues. Even in the case for eating kangaroos and camels, I could argue against it on environmental grounds also.

These environmentalist part-time vegetarians have such potential for going vegan, but ruin our cause by spreading the idea to others that we should eat camel and kangaroo instead of cows. It's driving me bananas!

I was wondering if you could make a response to green eaters, spiritual eaters, indigenous eaters who aren't vegan! Let's come up with some answers.

I am surrounded by greenies! (Slightly confused ones!)

QUOTE:
As we know, it comes down to a moral issue! Which is separate to environmental issues.

Environmental arguments are indeed problem-riddled. "CAN you," sure. "SHOULD you" is a different question. He's answering the question "can he" but not "should he."

My brother doesn't emit much methane, nor eat too much grain, nor impact the environment much, and lives a pretty swell life, but I'd still be upset if someone killed him and ate him.

Yes, as you say, such people identify with the indigineous population, and even, to some extent, with "nature" itself, seeing themselves as being in harmony with both, and this, they believe, gives them the moral authority to eat animals.

I have argued elsewhere about the futility of the moral argument, but nevertheless the flaws in such "green" logic are pretty blatant. For starters, not all animals eat other animals, so there is no "natural" lesson to be learnt there. And I wonder when the last time was that an aborigne jumped into the sea to save a school of whales? So I wonder what your friend think he's doing saving these creatures like that? I mean, it's not natural... why doesn't he just eat them instead?

Lions eat zebras because that's what lions do - but what about humans? The defining thing about the human animal - what makes us "human" more than anything else - is our brain; and our consciousness in particular; our ability to make reasoned choices. A lion has no choice but to do what lions do. We, alone amongst all the life-forms that inhabit this planet, are unique in having the ability to make radical choices in and about our lives.

Humans clearly can survive on either an ominvorous or a vegetarian or a vegan diet. The important point is that we can choose which.

The so-called environmental reasons for eating / culling animals drive me mad! There is no creature more over-populous, and causing more harm to the enviroment, than the human animal - so before we start wiping out other species on such specious arguments (pun intended!) we really ought to look at ourselves. It is nothing but selfishness and greed (OK, and ignorance) that stops people being honest about these issues.

It wasn't that long ago that fox-hunting was banned here in the UK (the legislation finally squeezed through when the Labour government was shamed into honouring its election promise and allowed a free vote in parliament - there is still some danger it could be reversed by the next Conservative government.) But I remember during the very heated debates about it, all the pro-hunting lot wittering on about how foxes were vermin and need controlling, and how they were doing the environment a favour by hunting them. (And in the next breath contradicting themselves by saying the anti-hunting lobby were getting upset over nothing becasue (they claimed) so few foxes were actually killed by hunts anyway!!) Not one of them was ever honest enough to admit that they did it because that's what they enjoyed doing. (Which is actually the ONLY reason anyone goes on a fox-hunt.)

People choose to eat / hunt / use and abuse animals for the simple reason that they want to - there is no moral imperative, no natural law, no logical reason that says they have to. With that in mind, what people really need to do is ask themselves why they choose to do so. And to be honest in their answers.