With the “Recreational Hunting Systems” investigation in the Western Australian Upper House reaching it’s conclusion everyone is voicing their opinion on the matter.  Lyn Bradshaw from the RSPCA and Rick Mazza from the Shooters and Fishers Party are facing off with articles in the local newspaper and their loyal follows reiterating their respective opinions.

It is easy to beat up on the RSPCA, and I’m not condoning their attitudes, but let’s look at this from the RSPCA’s point of view.

The RSPCA relies heavily on the donations from members of the public – people who ‘Join’ their cause.  These members of the public are animal people – they love animals and would assumingly have pets, visit the zoo often or perhaps take part in the preservation of endangered animals, even if it were just counting black cockatoos.

Many of these people baulk at animals being hunted because they have shielded themselves from this form of recreation their whole life, which is fair enough.  Hunting isn’t for everyone.  I don’t like golf – I find it tedious.

However, while I don’t blockade golf courses or write scathing letters to the paper about golfing, animal activists seem to feel compelled to make everyone around them sure of their opinions.  They pursue issues, such as pig hunting, with absolute ignorance and naivety.

Which brings us back to the RSPCA.  The RSPCA relies on these people.  It relies on them being ignorant and naïve.  It relies on their blind faith to a illogical ideology.

For a second, lets visit an alternate universe where the RSPCA drops it’s ideology.  Where the RSPCA can see the merit in hunting on public lands.  Where they aren’t against the eradication of a feral pest.  Where they listen to reason and look for wood among the trees.

What would happen among their support base?  These sheltered animal lovers.  What would they start thinking if the RSPCA, the organisation they put money into, starts NOT objecting to Red Card or recreational hunting on public lands.  What would happen to their donations?  The RSPCA would and could not exist in such a universe.

And this is why the RSPCA must be against anything the Hunters, Shooters, Fishers or Farmers of WA are doing.  It doesn’t matter if their arguments are illogical, misleading or completely imaginary, as long as their donations keep coming.

They will not exist if they listen to reason, which is why they are unreasonable.  They would disappear if they applied logic, which is why they are illogical.  There is no point hoping the RSPCA will change because they can’t.

Article in the paper over the weekend –  spot on.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/opinion/a/26535517/feral-pigs-are-a-big-pr/