Legal fleas

The Telegraph ^ | 11/07/2004 | Staff

[ijcr]

Here is some heartening news for invertebrates: under new Government proposals, creatures such as insects, worms and slugs will be protected from mistreatment if it can be proved that they suffer pain and distress.

This will pose a legal dilemma for gardeners, who have a number of ingenious ways of disposing of the plant-guzzling invaders. Some cut the offenders in two; others employ saucers of beer, in which drunken slugs drown. A spokesman for Peta, the animal welfare group, has welcomed the proposals, saying: "Compassion must be extended to all living beings. Stamping on a slug sets an example to children that 'might makes right'."

Yet while stamping is a clear case of malign intent, other pest-control strategies will keep the lawyers busy. Is the gardener who puts out beer, for example, to blame for a slug's propensity to drink itself to death? And what of the attacking mosquito: if we squash it, does that not count as self-defence?

If insects and molluscs are to be afforded the law's protection, there will be little argument for excluding bivalves. How prophetic were the words of the philosopher Bertrand Russell, who so long ago warned that: "Animal rights, taken to their logical conclusion, mean votes for oysters."

[Gabz]

I am an entomologist who has performed open heart surgery on cockroaches without anesthesia,

BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gabz]

Ping to a fleafight slugfest.

Too funny!!!!!!!!!!!

[Free Trapper]

We don't get peach trees from peach tree seeds?

Mrs. FT and I have different kinds of nice peach trees that we started with seeds we've gotten from area trees.

In fact,I've been saving this years seeds to take out and stick in the ground around hunting,fishing,camping areas that we like.It's an old habit,peaches,plums,whatever seeds I happen to come up with.

[Free Trapper]

Will pass on the info about the seed depository to my wife,she's the gardener.

I like what grows wild,too lazy to garden. :)

[Not A Snowbird]

I don't stomp on slugs, I leave them for the Robins to eat in the morning.

So would PETA prefer they die a quick death from my foot, or a slow death from being eaten by a bird?

[reformedliberal]

I have two ornamental plum trees that are male and female, planted together. They produce flowers and fruit.

I spend hours every year removing the new plum trees from my flower beds. The plums fall off, the seeds sprout and I have these tenacious little trees everywhere.

I may cut down the original trees.

I have one question on the open pollinated seeds and ban on killing insects and slugs: PROVE IT!

Several years ago, I planted some tomato plants that came from heirloom seeds. I also planted my usual Better Boys. The heirlooms all came down w/2 forms of blight, one airborne, one in the ground. I got a meager harvest from them. The tomatoes were poor keepers and I cannot say they were tastier. The hybrids did fine. The hybrids had some ground-borne blight that took off the lower leaves, but seemed immune to the other disease. They produced, the fruit was fine.

In a country the size of the US with many of us having rural property, I challenge any county to afford the plant police to check that I am not killing insects or planting open pollinated seeds. Can I sue them if I get stung by a wasp or contract a disease from a tick or mosquito? And what will they do about naturally-occurring propagation from already existing plants? I purposely plant flowers that reseed themselves.

[A. Pole]

Lice and mosquitoes bump.

[ninenot]

First off, I utterly and completely reject the argument that dying of beer is "painful."

[ninenot]

No different from the dipwads who insist that using sharpshooters to take out deer overpopulation is "cruel."

They're perfectly happy, however, to let the excess deer run all over the roads, get hit by cars, and die of broken ribs...

[ninenot]

If you are far enough into the countryside, there are EXCELLENT ways to remove nosy PETA trespassers from your property.

Shoot....shovel....shut up.

[The Scourge of Yazid]

Well, going by the skewed logic that they use to analyze other pressing issues of animal well being, I'd guess the later.

Though with a person as demented as Ingrid Newkirk, you can never be too sure what bizarre direction her mind is going to veer from moment to moment.

[asgardshill]

Even I know while there are such things as legal fleas, there is no such thing as a flea lunch.

(So how do they network? You tell me.)

[Free Trapper]

As an entomologist,can you direct me to a website that would be a good "field guide to insects"?

[Free Trapper]

When younger,I might have agreed with you about using a sharpshooter to harvest deer that are overpopulated.

Now that I'm more mature,I find firearms more efficient than running down deer and killing them with a narrow bladed shovel. ;)

.

It's much like the two bulls that see a bunch of cows in the distance and the young bull says,"let's (run) over there and breed one of those cows".

The older bull answers his young partner with,"no,lets just (walk) over and breed 'em all". :o)