Opposed to ostrich cull too

Re. Helen Schiele's letter, Opposed to ostrich cull (Castanet, Apr 22)

I agree with the writer of this plea, but for different but related reasons.

In nature, culling is performed by predators. (Humans), being also part of nature, perform our culling on preferred and pampered food animals.

In nature, predators remove the sick, lame, elderly and less swift. By that action, they select the herd for the survival of the fittest, swiftest, healthiest and strongest. They will survive to perpetuate a continuing source of food for the predators. For the sick in the herd, they will either die naturally, be culled by predators or the remainder will have immunity from that disease.

As for this case with the ostriches, none of the foregoing apply. They are not native to Canada. They are not a domesticated food source (the Canadian Food Inspection Agency notwithstanding), they are isolated (in voluntary quarantine, one might say), they have been exposed to the bird flu (some have died but the majority have not) and they are immune, which means they can’t contract it again or infect others.

If the logic of killing all that contract a disease was to be applied scientifically, medically, biologically or environmentally across all life forms, then why not humans? How does killing the demonstrably immune serve any useful purpose? So the argument, “if there is one,” fails ethically as well!.

The CFIA reasoning seems to be, “We can kill them, so we will and none can stop us.”

Where have I heard this reasoning before? Perhaps this wildly inhumane and unscientifically justifiable exercise is the beginning of “first they came for the ostrichs…”

Steve Friedman, West Kelowna