Make petition sites research an issue before it goes public!

The world is filled with many passionate people, and the internet is filled with a lot of false information. It is very easy for ignorant people to marry the two, and create anger and opposition to something that might actually be a good idea.

Two examples i've come across recently are calling for an end to the kagaroo industry and even more shockingly an end to wild horse culling.

We have changed the face of Australia hugely in the past 250 years, introducing camels (which drink dry permanent water holes, leaving them empty for weeks or months or years until either the water soaks back up into them or it rains, leaving our native wildlife without anything to survive on) horses (whose hard hoofs trample the ground, degrade river banks and eat much more native plants and grasses than native animals do) dogs (which breed with dingoes, creating dangerous cross-breeds) cats (which devastate our smaller mammal, reptile and marsupial populations) along with the better known examples of cane toads, foxes, rabbits etc.

Of course they are living things too, and of course it's natural for us to want to protect cute and cuddly things like horses and bunnies. But the reality is, our environment won't thank us for it. 

There is a petition mentioned above which is calling for the government to STOP culling wild horses, and instead, provide clean drinking water for them. This is completely counter-productive, and it astounds me that Care2, who purport to have animals best interests in mind, can advocate such a disastrous fate for our native wildlife.

The reality is, we have an explosion of wild horses and camels at the moment, because of flooding rains in 2010 which allowed for ideal conditions for breeding. Anyone who was in central Australia in 2011 would have seen green grass, lots of water, and many herds of brumbies wandering by the roads, travelling with several colts or foals. The current culling is not in response to any lack of water in central Australia which we need to fix with human-provided water, it is the result of an animal population, which is not native to here, having more numbers than the land can sustain and an attempt to lower the numbers for the sake of our native species.

The last time we added more water to Australia's environment was in farming cattle, and we had green grass available for them to eat and permanent water holes for them to drink. This affected our kangaroos, which generally suspend a pregnancy until a good, wet year provides grass and water. (approx. every 4th year, dependant on the southern oscillation weather events, allowing for less joeys during the harsh el nino and more during the forgiving la nina) Because grass and water are not permanently available thanks to farms, they are now having joeys regularly and yearly, which has resulted in a kangaroo population explosion. This is the reason kangaroos are being culled, and whatever the kangaroo industry kills gets taken off the total number of culls for the season. They kangaroo meat and leather industry aren't even reaching the total number that needs to be shot on a yearly basis, let alone exceeding it and dangerously lowering 'roo numbers, as stated in the petition above. If anything, it's not having ENOUGH of an impact on their numbers, as cullers try to shoot females to lower future numbers, whereas the meat industry focuses on males, for their size. Thankfully, Aussies seem to know better in this regard, and the petition has been signed mostly by people from overseas.

It is shocking that such unresearched, opinionated nonsense can be created on a site such as this and shared through social media sites before anyone has even had a chance to check up on it.

We must urge petition sites like Care2 to take responsibility for what is posted on their sites, and ensure that there are people who critically inspect and research a petition before it is able to be published and spread. Not doing so will only add to the anger, frustration and arguments which false information and ignorant ideas perpetuate, and in a worst case scenario, if successful, such petitions as mentioned above will be irreversibly detrimental to the very environment they claim to try and protect.

click 'contact us' on this and any other petition sites, and copy this text along with your opinion in the text box.

Please paste any other petitions you find to be ignorant in the comments box as you sign, and share this petition around.