Peter Garrett and the Savannah cat

[nioka]

Peter Garrett has earned his pay this month by banning the savannah cat from Australia. I can imagine this animal being a worse import than the cane toad. It's potential to go feral and breed with the present feral cat is too big a risk to take. The present population of feral cats is sufficient problem without tha added problem of the savannah cat.

 

[sam76]

This is good news, Nioka.

From memory it was only 4 generations removed from it's wild cousin.

No need for those animals in Australia.

 

[2020hindsight]

This lady has the right idea
wild cat stew.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6974687.stm

Australians have come up with a novel solution to the millions of feral cats roaming the outback - eat them.

The felines are the descendants of domestic pets and kill millions of small native animals each year.

A recent Alice Springs contest featured wild cat casserole. The meat is said to taste like a cross between rabbit and, perhaps inevitably, chicken.

Preparing this unusual stew seems simple enough.

The meat should be diced and fried until it is brown. Then lemon grass is to be added along with salt and pepper and three cups of quandong, which is a sweet desert fruit.

It is recommended that the dish be left to simmer for five hours before being garnished with bush plums and mistletoe berries.

Marinated moggie was not to everyone's taste. One of the competition judges found the meat impossibly tough and had to politely excuse herself and spit it out in a backroom.

and after 5 hours, throw the cat out , and eat the stone?

PS, this judge wasn't too impressed . Lol, probably chose a Merlot instead of a Shiraz to accompany it :-

One of the competition judges found the meat impossibly tough and had to politely excuse herself and spit it out

 

[2020hindsight]

probably chose a Merlot instead of a Shiraz to accompany it

or maybe a Merlot instead of a Meowlow?

 

[nioka]

I remember when boats with chinese crews used to dock. The crew went ashore and came back with "live" bags over their shoulders. There was then for a short time a noticable shortage of cats in the town. Maybe the feral cat situation is the basis for a new export industry. We seem to be selling everything else to the chinese.

It was said that when the myxo virus decimated the rabbit population the chinese takeaway trade replaced rabbit with cat as the substitute chicken. However chicken is so cheap, by comparison, these days that I doubt if cat would be an economical substitute.

 

[justjohn]

I read that the Chinese have taken DOG off there menu while the games are on,so not to offend western visitors.If they didn't announce this I wouldn't have known they actually eat dog over there:dunno:

 

[Ageo]

Good to see he has used his head on this one. 1 less feral animal to shoot i say

 

[bassmanpete]

I read that the Chinese have taken DOG off there menu while the games are on,so not to offend western visitors.If they didn't announce this I wouldn't have known they actually eat dog over there

China, Korea, and Vietnam definitely have dog on the menu, there are probably other countries but I can't say for certain. While I have no objection to eating animals, I do object to the way animals are treated and killed. In China, dogs are beaten with clubs because it's believed the more brutal the death, the better the meat tastes. In Korea, cats are dropped alive into boiling water because it makes the skin easier to remove. I could go on but I have tears in my eyes from just typing the last two sentences.

You can say what you like about feral cats, dogs, etc. destroying native wildlife, but what was the stupid animal that brought them here in the first place, and has been responsible for more extinctions and loss of habitat than any other creature on Earth? Maybe it's about time some of them were on the menu.

 

[2020hindsight]

Good to see he has used his head on this one. 1 less feral animal to shoot i say

:topic
speaking of john Hewson, anyone remember Keating calling him "the feral abacus"

In China, dogs are beaten with clubs because it's believed the more brutal the death, the better the meat tastes.

yep bruised meat is more tender
Talk back radio in HK (prior to 1997 - back around 1980 in fact) was often about this major cultural clash between English expats complaining about the noises eminating from Chinese dog abattoirs

Feral cats ? I could care less. That goes for imported birds too

http://www.abc.net.au/science/scribblygum/april2004/

Myna Fightback
The Common Indian Myna bird is fast becoming Australia's number one feral enemy! In Autumn, mynas start to aggregate in large flocks - providing the perfect opportunity to launch public education campaigns and to trial a new trap that could finally provide a way to remove these clever and aggressive pests.

The myna bird has been declared the second greatest threat to native birds after land clearing. It's currently spreading through eastern Australia, yet in some areas its arrival is so recent that unknowing residents welcome it into their backyards and encourage it to feed alongside native birds.

First introduced to Australia to control insect pests, the arrival of the Common Indian Myna (Acridotheres tristis) in a region signals a disastrous change to come in local bird populations. This extremely aggressive bird chases out native birds and small tree dwelling marsupials such as feather-tailed gliders.
etc

 

[bassmanpete]

yep bruised meat is more tender

Research has shown (and I'm sorry but I don't have a link to it) that the less stressed an animal is, the more tender & flavourful is the meat.

As for the birds, you can add Blackbird, Spotted Turtle Dove, House Sparrow, and Common Starling but they all trace back to my original point - who brought them here in the first place?

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man"

 

[2020hindsight]

... but they all trace back to my original point - who brought them here in the first place?

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man"

no argument from me m8, -
probably explains why the Kiwis set traps for our cute lill possums (they hate em lol)

As they say, if only, when Noah was collecting animals for the Ark, if only man had missed the boat

https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=276555

you search the traits of this small world, the “traitors” carved in granite
you’ll see how much God screwed up / erred - when he chose the world to "man-it"
you watch "the Planet of the Apes", which God has “boy-and-girled”
... which other creature first pack rapes - and then PACK RAPES THE WORLD. ?

 

[Ageo]

In China, dogs are beaten with clubs because it's believed the more brutal the death, the better the meat tastes. In Korea, cats are dropped alive into boiling water because it makes the skin easier to remove. I could go on but I have tears in my eyes from just typing the last two sentences.

Well i can speak from experience that if you want to get tender meat then the most humane and painless killing is a must as any sort of pain the animal feels will cause the muscles to tense up and cause the meat to be tougher. Anyone telling you that bashing a dog will give you tender meat is just pulling themselves.......

As for ease of skinning, there is no difference to killing an animal then dropping it in boiling water to dropping it in live (live would mean the animal wouldnt die instant and again the meat would become tough).

In a nutshell anyone saying that you need to torture an animal to make the meat more tender has no idea in processing meat. Its actually the opposite, the better care/respect you give the animal when raising/slaughtering the tender the meat will become.

Thats just to clarify some of the posts made previously

 

[Boggo]

Another chapter in Peter's learning process...


TRUE STORY.

The Australian Government and the NSW Forestry Service were presenting an alternative to NSW sheep farmers for controlling the dingo population.

It seems that after years of the sheep farmers using the tried and true methods of shooting and/or trapping the predators, the Labor Government (Peter Garrett - Environmental Minister), the NSW Forestry Service and the Greens tree-huggers had a 'more humane' solution.
What they proposed was for the animals to be captured alive, the males would then be castrated and let loose again. Therefore the population would be controlled.
This was ACTUALLY proposed to the NSW Sheep farmers Association and Farming Association by the Federal Government and the NSW Forestry Service All of the sheep farmers thought about this amazing idea for a couple of minutes. Finally, one of the old boys in the back of the conference room stood up, tipped his hat back and said, 'Mr Garrett, son, I don't think you understand our problem.
Those dingo's ain't ****in' our sheep - they're eatin' 'em.' You should have been there to hear the roar of laughter as Mr Peter Garrett and the members of the NSW Forestry Service , the Greens and the other "tree huggers" left the meeting very "sheepishly".

 

[drsmith]

What they proposed was for the animals to be captured alive, the males would then be castrated and let loose again. Therefore the population would be controlled.

I wonder which method of castration was felt to be most humane, knife, ring or teeth ?

Peter Garrett with his teeth around a dingo's testicle trying to bite it off would make for interesting viewing. The first thing he would discover is that the dog's teeth are sharper than his own. Patting it on the head and saying, "There there little doggie, it's better than being trapped" would not quiet cut it I suspect.