Scores of Animals Ravished by Aussie Fires
The Associated Press, February 13, 2009 [here]
SYDNEY — Kangaroo corpses lay scattered by the roadsides while wombats that survived the wildfire’s onslaught emerged from their underground burrows to find blackened earth and nothing to eat.
Wildlife rescue officials on Wednesday worked frantically to help the animals that made it through Australia’s worst-ever wildfires but they said millions of animals likely perished in the inferno.
Scores of kangaroos have been found around roads, where they were overwhelmed by flames and smoke while attempting to flee, said Jon Rowdon, president of the rescue group Wildlife Victoria.
Kangaroos that survived are suffering from burned feet, a result of their territorial behavior. After escaping the initial flames, the creatures — which prefer to stay in one area — likely circled back to their homes, singeing their feet on the smoldering ground.
“It’s just horrific,” said Neil Morgan, president of the Statewide Wildlife Rescue Emergency Service in Victoria, the state where the raging fires were still burning. “It’s disaster all around for humans and animals as well.” … [more]
I must say that I’m relieved to read — FINALLY — that wildlife suffers, is burned, starves, and dies in such conflagrations. The carnage is terrible and the reasons unconscionable, but the fact that it’s being SAID is good. For far too long people have been reading “news stories” telling them that wildlife somehow magically escapes such out-of-control, massive burns. Folks, it just ain’t so!
The muzzled American “free press” — which is more aptly described as the “muzzled media” — continues to “report” that wildlife in America simply outruns the monster fires in our country. If people cannot drive fast enough to outrun fire, neither can wildlife. Cheetahs are fast, but they are not in America (not in the wild). That said, the millions of animals that either are mercifully killed in the fires are luckier than those that are horrifically burned. There are countless nursing females (think of elk and range cattle as well as sheep, goats, wild horses, the large predators, etc.) with their teats burned, unable to nurse their young, but the young likely already died in the flames and smoke. Those that think “fire is good” have never faced a wildfire that’s creating its own wind. SOME fires are beneficial, but unfortunately, there is a percentage of people involved in firefighting, the Forest Service, etc., that are “hooked on fire,” i.e., they are firebugs. There are two men in California right now being prosecuted for setting fires that killed people and animals. Both guys were federal employees involved in firefighting. Firebugs create their own job security, but those involved in law enforcement and rehabilitation of criminals will attest to the fact that arsonists are virtually incurable. Cursory background checks before hiring is part and parcel of the problem.
I don’t know about the Australian firebugs, but firebugs are one species that needs to be rendered EXTINCT.
One last thought. Though the word “ravished” is close to correct, I think the most fitting word is “ravaged,” and the number is far greater than “scores.” Maybe a title like: “Countless animals and their habitat ravaged by Aussie Fires” would be more descriptively correct.