"Kill the Pigs!"

We have been reading about terrorists and the potential biosecurity hazard they pose. Forget them!

We now have a REAL threat to worry about!

"Feral pig movements pose biosecurity hazard: research"

This article is written by: Anna Salleh - A journalist with ABC Science Online, Anna Salleh has a PhD on the role of the media in debates over the risk of new technologies. She also has degrees in science and journalism, and has worked as a researcher on Quantum, The Investigators (ABC TV) and Insight (SBS TV) programs. She has contributed articles to New Scientist and Australasian Science magazines, Medical Observer, The Independent Monthly, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Canberra Times and produced stories for ABC Radio's Health Report. A former policy officer and journalist at the Australian Consumers' Association, she has also worked as a journalism lecturer and has contributed to a number of books.

With such impeccable qualifications her article is not only highly believable, but truly frightening.

It is backed up by more stories on the ABC like:

"Feral pigs devastate QLD crops"

This story was written by Mark Willacy who is very familiar with the issues in the middle east and with terrorism.

If we fear the dangers of terrorists bringing their biosecurity hazards to Australia and we spend a fortune on trying to prevent this from happening then WHY do we not spend some money to get rid of the problems that we have, from what Dr Peter Spencer of Murdoch University in Perth says amounts to "upwards of 20 million of these [feral pigs]"

Let's have a national policy!

"KILL THE PIGS!" could be the slogan that starts off a national hunt to find and bring down the threat of these terrifying feral pigs.

Former soldier Paul Smith runs Boar Busters and it is his job to hunt down the feral pigs. He and his trappers have shot 476 pigs so far this year.

"A feral pig is a survivor, a tough animal," he said.

"It's highly mobile, it's like fighting a clandestine operation almost - they come and they go in the night. You rarely see your adversary, and it's popping up all over the place at different times."

http://www.abc.com.au/news/stories/2007/08/24/2013993.htm

476 pigs out of upward of twenty million? That's not even making a dent in the problem!

Where is the support from those opposed to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan? They could argue that we need special weapons and tactics to find and eliminate the terror in our midst.

Bring home the SAS, they have skills that we need!

All hues of the political spectrum could finally find something they can completely agree on. Even farmers and environmentalists can find common ground - albeit for different reasons.

• Where is the national resolve and cooperation that we would expect from state and federal governments?
• Why is this issue not as high on the agenda of politicians in the national debate as horse flu?
• Why are there not millions of dollars being committed to the extermination of the feral pig population?
• Why are the people who are so concerned about the environment and our health not more vocally outraged by the continuing presence in our midst of a population of animals that endanger us all and appear to be almost as numerous as human beings on this continent?

Let us have a different kind of 'pork' that is the meat of the political campaign in these elections!