Animal Cruelty

Winter is over and spring is in full swing. The first blossom colours the landscape and the magnolia draws all the attention in many a garden. The downside for lazy garden owners is that the grass and weeds are starting to grow again and the terrace tiles have come out of winter looking rather drab.

The choice between pressure washer, Roundup and cleaning vinegar is on the table. This year I opted for the latter, partly on the advice of our gardener. It is said to be an effective remedy against weeds and it gets the tiles clean. There was a whole pallet of 5-litre bottles at the entrance to Gamma, so the gardener gave this advice to more people. Meanwhile, I sprayed 20 litres neatly over the terrace and the smell is unbearable. But that will go away again. When I went to check whether I am doing the right thing for the environment anyway, I received blow after blow on the internet. It seems I liquidated all living material on and around the terrace tiles. Anyway, the cost is only €16. Is that an acceptable consideration?

Our pond is as good as passé. All winter, it has served as a restaurant for long-ranging herons. Thanks animal conservationists for giving the heron a preferred position in the animal kingdom. Our pond fish are screwed. The carcasses lying around the pond offer a sad sight. In recent years, the frequency of heron visits has increased sharply. This suggests to me that the heron population has increased and that it is becoming more difficult for herons to get food.

Wild boars in your garden
In Meerssen and Bunde these days, you are not safe in your own garden because of the presence of wild boars with their young. Although no incidents have occurred yet, to my knowledge, wild boar are not harmless to humans. Can you still let your children play safely in your own garden?

NS has it in for the badger. A lot of extra work in embankments of railway lines is needed to make provisions for badgers. These apparently love to build their lodge under a roaring train track. I myself had a nasty experience with a badger sett that participants in a mountain bike event, of which I was one of the drivers, had approached too closely. We escaped criminal prosecution because the court rejected the Badger Working Group's complaint against the dismissal of their report. The fanatical biology teacher at Sophianum College in Gulpen, chairman of the Badger Working Group, had to bite the dust this time. But he had already built up his record with, among other things, causing a million-dollar damage to the development of a cross-border business park because a wheat wolf was said to reside there. They are still looking for him.

Just recently, I faced a hefty expense following my car's MOT inspection. The garage takes photos of the defects that lead to rejection. A marten had eaten a cover of a drive shaft. The damage was more than €1,000. I can't complain. At every birthday party, I hear similar examples.

Wolves in the shopping street
It has not yet happened to me in Maastricht but in the east of the country you can encounter a wolf in the shopping street. Midas Dekkers, our famous TV biologist, sits on TV chuckling that there is no reason we should be afraid of the wolf. Yet people are advised against letting their dogs run loose in the forest. The images of torn sheep carcasses must have been made with the help of AI then. The owner of the sheep sharing his suffering with us must be an actor then.

We still remember the terrible images of animal suffering at Oostvaardersplassen and the ensuing discussion. What we no longer got to see is that the enemies of the animal protectors, the hunters, had to step in to clean up the mess the animal protectors had created.

Judging by the actions of Extinction Rebellion, we are not there yet. Humans should feel guilty for taking a place on this planet. That we allow ourselves to use space, to leave a footprint. Yet the activists have their (school-age) children with them during their actions outside school holidays. Apparently, they think it is justified for them to procreate and deprive their children of education. I understand, the children might get the wrong idea during history lessons.

Who is not in favour of conservation? We will soon start finding dead herons by the roadside because they no longer find food. In Germany, badgers are already being shot because there are too many of them. I am from the farm and the countryside. I find it hard to accept that young city dwellers in Amsterdam and Utrecht are pushing for animal protection and thereby bringing about these consequences. The only animals they themselves suffer from are rats and cockroaches.