Seconded
Upon hearing the horrific news that
Australian authorities have been shooting dogs to stop people travelling against
coronavirus restrictions,
Ricky Gervais - like anyone who loves our good boys and girls - said exactly what everyone was thinking. Sometimes two words is enough.
Ricky's comments came after widespread outrage online at the news that dogs had been shot to comply with COVID-19 restrictions. The Office of Local Government in Bourke Shire Council, Australia, said the decision to shoot the dogs had been made to prevent volunteers at a Cobar-based animal shelter from travelling to pick up the animals.
https://twitter.com/rickygervais/status/1429504314419130368?s=20
People in the comments to the original tweet were understandably distraught, as this brainless policy seems to fly right in the face of protecting lives; not only was it a very indirect way of going about preventing people travelling but it's only likely to cause more regulations being breached when inevitable protests follow.
https://twitter.com/NYCNerdNews/status/1429610634279276546?s=20
As for the replies under Ricky's retweet, the picture was largely the same, with one commenter saying, "Where does this end? Kill all animals in shelters so that people cant show up and adopt them? [...] This is barbaric logic!"
Another said: "It’s absolute insanity and yet I’ve already seen people trying to justify it as it’s apparently for “the greater good”. Covid is very real, and can be dangerous, but it’s also true it’s turning people into illogical morons that do more harm than good." Meanwhile, a British man living down under had this to say on the wider state of the country against the
Covid-19 backdrop.
The council released a statement which confirmed the staff who shot the dogs had animal welfare certificates, that the organisation had unsuccessfully tried other efforts to deal with the dogs safely, and the dogs had been in the pound well past the time required under the Australian Companion Animal Act.
“And coupled with council seeking to stop people from other communities entering Bourke given the level of vulnerability in the community ... the decision was made to euthanise the dogs,” the statement said.
“The town is in a tenuous situation at the moment with COVID. Positive cases are on the increase. Council is being very careful with people entering Bourke. The majority of council staff have been stood down to avoid the virus spreading further in the community.”
The RSPCA has confirmed it is investigating the shootings.
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