Tortured Sheep, Marginal Farming and the Real Tragedy of the Commons
Only a few miles from where I am typing this the needlessly cruel practice of live animal exports has started again in Ramsgate Kent. Understanding that a small loss of income, say from not being allowed to live export sheep, will make the sheep farmed on ‘marginal’ land not worth farming. Thus a number of livelihoods will be ruined, and so a body of people are highly motivated to campaign on an issue to protect their livelihood/privilege (the privilege being the landowners of tenanted farms in marginal areas). Thus the government is constantly pushed by people with the motivation and means to lobby for such a vile practice of causing such huge animal suffering. My favourite saying at the moment is: “it all happens at the margins” A similar augment can be made for cows and M.Bovis as the marginal dairy farmers are the ones so motivated to campaign so strongly to blame badgers and campaign for the cull. Such desperate people are easi...