Outspoken ... Germaine Greer. Photo: Getty Images
Outspoken Australian feminist Germaine Greer has launched a stinging attack on domestic dogs, blaming them for the ruination of a protected perennial flower, the English bluebell.
Addressing Britain's Hay Festival on Thursday, the 72-year-old Melbourne-born academic who owns a patch of land covered in the plant that flowers in spring, pointed the finger at toxic dog poo for the plant's scarcity.
"If you love your bluebells, kill your dog," said Greer dramatically, Britain's Daily Telegraph website reported.
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She blamed the phosphorous in dog faeces for changing the chemical environment and killing off fungi, essential for the bluebell's survival.
"At the risk of making you all very cross, may I suggest that it is time the British gave up on their endless love affair with the dog," Greer said.
She also suggested restricting human access to bluebell woodlands.
"The real threat to our bluebells, she said, "is the use we make of the woodlands - people running through them, taking photos of each other standing on trampled bluebells".
Poor Germy, I think she is starting to lose it if this is the only solution she can up with to prevent people and dogs from accessing areas where bluebells grow.
RIP Germy. You once had a razor sharp mind, alas I fear that may have gone the way of your bluebells.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
How much dog shit do you people have over there. A whole field is wiped out because of dog shit? Did every dog in town like the smell of bluebells so much that they all just had to shit in the bluebell field? Why don't they try fencing off some parts where the bluebells grow?
May be she is going loopy like her mother...But then Germy does she have a filthy rich daughter that will leave her in a hovel swimming in her own filth?
To be honest.. I would pay to watch her go bonkers and start throwing cats at people walking their dogs past her house or the Blue Bells
If our collective behavior is harmful then our collective behavior should change.
If too many people have too many dogs (or cats) then the rules of society should be changed to increase the share of the costs borne by the dog owners until the numbers are acceptable.
It is the same with owning SUVs or anything else where we cannot sustain a world where 'everybody has one'. People who want them badly enough to pay the additional costs should be able to do so. The costs should be adjusted until the outcome is sustainable.
"cost" as used here is a general term which can include things other than money-costs. Like labor, regulatory costs, &c.
Dog poo left to sit dries and the various compounds within are dispersed by the wind. I don't agree with her about getting rid of dogs, obviously, but people who own them should pick up after them in public places & in natural settings. If you want to keep you own yard full of germy dogshit, so be it. Personally I prefer to spend 15 minutes every week picking up poo (wearing disposable gloves) and disposing of it properly. Perhaps that marks me as a mad feminist?
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
UK bluebells are currently at risk of disappearing as a result of mixing with the scentless non-native Spanish bluebell which are often planted in gardens.
Maybe they should kill gardeners...
Sometimes it seems as though one has to cross the line just to figger out where it is
bigskygal wrote:Personally I prefer to spend 15 minutes every week picking up poo (wearing disposable gloves) and disposing of it properly. Perhaps that marks me as a mad feminist?
No.
It makes you a persnickety poo picking person.
Personally, I appreciate the poo pickers, but I also see a lot of humor when I watch dog walkers carrying bags.
In the olden days, when dogs ran free and pooped naturally, it was a good way to meet women when your dogs interacted with each other on the street.
But nowadays, I'm not attracted to any woman who is walking down the street carrying a bag of dog shit.
I guess my taste in women has been refined now that I've matured.
bigskygal wrote:Dog poo left to sit dries and the various compounds within are dispersed by the wind.
Dry? In the UK? Are you insane?
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Joe Guy wrote:In the olden days, when dogs ran free and pooped naturally, it was a good way to meet women when your dogs interacted with each other on the street.
But nowadays, I'm not attracted to any woman who is walking down the street carrying a bag of dog shit.
I guess my taste in women has been refined now that I've matured.
And how attractive was it to watch someone having to scrape dog shit off her shoe after having stepped in it?
"Hang on while I log in to the James Webb telescope to search the known universe for who the fuck asked you." -- James Fell
