Aussie vet’s warning against emu biz fell on deaf ears

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“There is hardly an emu farm in Australia now, all have failed on economic grounds; the claimed economic largesse from emu meat or oil did not eventuate,” read the warning mail from former president of RSPCA, Australia, Dr Hugh Wirth, to his counterparts in India.

The reputed veterinarian, who is a member of the International Board of the World Society for Protection of Animals, London, also spoke to some his friends in South India and explained that a similar scandal had broken a decade back in Australia.

And the same message with similar stories from United States was shared among bureaucrats and policy makers in South India.

Despite warnings, the government machineries in the southern states including Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka failed to respond and now the emu scam is pegged to be at around Rs 100 crore and thousands of hapless birds have died so far, disclose highly placed sources.

“The governments involved must file a petition before the courts to prevent any more such farms being set up by private investors.

And it’s high time to regulate the problem of emus and also bale out the poor farmers”, a veterinarian attached to the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University said.

“Emus are exotic to the Indian sub-continent, more research should have been done before breeding these birds here. Further these are not endangered wild animals that can be maintained at zoos.

Commercial exploitation has made the fate of these birds to hang in balance,” opined Mr K. V. R. K. Thirunaranan, founder, The Nature Trust.

blue cross directed to deploy volunteers to emu farms

A few days after Deccan Chronicle wrote about how animal welfare organisations were maintaining a stoic silence on the emu scam and the death of the hapless birds in the western districts, Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) on Thursday responded and said AWBI has already shared a lot
of intelligence with the district administrations and sent volunteers to Madurai and Erode to examine the issue and recommend solutions.

AWBI vice-chairman, Dr S. Chinni Krishna, said the board has been in touch with the district administrations seeking their intervention to rescue the Aussie birds.

Even before the scam broke out, AWBI began discussions about the mushrooming emu farms and already alerted several animal welfare organisations in this regard to obtain local intelligence.

AWBI had also asked Blue Cross of India to deploy its volunteers to visit the emu farms.

“We are waiting for the final report of Blue Cross to follow up the issue. The issue had also been taken up with the state governments seeking their intervention,” Dr Krishna said, adding that AWBI was committed and doing its best to help the abandoned birds.

Animal welfare organisations have also appealed to the Union government seeking a total ban on emu meat.

The Mumbai-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has sent a letter to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention.

PETA CEO Poorva Joshipura explained how thousands of emus have been abandoned and left to starve in Tamil Nadu.