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Indian camels celebrate high oil prices

Posted at 10:22 AM on 06 May 2008

Rising oil prices have many Homo sapiens in a tizzy, but at least one species is celebrating high fuel costs: the camel. Finding it spendy to fuel their tractors, farmers in India are turning to ungulate power. "It's excellent for the camel population if the price of oil continues to go up because demand for camels will also go up," says Ilse Köhler-Rollefson of the League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development. That's good news for Indian camels, which have seen their population drop by more than half in the last decade. Camel supporters hope that pushing the animals' usefulness as transportation will get them over the hump to a sustainable population.

source: Financial Times

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Comments: (2 comments)

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more abuse!

Honestly, if I knew that these camels were going to be treated well and kindly sure, I am all for this. But considering the source "Livestock Development" is providing this information, I can only imagine animals being pushed to their limits with little care and food.

I think more the oil shit continues the more the animals on this planet will be used and abused to their limits! until one day we will have nothing! -

Humans are the only species that use up so much, yet provide so little in return!

by javaearth at 10:48 AM on 06 May 2008

This is tricky

Getting people to go slow is good. Getting people to stop relying on fossil fuels is good.

But JavaEarth is right (as always): There is a big occasion for abusing the camels here, which we must watch out for.

After all, some animal-rightsists would tell us that no exploitation of camels at all as beasts of burden should be allowed; it is unethical and should everywhere be stopped. I myself am not ready to go that far. Still, we can reasonably expect many instances of abuse, and we should be prepared to decry them when we see them.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 11:41 AM on 06 May 2008

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