Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
#1
From todays Mail - 3 June
Dogs should be killed to protect Britain's bluebells according to feminist Germaine Greer who blames the pets for killing the woodland flowers.
The outspoken academic told the Hay on Wye literary festival that dog owners walking their pets through bluebells are killing off a fungus necessary for them to grow.
Professor Greer, who owns a one-acre bluebell wood in Essex, said that mycorrhiza fungi is being killed off by dogs' faeces.
She also said the British bluebell is under threat from a Spanish variety of the plant.
'But the real threat to our bluebells is not a foreign invader,' she said. 'It is the use we make of the woodlands, people running through them, taking photos of each other standing on trampled bluebells.
'
And, at the risk of making you all very cross, may I suggest it is also time that the British gave up on their endless love affair with the dog.
'Even the most proactive woodland organisations like the Woodland Trust do not dare to say to dog walkers - who are about the only people who care about our woods - that they may not bring their dogs into the woods
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
#2
Some public figures don't have a clue about how to put their message across do they ?
I've heard about the Spanish Bluebell taking over the English one - a bit like the grey squirrel taking over the red one, but I'm not sure how it can do that - take over.
I've never heard about dog-poo being bad for bluebells though; perhaps that's why there's so much on the pavements here - people are trying to save the bluebell by not taking their dog over fields and woodlands!!
Roger
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,931
#3
A lot of brainy people are not known for their common sense and she must be one of them.
I bet her rather silly outburst has more to do with the desire for joe public not to walk the public footpaths on her land, the vast majority of them will keep to the paths not wander into the woods.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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#4
More likely a need to be outrageous and gain a little publicity. Does she have a book out soon?
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,948
#5
BERN/JAN
I think your right, why they make such statements usually has an undercurrent that they are not telling you.
most dog owners are responsible, i have dogs and one of them.
a lot of land owners have fought to keep p;ublic off public walkways
so probably a lot more to this story
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#6
my garden is overrun by the spanish variety, i can fill a few heavy duty black bags with them each year but they keep coming back.
with regard to ms greer, she will say anything to get noticed.
Guest 694- Registered: 22 Mar 2010
- Posts: 778
#7
hmmm
she would have a fit if she saw this then... lol ,
my mum and dogs stood on the PATH next to blue bells!
