Two-headed fish hatchlings cause finger pointing

I heard this story and was surprised at the amount it was beaten up.

Macadamia farmers on Queensland's Sunshine Coast are at the centre of a controversy over two-headed fish hatchlings.

The Department of Primary Industries in Queensland is investigating the discovery of two-headed Australian bass hatchlings on the Noosa River.

I remembered working at a rural university campus and a phonecall I received from a member of the public. She had a foal, a beautiful animal. The foal was born with five legs, one extra leg grew from the knee of one of its fore legs. She had spoken with her vet and couldn't afford the surgery to remove the extra leg (about $30k). She asked if the University would take the foal and fix it and keep it or find it a good home. I took her details and said I'd find someone to speak with her.

Later, I spoke with one of the vets in the school. She said it was quite common for animals to have such a deformity. She said that, much as she'd like to help, the University didn't have the funds to help and couldn't use the foal. This vet was an equine specialist.

People who live on the land would see many such deformities in animals for whatever reason. Usually, because of a breeding programme or because some deformed animals can not survive, the animals are killed, so we city folk don't see them so often.

You should have heard the dumb-ass questions the reporter asked on the radio!

PS: If people knew what was sprayed on their food at the farm and prior to picking, quite legally, they'd pitch a fit! Spuds are sprayed with a chemical to stop the eyes from shooting... that's just a start. Of course, all these chemicals have safe withholding periods and can not be used otherwise.

Transcrip & audio of ABC 13/1/09 AM story on this here.