Human Rights for Worms?

In a sure sign of local councils having more money than sense a New Zealand worm business has been forced to prove that no worms were psychologically harmed by eating human poo during the development of their compost product.

A Kiwi who invented a toilet that uses worms to produce compost has had to prove the worms are not traumatised by the experience before authorities would approve his product. An Auckland Regional Council official told Coll Bell to get an expert's report on the psychological impact on the worms."She felt that the worms were being unfairly treated, being expected to deal with human faeces, and that it could affect them in a psychological way," Bell says. The official told him to find someone with the necessary qualifications to say the worms are happy. Bell says his "wormorator" was finally approved after a vermiculture expert reported the worms were in excellent health and breeding happily.

Well thank goodness for that. I regularly commit worm genocide by maintaining a worm farm in a hot part of the world. The worms are all around during the winter, but they get fried and disappear when the temperature hits 30 degrees. I wonder if I will be held to account for multiple counts of inhumane worm accommodation violations?

Wouldn't it be great to be a local council official with an open ended agenda and budget to investigate everything that needs to be understood better so that they can sleep soundly at night, not having nightmares about worms chomping down human faeces.

Thanks DD McNicolls from Strewth.