Feelings... nothing more than feelings....

Ghandi was quoted as saying "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." Others, including Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, and Pope John Paul II have expressed similar sentiments at one time or another.

Notwithstanding, if any of them were around today, they might be inclined to tell the Auckland Regional Council that the line for that concern might best be drawn somewhere above the local worm population. From The Register:

Auckland Regional Council (ARC) has required the inventor of a worm-driven composting toilet to get professional confirmation that his workforce was not "traumatised or stressed" by its crap job, the Sunday Star Times reports.

Colin Bell was looking for official approval for his "wormorator", which relies on a colony of tiger worms to tackle solid waste while the resulting liquid residue can be filtered and "disposed of in underground trenches". A council operative duly paid a visit, but became "concerned" at the worms' working conditions.

Bell recounted: "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. I said, `Well, what do I do about that?' and she said `you have to have someone with the necessary qualifications to say the worms are happy'."

. . . .

Mercifully, vermiculture consultant Patricia Naidu was able to assure ARC that the worms were "in excellent health and breeding happily".