I remember one time as a child attending school in Australia, overhearing a discussion between a woman who lived near the school and a local council officer. The council officer had discovered the woman had a dog of a certain breed that wasn't permitted in that region, and was telling the distraught woman that the dog would need to be taken away and killed. The dog hadn't caused any trouble or bitten anyone, mind you. Although at the time I didn't have any notion of "freedom", it shocked me nonetheless.

As someone put it, "The problem with Aussies is not that so many are descended from convicts – it's that so many are descended from prison officers".