All over the tabloids, so by way of a change, here's the link to the Australian Women's Weekly, if you don't fancy the usual Daily Mail type ones. Story is the same though.
www.aww.com.au/latest-news/news-stories/i-am-a-hunter-girl-12-defends-pictures-of-dead-giraffe-28519
So, at first I was on the "I'm outraged" bandwagon, but then I thought, well I had lamb chops the other day, so I can't really take that route.
Still doesn't feel right though to me somehow, although I can't decide if it's just because it's totally different to our cultural norms or whether there is something really wrong here.
Is she going to grow up to be a strong independent woman, jolly good for her, or is this not good parenting, do we think?
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I am not against hunting or shooting as long as it is for food or vermin control, but I am against hunting purely for Trophies and Ego! - I certainly hope she is going to eat ALL that Giraffe!
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Tastes pretty bland, actually.
I've shot a fair few impala, springboks etc in my time, as part of a culling operation, but don't think I could cap a giraffe.
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I am astounded that this has happened.
Do these people live so isolated from reality
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03yjtxj
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>>I am astounded that this has happened.
I too am astounded that this has happened. These animals have to be culled. Should they be bumped off quietly by a park ranger, or should the ranger watch as a rich American pays a load of cash to do it? So I am astonished that this outrage has been kindled.
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>>These animals have to be culled.
>>
Giraffes ? I think not. No mention of ill or too old.
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>> >>These animals have to be culled.
>> >>
>> Giraffes ? I think not. No mention of ill or too old.
>>
In some areas there is a surplus of them, as there are no natural predators. Drugging them, and transporting them*, is an expensive party, and often they cause chaos at the new site, as they are outsiders in an existing herd.
The whole wildlife industry these days relies on rich mutts with 'too much gun' spending $$$ on licenses for collecting 'trophies'.
Much of the time, that money goes back into conservation projects.
Doesn't make it right, and as i said above, i'd have qualms about capping Gerry the Giraffe.
* - a couple of years back, some local moron was transporting a few giraffes in a truck. Unfortunately, he didn't realise that bridge height restrictions applied to mammals as well as to trucks.
NOT a pretty sight.
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>> Doesn't make it right, and as i said above, i'd have qualms about capping Gerry
>> the Giraffe.
But you don't mind a cuddly impala? Why the difference?
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>
>> * - a couple of years back, some local moron was transporting a few giraffes
>> in a truck. Unfortunately, he didn't realise that bridge height restrictions applied to mammals as
>> well as to trucks.
>> NOT a pretty sight.
>>
>>
...hadn't been diverted via the M20 had he?.........
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Who mentioned either too ill or old (other than you?). There are just too many - as even this Mail article which seems outraged at the potential deaths suggests.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2089806/The-giraffe-hunters-pay-10-000-shoot-gentle-giants-guns-bows-sport.html
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I fully understand the need to cull animals, or shoot those which are ill, elderly and suffering. However, I think it should be left to the park rangers and professionals, whilst accepting that these trophy hunters might be equally good shots.
Why the trophy hunters want to do it though is a mystery to me. I think they need therapy.
Rather like living in Lancashire when you are so close to Yorkshire. Why?
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Big game hunting (except for food, or by park rangers and the like keeping everything tidy and within bounds) is unnecessary, therefore gratuitous. Ernest Hemingway enjoyed it, but I don't think I would. Firearms give humans an unfair advantage... not that I fancy going after elephants or lions with a spear or bow and arrow.
Wilfred Thesiger in his autobiography The Life of my Choice admits to shooting 50-odd lions in Darfur, on behalf of locals whose flocks were being eaten by the predators. He doesn't seem proud of himself and doesn't seem to regard the culling as 'sport'. Unlike Hemingway who is puffed-up and irritatingly macho about it.
Thesiger was an odd cat, an unusual and rather frightening person. Another thing he admits to is putting a fatally-burned local 'out of his misery' by shooting him. Not many of us could do that without endless hand-wringing and hesitation. .
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On the shoots i go on I'm always surprised at how few people want the birds at the end. The more expensive the shoot the less interested they are having any of them. I always take as many as is polite to take.
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Years ago I used to "Beat" Pheasants for the local Estate, and at the end of the day the birds were sorted into two piles, Quality and carnage. As you say, the "Toffs" were allowed to take a brace apiece, but they seldom did, the rest were sold to finance the day and to restock. The "Beaters" were allowed to take one bird each from the carnage pile, the rest of them went to the kitchens whereby what could be salvaged was, and the dogs got the remainders.
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>>As you say, the "Toffs" were allowed to take a brace apiece, but they seldom did, the rest
>>were sold to finance the day and to restock.
It's an odd thing. The 'rest' *might* have been sold, for 20-25p each. Barely worth it; often they get dumped - though BASC and the CA have been much better at it since. Yet a fiver or more by the time they reach Waitrose.
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at the end of the day the birds were sorted into two piles, Quality and carnage. As you say, the "Toffs" were allowed to take a brace apiece, but they seldom did, the rest were sold to finance the day and to restock. The "Beaters" were allowed to take one bird each from the carnage pile, the rest of them went to the kitchens whereby what could be salvaged was, and the dogs got the remainders.
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Bit different to the ones i go beating on. Beaters always get first choice and any birds in a bit of a state are offered to those with young dogs for training. To not offer the beaters first choice is seen as rude, it's then the guns choice but like I say many aren't interested in taking any birds for whatever reason.
There are some with the us and them shoots but I tend not to bother with them. The guns have their own meeting and separate themselves from the beaters. I tend not to bother going on them again.
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I don't like game much, especially when it's 'well-hung' which means to my nose more or less rotten or at least 'off'.
Proper steak, just 'set' as they say, is more my sort of thing. Makes a very nice pudding, with a bit of wine and some seasoning.
We had some médaillons last night, fried with fried potatoes. Very nice but better cooked slowly in a pudding. All that fat and pastry cooked to slow perfection.
Are we being slowly poisoned by the antibiotics fed to farm animals to make them big? I'm old enough not to care, but can't help wondering about the effects on the young.
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I wouldn't be allowed to take part in a proper gents' shoot. Improperly dressed just for a start, and with bad attitudes (although safe and competent with firearms).
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I don't think it's just farm animals, there's some poison or other in most everyday food nowadays! - if people really cared what they put into their mouths there wouldn't be nearly 7 billion of us around. The "convenience" of pre-prepared food outweighs the notion that it's not good for us! but we really haven't a lot of other options, we've got to eat.
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We've got nut cutlets (two each!) served with salad and new? potatoes tonight ... luvly grub.
8-}
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>> We've got nut cutlets (two each!)
>> ...luvly grub.
I've not eaten meat for 33 years, but nut cutlets - no, no, no!!!
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>>nut cutlets - no, no, no!!!
We haves 'em once a week (Tesco's) and quite enjoy them. We 'went veggie' for about 1 year, but I wasn't thriving. We have chicken and turkey 3 times per week, fish twice a week.
Blow out tomorrow (Wed) - 2 eggs, chips, BB's, and toms.
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>> I don't think it's just farm animals, there's some poison or other in most everyday
>> food nowadays!
I think that just modern day neurosis. Food is more hygienically prepared, regulated and tested than has ever been. Just read up on Victorian food adulteration, TB infected milk in the 1930s or food poisoning before the widespread ownership of refrigerators.
Some food mighty not be particularly good for you in that it contains a lot of sugar or salt but it is certainly not full of poison either natural or man made. And the curious view that all natural things are somehow healthy is very strange. The sugar in a beetroot is just as fattening as the the sugar in a cupcake. The oxalic acid in agreen potato can male you very ill.
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>> So, at first I was on the "I'm outraged" bandwagon, but then I thought, well
>> I had lamb chops the other day, so I can't really take that route.
The distinction for me is between killing something for the pleasure of killing it, and killing it to manage the ecology, protect the local population, eat it etc.
You can still argue that if it is going to be shot anyway, you might as well get $5,000 or whatever from a rich American to put to a useful purpose. But inviting a child to take pleasure in killing seems off to me.
I'm not sure I'd call plugging a giraffe hunting either, but perhaps they are harder to sneak up on than I imagine.
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My daughter goes foxhunting. Well, she rides with a hunt and sometimes a fox gets in the way. She also fishes and shoots. (she fences and uses a bow also, but not for hunting).
Fish and birds get eaten, generally. Typically also gutted & prepared by her. she is a strange 14yr old at times.
I do not hunt. I will occasionally fish. I don't shoot. I do eat meat.
I can't say I like the foxhunting, but its her choice. The fishing doesn't bother me at all and I try to ignore the shooting. I have facilitated these activities, but they were never my idea.
What I do like, though, is the type of person she has become through all these activities. Much more capable, independent and strong than most girls of her age. The fact that she scares the crap out of 14yr old boys and they all run away works for me also.
Interestingly her sister is not interested in any of it.
The grouse hunting stuff bothers me, since its *"only" killing. Little hunting, stalking, no knowledge required, just stand there and wait for a bird to be bred and then chased in front of you.
I would not allow her to do that. Insofar as one gets to "allow" a teenager.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Tue 30 Aug 16 at 16:32
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You have foxhounds in South America?
N.B. for "grouse hunting (sic)" correctly (in English English) "grouse shooting". High levels of shooting skill required to shoot a grouse, not like a fat pheasant. And they're not bred, they're all wild, you can't breed them. All you can do is to give them the best possible chance of breeding on their own. Deep pockets required, mind.
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>>You have foxhounds in South America?
I don't know, probably in Argentina, but No. 1 rides in the UK.
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>>I don't know, probably in Argentina,
I'm not aware of any.
>>but No. 1 rides in the UK.
Commuting by air for a day with the hounds. I'm impressed!
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I rough shoot and also have a hand in running a syndicate. Big game would never be in my sights.
The Grouse mob are currently being pursued by Chris Packham and his cronies. In part I respect Packham, but he is not always correct. Apparently there are (were) a very limited number of breeding pairs of Hen Harriers which I believe we're satellite tagged. I further understand that some of those pairs have disappeared off of the radar so to speak in Grouse moor areas. The Grouse shooting fraternity carries some weight, but IF they are responsible for the demise of a seriously threatened species then I do not wish them well and they are fools to themselves.
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I am a hunter - devonite
