What Gives Us The Right?
Hunting game is NOT a countryside sport. It is murder.
This week, I spent some time dogsitting in a beautiful home with a gorgeous garden.
Right out in the countryside.
The first few buds of spring were poking their way out of the near barren branches of the shrubs, and the breeze was finally double-digits in temperature. The dogs were having a lovely time running around their enormous back garden, and I felt joyful as the sun warmed my back through my coat.
I love that feeling.
It is the first time in the year that you can feel spring coming. Not just because the calendar says so but because the air you breathe is alive with the energy of new beginnings. The sense that the earth, the plants, the animals are all waking up. It’s actually tangible. It’s exciting. It’s cup-filling. It’s powerful.
Those of us whose belief systems involve harming none and are nature-based are especially highly attuned to seasonal changes. After the grey, cold, stark Winter, witnessing the shift lifts us from within, and we feel ourselves glowing with life.
It is truly magical.
Then, suddenly, the awful sound of a gunshot ruined my ecstasy. And another. And another.
Why, as humans, do we feel it is ok to go around killing things? I just don’t get it.
Why take lives for fun?
Game Birds
It’s only a game/sport if both parties know they are playing. (And agree to the rules.)
Before I was vegan, or even vegetarian, many years ago, I used to think eating game was more ethical than eating farmed animals because the game at least had a free life before they were murdered.
This is not so.
Game birds are often raised in captivity, often living miserable lives in tiny, cramped cages. The excuse given is that this protects them from foxes. (Hint: If they were not stuck being bred for shooting, they wouldn’t need protection.) The cage stops them from escaping and living as free as they should have the right to. They are born into prisons having committed no crime.
They are then transported out in their cages to a place in the middle of nowhere, where they have no idea how to find food or shelter. They are left confused and frightened to spread out for a short period of time, where they are then shot mercilessly.
The image below shows a cage full of thousands of birds, devoid of all but the sight of metal walls, where game birds are kept to produce eggs. This is stomach-churning.
People excuse these as “countryside pursuits” and say they have been doing them for hundreds of years. They say only true “country folk” could possibly understand, and they laugh at the city boys who complain about their cruelty.
Just because we did something in the past doesn’t make it OK to do it now.
But here’s the real kicker. My family have lived within an hour of my home in rural Suffolk for over 500 years, which I can trace. We even have a road named after my Gt. Gt. Gt. Grandparents and a dedication to my family on the wall of the local village church. We ARE countryside folk. They have no excuse for their murderous tendencies, and shooting things is not what real countryside folk want to do. We’ve been here longer than most rifle-carrying plonkers and want to protect nature and the animals that could dwell and thrive within its bosom.
Countryside folk of the past needed to hunt for game and meat to survive and feed their families. They didn’t have a Tesco or Sainsbury's filled with fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, beans, grains, and all the other things we need to eat well. They didn’t have Ocado deliveries, freezers, or the ability to wrap things in airtight plastic wrappers to keep them fresh. The most they could do was pickles, chutney, and jams, and they hoped that the coolest spot in the pantry would keep their food for long enough to eat before it went off.
Winters were long and harsh, and these folks had a reason to hunt. Now, we can easily live without meat and without killing animals where possible. Yes, I know field deaths are involved in crop farming before the smart-arse at the back pipes up. The average vegan consumes far fewer crops (leading to fewer crop deaths) than an animal raised to provide meat to an omnivore.
It was about survival in the past. But now, it is just about carelessly torturing animals for a lifetime and cruelly taking lives.
Those very same lives should have been out there experiencing the beauty of the earth coming to life, as I was, not being cruelly and thoughtlessly slaughtered by some wanker with a rifle who thinks they have the right to do that.
What kind of person does that?
Today’s Sub Stats
Because not all of us have thousands of followers overnight. Here is what a normal Substack looks like:
Hi. I hate the shooting cretins, who don't even shoot and keep their brace! It often get dumped. The poor birds are often shipped in as chick's too, so have no idea how to survive. When they do get key out, they make it harder for the resident wildlife too, all vying for the same food.
Its only sport if both people choose to play the game!
Tradition..its a cheats way to hide their vile behaviour! We should bring back hanging if they like tradition so much !!??
Hi, I like your post. I too would be vegan if I had a fraction of your determination. When we first moved out of the city, we thought we’d found our forever rural idyll. But I can remember clearly standing in the garden just before Xmas the first year we arrived and listening to a whole morning of shooting. And realising there was a pheasant shoot nearby. (there are actually three). Over time, I have met the owners of this highly lucrative business and also some of the people who do the shooting. They appear perfectly normal and charming. When the pheasants aren’t ready to be shot, the gun owners amuse themselves by shooting deer (totally legal), foxes and even badgers. They always have seemingly plausible reasons for all the killing, mostly along the lines of - “we are providing a service for local farmers “ etc etc. If you fancy a nice lunch in local pubs, expect to see the following: ‘please be aware that some of the meat may contain lead shot’ Says it all really 👀👀👀