NEWS that the largest hog ever killed for sport was bought and used for canned hunting has shocked and repulsed many animal lovers.
Not least because the pig was shot eight times by an eleven-year-old boy using a hand-gun.
It was then celebrated by the hunting press as a victory. There was no condemnation of the captive hog being stalked for three hours before being put out of its misery with a bullet to the head.
No mention of the fact it would have been in terrible pain as it grew weaker from massive blood loss.
It sickens me that even in this country the hunting/shooting brigade kills around nine million animal victims every year.
They call this managing the countryside. They also call it conservation to butcher animals that threaten their live targets.
I call it murder!
It really gets to me that supporters of blood-sports also encourage their children to kill wildlife for fun. It's like they were toys, not living animals. It trivialises life!
It's this kind of mentality that prevents society from moving forward and becoming more civilised.
But it's not just the animals that are bullied - it's anyone that dares to go against their cruel sport.
Some years ago I was banned from walking through a local woodland (a wood that I had enjoyed for over 20 years).
My crime was in alerting the local media about a vixen and cub I found butchered and left to rot on woodland debris. The vixen had been shot and her cub disembowelled by dogs.
This photo was taken just days after I found the vixen and her cub dead in 2003
This woodland, along with 90% of other land in Britain, is privately owned and a great deal of it is used to kill wildlife for recreation.
Yet who exactly owns that 90%? Well if the author of “Who owns Britain?” is right - we all do! Yet we are kept off this land so that a minority can plunder our wildlife without interruption.
Even more appalling is how successive governments protect the blood-sports lobby, and have given them the authority to be the guardians/vandals of the countryside.
I agree with Douglas Batchelor that we need a “green revolution”. I for one will be lobbying my MP to say NO to countryside bullies and killers of our wildlife.
It's time we, the public, fought back and demanded our land back. Land that was stolen from our ancestors. The Irish did it - so should we!
As a nation we have every right to enjoy the flora and fauna, not to mention the wildlife, in our countryside. I intend enjoying it, whenever and wherever I find it.
After all, I respect the land, I leave the wildlife alone and the only evidence that I was there, are the footprints I leave behind.
