Honourable Hunting

Yeah, half tempted to post this for discussion, but I can kind of guess exactly how the conversation will go and finally peter-out. A London Townie has got so fed up with the nice approachs to discouraging Grey Squirrels, that they have concluded that the nice approach just does not work, and they want the lot killed.

As always, I don’t promote hunting for the pleasure of it. Do so if you have call to do it, and use all that you can and offer to those that you can’t use.

Anyhoo, DeathtoGreySquirrels.com wants your support. I’m not saying nothin’.

Although I do vaguely remember reading a forum post about a gentleman that did hunt Grey Squirrels, as he considered them out-of-balance in his area, he did eat what he could, and left those that he couldn’t, for Badgers and Foxes.

Tip of the ol’ hat to The Register for this story.

technorati tags: squirrel, hunting, pest

This age old bugbear of a topic has come up again recently. I can only give my opinion accurately, well it is my blog after all. There seem to be a few camps on this:

• The Hardcore Vegans/Vegetarians, you know, so hardcore they won’t even go through a place that has the word ‘ham’ in it.
• Then you have the Vegans/Vegetarians who feel that it can’t be done honourably, but they don’t feel the need to berate you for it.
• The Vegans/Vegetarians that have more balls than many Omnivores and state that they would hunt if life depended on it.
• The Omnivores that couldn’t hunt, but are OK to purchase it, be it a super-market or an Organic/Local outlet.
• Then we seem to have the folks that believe it’s possible to hunt in a sacred, and honourable way, with ritual etc.
• Then, I think, there’s me.

I think it’s possible to hunt with honour, and in a sacred manner, aware of the process from cradle to grave and rebirth and beyond. To acknowledge each crossing between places. But to emphasise this into a social-ritualistic event would be the path to the uncouth bastardisation that modern fox-hunting became.

The need and urge to kill for sustenance and tools, and kit, and charms and whatever you make from the resources you have acquired, is a base instinct. A very defining instinct intrinsically coded into all of us. For me, it’s at the very root of my druidry, it’s a god in itself, the place between living and dieing, the union and kinship of tribe, the basis of all core social activity such as trade, story-telling, singing, dancing, and music (and much more beside).

technorati tags: hunting, honour, omnivore, vegan, vegetarian