The Law of the Jungle
Wilf Batty isn’t a name from the past that provokes instant recognition. Most probably have no idea who he was or what he did. Well, he was a farmer in the Mawbanna district of Tasmania, and what he did on 13 May 1930 made his name an unenviable footnote in this planet’s natural history. Wilf Batty shot and killed the last known Tasmanian tiger living in the wild. Six years later, the final Tasmanian tiger in captivity, imprisoned at Hobart’s Beaumaris Zoo, died neglected and forgotten. This distinctive marsupial was even captured on film prior to 7 September 1936, the day a species that had been around for an estimated 25 million years ceased to exist.
Native Aboriginal Australians seemed to have lived in relative harmony for centuries alongside the Tasmanian tiger, but the familiar tale of colonisation by Europeans gradually left the remote outpost of Tasmania as its remaining refuge. When that too began to be colonised, the farmers hoping to make a living from the land perceived this strange-looking creature that largely avoided contact with humans as a pest and threat to their livestock. Ignorance as to the habits of the tiger enabled opportunistic Bushmen to lobby the colonial government for compensation relating to damages the animal had allegedly inflicted on their livelihoods. The response was a bill passed in 1888 that awarded a £1-per-head state bounty on the tiger, a not-insufficient amount at the time and one that was naturally exploited. This arrangement remained in place for 31 years, during which the animal’s population was utterly decimated, with more than 2,000 Tasmanian tigers slaughtered. The writing was on the wall for a special and unique animal that many in certain quarters of Australasia refuse to acknowledge has now been extinct for 80 years.
So-called ‘primitive’ native people of the lands incorporated into imperial European territories throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries tended to view the wildlife surrounding them as Europeans once had – as a source of food, clothing and occasional pagan sacrifice. The notion of hunting a beast for sport was not one they recognised. The Native American Indian tribes in particular seem to have had an instinctive understanding of the ecosystem governing their surroundings, aware that they were merely one link in an extended chain and that a delicate equilibrium had to be maintained in order for life as they knew it to survive. They never foresaw the infiltration of ‘civilisation’ of the European mode being the catalyst that would spark the swift destruction of that life.
With a bloodthirsty appetite for inflicting extermination upon the natural world, Brits abroad exported their lengthy history of hunting for fun. The impact on India’s tiger population during the age of the Raj is illustrated with graphic brutality in the images taken of tiger-hunts indulged in by the likes of George V as the royal party proudly display a pile of tiger corpses at their feet, no doubt poised to hack off a few heads to nail above the doorways of the stately homes of the mother country. But then, a man such as George V, belonging to a class raised on a diet of grouse-shooting and the hunting of foxes and stags, was hardly likely to extol the virtues of preservation. It would seem to be a particularly British quirk to mask any old excuse for a fancy-dress ceremonial occasion in the guise of pest control, but that’s just us, isn’t it.
A different mindset applies in America. There, it is primarily the working man who indulges in hunting, a lumberjack-shirted macho ritual often entered into by weekenders seeking to prove their virility. Unless the guys wielding the shotguns are dirt-poor hicks in dire need of a dentist, slaughtering an animal for food is not the motivation, and if a cull of a species is required because its numbers are in excess of the desired amount, there are more humane ways and means of undertaking this task that don’t involve the employment of Budweiser-swilling rednecks. Therefore, what is the real motivation for this blue-collar tradition? A hundred or so years ago, there was a species of bird known as the passenger pigeon that provided North America with one of its very own natural wonders. In 1866, an estimated 3.5 million-strong flock flying over Ontario was reported as being a mile wide, 300 miles long and taking 14 hours to pass a single point. For many Americans, having such birds as target practice proved irresistible and the passenger pigeon was declared extinct in 1914, with the last recorded specimen dying in Cincinnati Zoo. Was it really so much fun to shoot down a passenger pigeon that it warranted wiping out an entire species?
There is a sequence in the film ‘The Queen’ that for me aptly sums up the senselessness and inexplicable appeal of obliterating natural beauty for no justifiable purpose. Helen Mirren as HM is stopped dead in her tracks whilst driving through the Balmoral estate by a magnificent stag, an absolutely stunning example of organic engineering that enters into a stare-out contest with the sovereign. The next time we see this awesome beast on screen, it is a decapitated cadaver strung-up by its feet. I found this as disturbing a sight as I’ve ever seen in a movie.
I recently watched an episode of ‘Jason King’ in which our moustachioed dandy hero killed a rhino merely so he could add it to his list of achievements. Whilst Mr Wyngarde’s sartorial flamboyance has naturally dated, there is a kitsch charm to that aspect of his character, yet the manner in which the part he played casually slaughtered a rhino seemed more dated than anything he was wearing. The recent furore over the now-retired King Juan Carlos of Spain when he had a holiday that consisted of killing elephants reflected the change of opinion surrounding what used to be known as Big Game Hunting; no longer seen as the permissible pastime of the rich and stupid, any publicity now afforded the practice is universally negative.
Such was the case this week when an obscure American idiot name of Walter Palmer was revealed to have paid the best part of $55,000 to kill a famous lion called Cecil in Zimbabwe. He aimed a bow-and-arrow at the animal and fired. The wounded beast staggered away and stumbled around in agony for almost two days before Palmer and his party tracked it down again, shot it dead and then beheaded and skinned it. Is the natural response of being confronted by beauty to extinguish it? If a human being cannot feel empathy with the creatures he shares the planet with, what hope is there? Anyone with any genuine humanity looks at a lion with awe, and ending the life of such a proud and beautiful product of nature shouldn’t even enter one’s head. Where is the pleasure in that?
Growing awareness that the animal kingdom is not immortal has at least led to an about-turn in general opinion of Big Game Hunting, but whereas elephants and rhinos are rightly recognised as precious species that need our protection, what of the less attractive animals such as vultures? If ever a reminder were needed that no creature exists without a role to play in the bigger picture, the killing of vultures in some African countries has resulted in an abundance of animal carcasses clogging up the rivers, with the rotting matter polluting the water that is then drunk by humans. A vulture has a job to do and if it is made redundant, there is no other creature waiting to fill the gap. Whether one regards the tree of life as secular evolution or the handiwork of a deity, the fact remains that there is a purpose behind it and if humanity tampers with any branch on that tree, the ramifications can be disastrous for all. Recognising that we are elements of an interconnected framework that exists for a reason does not make one a tree-hugging, lentil-scoffing stereotype. It should be a given that it makes us bloody human.
Petunia Winegum
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July 30, 2015 at 9:06 am -
July 30, 2015 at 9:11 am -
Guns don’t kill lions. Dentists do. I heard on the wireless his surgery is now picketed and remains closed. God bless America. Power to the people.
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July 30, 2015 at 11:55 am -
“I’ve just had a fun holiday maiming and killing. Open wide, this won’t hurt a bit.”
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July 30, 2015 at 11:59 am -
I wish my 1960’s NHS piece-work dentist had satiated his blood-lust on lions rather than me. I guess that makes me a bad person.
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July 30, 2015 at 6:29 pm -
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July 31, 2015 at 11:08 am -
Why assume it would be satiated? He could have a collection of trophy photos of him grinning alongside his patients.
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July 31, 2015 at 11:42 am -
I was always a bit dubious about that necklace he wore….
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July 31, 2015 at 10:58 am -
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July 31, 2015 at 12:13 pm -
Neat that you got allocated an almost-Reuters logo by the ghosts in the machine
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July 31, 2015 at 4:51 pm -
Apologies Moor, one of the peculiarities of my *profession/employers* has me up at unusual hours (Arkansas USA) when some sorts of crisis threatens to erupt at any number of spots on the planet. True, y’all only near certain see me appearing in the comments section of Raccoon Arms around Remembrance Day and sometimes Christmastime.
I seem to recall my last comment appeared after Petunia had suffered the loss of “a friend” and I’d posted a video of solace from Australia.
I suppose I should add I’m not an aficionado of hunting in the sense someone admitting residence in Arkansas might be taken for. I do “hunt” but its not for the sorts of trophies that a gentleman would wish to hang heads on a wall or, as someone mentions later on further down the thread, antlers from some sort of species to serve as a hat-rack.
As the Deadly Dentist of Minnesota (also USA) might join in me mentioning in the only manner of irony someone of my sort has available, “Meanwhile in Minnesota”
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July 30, 2015 at 9:32 am -
There is a tale (possibly apocryphal) of a Kruger Park ranger who came across a couple of likely lads (Shufta) about to kill a leopard in the foullest possible way. They had knocked it out, trussed it and were about to complete the job with a heated poker, which leaves the pelt undamaged by holes (Edward II!) 500 Rand to them, £40K on Bond Street, so that probably dates it.
The Ranger, who didn’t like poachers much anyway, took a rather dim view of all this and arrived at a rather Old Testament solution.
Nearby was a corrugated lean-to – storage hut, crapper, whatever. He arrested the two, cuffed them and chucked them in the shed. Then, when the Leopard started to stir, he untied it, and chucked it in after them, sensibly retreating to his Land Rover to await events.
It was soon over…
But so far as this guy is concerned, I simply do not get it. He’s missed the point, utterly. “I didn’t know it was such a popular Lion…” Huh? WTF has that to do with it, you miserable inadequate?
Any fool can train to be a dentist, but no fool can train to be a Lion. Frankly, I’m surprised that he isn’t a lawyer.
I wouldn’t mind half an hour with him, armed with a pair of pliers and a coarse file. At least it would give him something to do, as his business seems to have closed the shutters. Physician, heal thyself.
But I wouldn’t be surprised if he has some redneck/survivalist support. I know it’s silly season, etc. NRA dentist of the year?
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July 30, 2015 at 9:40 am -
I imagine the red deer hunting industry in Scotland will be keeping a low profile just now in case twitter finds out.
http://inverlodge.com/activities/stalking/
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July 30, 2015 at 9:34 am -
If wild animals need to be culled then have it done by experienced, professional hunters with guns. Not by rich dilettantes with bows. I used to be an archer before my shoulders gave up the struggle and compound (rambo) bows are powerful and easier to shoot than a longbow but not suitable for killing large animals outright. They usually wound and cause suffering leaving it to the professionals to hunt down and dispatch the beast. If you must hunt use a camera.
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July 30, 2015 at 9:54 am -
I wonder why this story has suddenly become a media sensation. Clearly it’s political since lion hunting of this commercial sort has been going on for a long time and is said to be helping to finance the African efforts in Conservation. i for one have known all about it for a long time, having noticed a variety of reporting about it. Tens if not hundreds of lions and no doubt other beasties, so why this one, and why now? People seem to be like media cattle being led by the nose all the time nowadays.
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July 30, 2015 at 12:45 pm -
“is said to be helping to finance the African efforts in Conservation”
I wonder how much of that is true, as opposed to being used as an excuse. Safaris that don’t involve killing animals must bring in money too.-
July 30, 2015 at 12:54 pm -
The dentist was paying £55k just for the Hunt I heard. That’s not Mass Tourism. I wonder about the effects on the Veldt of coaches full of Economy Class, oohing and aahing and overwhelming the local ecosystem with their accumulated waste products.
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July 30, 2015 at 1:13 pm -
One of the comments was from some guy over there complaining that Cecil could have been worth millions because he was so famous.
So how come nobody was keeping an eye on him if he was worth so much?
And how come if he was so famous I’d never bloody heard of him before?
A lawsuit claiming millions in damages perchance?I gather one reason he was so “famous” was that he was very old.
One of the aspects I recall reading about the modern commercial hunting over there is that they target the elderly animals that are no longer breeders/Pride rulers.-
July 30, 2015 at 2:14 pm -
Yes, cos being equipped with a GPS collar is of no significance, hmmm? And does your knowledge amount to anything more about protected animals for scientific study? And is your knowledge, one way or another, important in this? Why the contrarian viewpoint?
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July 30, 2015 at 2:23 pm -
Contrarian? Oh lordy, are you playing the wisdom of crowds card?
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July 30, 2015 at 2:48 pm -
No, I’am asking what you know that others don’t?
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July 30, 2015 at 2:50 pm -
What “others”? Are you representing a Committee?
My suppositions are quite plainly written, but I make no claims for them otherwise.
If you have a point to make, feel free but stop trying to stifle me with your superiority complex.-
July 30, 2015 at 3:47 pm -
“The International Union for the Conservation of Nature completed comprehensive research on the topic of big game hunting’s economic value in Africa. Overall, the study found big-game hunting is neither economically or socially beneficial to the countries where it takes place, findings that contradict arguments for allowing the practice…
Photo tourism creates 39 times more employment on a permanent basis than trophy hunting.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/six-questions-about-cecil-the-lion-and-big-game-hunting-in-africa/article25767991/
The article is accompanied by photos of Palmer giving a sparkling smile alongside assorted kills, including another lion. -
July 30, 2015 at 3:48 pm -
That’s a surprise…
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature
Who’da thunk it? -
July 30, 2015 at 3:58 pm -
@Cloudberry
I think my approach here is that we have a man, who paid good money to get all the appropriate licenses through all the appropriate channels, did everything by the book, obeyed the law in every clause… and is now being vilified as a monster. If these countries don’t want lions to be shot for £50k, but would rather just have the wardens shoot them for nothing, then that is their decision. Whilst people are behaving within the law, then all this hysteria is completely wrong and is to be condemned. Change the law and then pursue criminals; if the law-abiding are to be pursued, then fuck the law.
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July 30, 2015 at 5:23 pm -
It was this one because it had a cute name, ML.
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July 30, 2015 at 5:38 pm -
I’ve just paged back all 52 Googlenews pages that are generated by “cecil the lion” and the first mention I can find of this famous lion is dated 27th July 2015. What a croc.
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July 30, 2015 at 8:02 pm -
I remember reading about him several months ago; he was apparently a big tourist draw. And here’s a Youtube video of him from last September.
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July 30, 2015 at 9:27 pm -
Excellent. I imagine he has a facebook page too.
Africa’s BIGGEST lion… Now that reminds me of a story a while back about some guy who had shot the BIGGEST stag someplace and there was an attempt to blow that up into a media scandal too…. Beginning to see the light.
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July 30, 2015 at 9:51 am -
I fully expect, should I live that long, to take GreatGrandaughter dwarfette to The Eco-Environmental Reserve And Natural Habitat Centre (formerly ‘the Zoo’ back in the unenlightened times ) in Merkel Park (formerly ‘Regents’ back in the unenlightened times) in the Joint Capital of the United States of Europe (the city formerly known as ‘London’) to see Dolly The Dodo and Tolly The Taz.
So I can’t get too worked up about the temporary extinction of some species or the other.
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July 30, 2015 at 9:58 am -
I’m not sure quite where I stand on the issue of hunting. I have no desire at all to go fox hunting, but by the same token I didn’t want to see it banned. This case appals me though. I guess I buy the argument that foxes are a bit of a menace to the farming community and need to be controlled. I think I’m convinced by the argument that hunting with hounds is the best way of doing so. But, there is no rational reason I can see for this stupid American to try and kill a lion using a bow and arrow, other than to somehow prove his virility – in other words a sad bastard.
I am pleased to hear that there has been a backlash against him in America. There, it seems the majority of “hunting” is aimed towards deer. Having watched videos on Youtube I am aware that deer in large numbers can be a nightmare for farmers. However, even they don’t always see eye to eye with the hunting fraternity.
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July 30, 2015 at 10:09 am -
I think the bow and arrow is to make it hard. Modern rifles can put a beast down from literally a mile away. With a bow and arrow you have to get up close and personal and the “Hunt” isn’t just a walk in the park, I think they take days to track the beastie so it becomes a holiday rather than a day-trip. I guess that if Buffalo Bill had used a bow and arrow the buffalo would never have become [almost] extinct.
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July 30, 2015 at 10:19 am -
Excellent article. x
Yes, every single species is here for a reason. All is inter-connected. Once, we were The CareTakers, of Mother Earth, of all who dwelt upon Her. Now, so many have become The Destroyers. The Indigenous Peoples still see themselves merely as an equal part of Nature, equal to all other species, as is beautiful illustrated here:
I have often wondered if The White Man is descended from Psychopaths driven out by The Tribes, long, long ago….and off the trekked, to form tribes of their own..their messed up brain patterns multiplying in so many of their offspring.
There is something very peculiar about us, for sure….
But, in more recent times, The Disconnecting from our planet, from other species, from each other, has been overwhelming..and now, we are at Saturation Point, for The Mad Ones are in charge, leading so many into Narcissistic Chaos, where the planet is plundered to the point of Mass Extinction being The New Black and where nothing matters nor means anything, any longer.
The video in that photolink, ‘The Children’s Fire’ tells the story, and the TRUE story, of Tim Macartney’s time spent amongst The Native Americans and the wisdom they imparted to him. He has a few videos on Youtube, ALL very worth watching.
I run the Support Chief Raoni page…and last year I had the great privilege and honour of meeting him, and his nephew, Chief Megaron, on their trip to Europe, when they came to London. Raoni has spent over 30 years trying to stop The Belo Monte Dam (now being illegally built in The Amazon Rainforest by Brazil’s government)…and he is desperate for the world to understand how the Rainforest itself is being destroyed, the weather changing, the winds getting stronger and air hotter….The Indigenous People are still in touch with Mother Earth, in every way, still in touch with The Old Ways…
I heard the anguish in both Raoni and Megaron’s voices as they spoke, via interpreters, to us, pleading with us to tell others, to wake others up, to STOP this shocking carnage. You could see the pain in their eyes, the incomprehension of what The White Man is doing, has been doing, for centuries.
And when Chief Raoni has hugged you close, you never forget…you never forget that look in his eyes. His people, The Kayapo, are now facing genocide, extinction, as are many other tribes who will be affected by the taking of the Xingu River, for Belo Monte, third largest dam on the planet, the most inefficient to. They are The Protectors, The CareTakers of The Rainforest, and of the animals there too, for they are SO connected to everything about them.
Now, they are rising, in a movement called ‘Idle No More’, born in 2012 in Canada, by 4 First Nations women who had simply had enough of the damage being done, to their People, to the Planet, to their Children’s Future, after Harper removed the environmental protection from over 5 MILLION of Canada’s lakes and rivers, leaving just under 100 still protected. This movement has spread throughout the world now, as the Indigenous Rise, just as Crazy Horse predicted they would, so long ago.
The cold-blooded murder of Cecil shows what we have become….and for WAY too long these psychopaths have been raging out of control, making themselves ‘leaders’, giving themselves self-importance, creating a society where all depends on money, on bits of paper and how many bits of that paper you have…and this, apparently, gives you the *right* to behave in the most inhuman of ways imaginable.
The images of dead giraffes, their long, beautiful necks draped around some of these cold-blooded killers who stare happily into the camera for their Facebook photos, is forever burned into my memory..as are the ones of them standing triumphantly over beautiful creatures they’ve killed, with their *children* next to them, everyone smiling and laughing…
I question whether humans have the right to remain upon this wondrous planet, more and more lately.
‘Stop Trophy Hunting Now’
https://www.facebook.com/pages/STOP-Trophy-Hunting-NOW/136918922995288?pnref=storyIF we can KEEP World Attention on Cecil’s death, getting this to bring change all around the world and fast, then his death will not have been in vain, even though it should never, ever have happened.
And IF the world wakes up to TMS Therapy and how it is now being used to open up the pathways in the brain which deal with Empathy & Compassion, then there might just be a glimmer of hope for us all.
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July 30, 2015 at 10:29 am -
* I have often wondered if The White Man is descended from Psychopaths driven out by The Tribes *
Paedophiles surely?-
July 30, 2015 at 10:42 am -
Why would it be white man? The only thing that white man did was to design the ability to kill in numbers. I suspect that aborigine man, Indian man, African man would have done the same thing – had they the ability 100+ years ago. Indians and Africans would have been hunting predatory animals merely to make their village safe. Had they rifles, they would have killed a lot more far more quickly given the opportunity.
I’m not convinced by the idea that we’re caretakers either, can’t see why we would be caretakers when we were as primitive as lions, not too many centuries ago.
However I concur with the majority here in not understanding the requirement to prove one’s virility or strength through the needless execution of animals. How many of us have sprayed a wasp or a fly though? Clearly it is all about our individual perception.
I can’t see the point in hunting a lion or similar merely to execute our personal desire to brag about our strength. It’s clearly backfired on this fella’ but Moor’s curiosity about why it is a story so publicised piques my own.
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July 30, 2015 at 10:48 am -
WHY?
… the Controller replied. ‘Men and women must have their adrenals stimulated from time to time.’
What?’ questioned the Savage, uncomprehending.
It’s one of the conditions of perfect health. That’s why we’ve made the V.P.S. treatments compulsory.’
V.P.S.?’
Violent Passion Surrogate. Regularly once a month. We flood the whole system with adrenalin. It’s the complete physiological equivalent of fear and rage. All the tonic effects of murdering Desdemona and being murdered by Othello, without any of the inconvenience.’ -
July 30, 2015 at 9:31 pm -
No, they I do not think they would have, Stephen, not for a moment. Our influence has NOT been good in so very many ways.
The CareTakers……
Ta’Kaiya Blaney, aged 13
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js2blj8GcioXiuhtezcatl Martinez – has been inspiring people since he was 6 years old. He and his brother founded ‘Earth Guardians’
https://www.youtube.com/user/earthguardiankids
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July 30, 2015 at 10:42 am -
The problem with the natural “way of life” for “indigenous peoples” is over population. Their “way of life” is completely unsustainable with the current numbers of humans on the planet. I believe over population started when “man” ceased to be hunter-gatherers and went over to an agrarian way of life. Farming enabled many more people to live off any given patch of land.
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July 30, 2015 at 10:56 am -
We wouldn’t have advanced the species staying as hunter gatherers. In this way we are merely evolutionary. Once numbers of other species started to be seen to be in decline then we have moved over to a more protective philosophy. This is softened though by our desire to continue to evolve even if that is to the detriment of a species.
I haven’t comprehended this idea that there are too many of us – the guy hunting the lion was traversing 100’s of square miles (probably) without seeing another human. I drive through Scotland regularly and see mile after mile of non population. Where my wife wants us to move to there are 27000 people in a whole county and the next county is much larger and has 39000 people. Granted some of the landscape is not currently easily habitable but the space is there nonetheless.
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July 30, 2015 at 11:01 am -
It’s more to do with urbanisation than “over-population”. I was reading recently that wildlife in China is having a huge spring-back as the countryside is emptying as folk migrate to the cities.
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July 30, 2015 at 11:27 am -
I’m certainly no expert on this subject (or any other in fact), but I was under the impression, from what I’ve read, that to survive as hunter-gatherers requires vast amounts of (suitable) land, and consequently, given the current world population there would not be enough suitable land to sustain us if we all suddenly reverted to the hunter-gatherer way of life. I know some years ago, I think it was an article in the Observer magazine, it was calculated that the then World population could all have fitted onto the Isle-of-White, if every person stood shoulder to shoulder, but that’s a rather misleading argument when it comes to the amount of land needed to live off.
@ stephen lewis, I fully accept and agree with your assertions regarding the advancement of the species and that if early aboriginal man had developed guns they would almost certainly have used them to kill vast numbers of animals (and no doubt other humans as well).
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July 30, 2015 at 11:55 am -
Everything I’m an expert on came from watching Star Trek…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdsbuJfMpr0
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July 30, 2015 at 9:36 pm -
HAVE we advanced our species, Stephen? I see Insane Psychopaths as leaders, people so disconnected from our only home that it beggars belief. You are made out to be crazy if you dare to care about the planet. Seems insanity, to me, NOT to care about the only place we have to live upon.
Way too many of us..and the damage we are doing is horrendous. If we went back to The Old Ways, a far simpler life, we could sustain the numbers we have, but we have totally lost the plot in how we live our lives these days. Seems to me we are suffering from EasterIslanditis, but our Gods are ourselves and to continue to worship ourselves, we are destroying the very place we call home.
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July 30, 2015 at 12:03 pm -
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July 30, 2015 at 9:40 pm -
Really? How can you tell? Because I care about my children’s future and the future of all generations? This makes me ‘crazy’ in your eyes, perhaps? I’m not a vegan, as it happens. I’m a very down to earth person, used to be a Harley St. secretary in days gone by….but I look around and see what we are doing…and it makes me want to weep…Ever heard of Polly Higgins? Look her up on the internet..and her International Law Of Ecocide….Polly has dedicated her life to bringing this law in. She’s a lawyer. No idea if she’s vegan. I can assure you though, that she is one very intelligent lady, like Anna…and she won’t stop until she’s succeeded in her quest.
Already, Evo Morales is bringing in ‘The Law of Mother Nature’ in Bolivia, throwing out some of the huge corporations. The Bolivian government is, at present, building the legal framework for this law.
I have no idea if Evo Morales is a vegan, but I’m sure you will regard him as being so.
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July 30, 2015 at 1:27 pm -
“Yes, every single species is here for a reason.”
The reason is that each variety of DNA tends to replicate itself in competition with other varieties of DNA. Each species is here to ensure its own survival.
Viruses are the most numerous organisms because they are particularly good at replicating themselves.
Sometimes symbiosis helps two or more cooperating organisms to be more successful, but it is by no means the rule. -
July 30, 2015 at 2:00 pm -
Perhaps you might do better starting closer to home with the cat owners. Their little moggies are estimated to kill 500 million small mammals and song birds annually.
However, if you are particularly concerned about African wildlife, you might want to investigate the wholesale export of animals to China involving members of the Zimbabwean and Chinese governments and dodgy Italian middlemen.-
July 30, 2015 at 10:12 pm -
There was a piece of complete insanity I saw on the TV ages ago. It was an African country and they’d accumulated a shed-load of siezed poached ivory and rhino horn. Because of “the law” they then proceeded to burn all of it so it didn’t get onto the market! Completely bonkers. What better way to stop poaching than to flood the market and make the price of elephants teeth and rhino keratin collapse. Simple application of supply and demand, combined with using the profits to increase education of the Orientals to stop believing all their old mumbo-jumbo about male potency, and for the women to settle for the same plastic ornaments they sell to us. The ludicrous application of well-meaning laws is beyond absurdity much of the time – like wine lakes, cheese mountains and currency union.
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July 30, 2015 at 6:40 pm -
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July 30, 2015 at 9:52 pm -
Sorry, can’t smile at that one, even though I know I’m supposed to.
No, WE are The Evil Decepticons, Megaron is the leader of The Kayapo and his heart is being torn apart because shortly, the Xingu River, upon which his tribe rely for their continued existence, will be taken by Belo Monte, and thus, his People will be driven into the towns, where they will end up alcoholics, drunk, depressed, disconnected from Mother Earth and suicidal….and as they go, there will be no-one left to guard The Rainforest, which, at present, The Kayapo themselves do, keeping it as safe as they can from loggers and corporations, etc…..for all of us, not just for themselves.
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July 31, 2015 at 5:36 am -
Is this the plot of ‘Ferngully 2’? I’ve been waiting ages for this to come out…
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July 31, 2015 at 12:28 pm -
Oh dear; all those Capitals – it’s a bit Weird, isn’t it, and I’m sure they don’t Teach that in Harley Street. It’s like a Form of literary Tourettes.
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July 30, 2015 at 10:54 am -
Don’t assume the original North Americans lived in peaceful, eco-balanced harmony with the wildlife they encountered. There is now a well-supported theory that the first human inhabitants of the continent wiped out the woolly mammoth, sloth, giant beavers and most of the other large herbivores they found.
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July 30, 2015 at 11:15 am -
Yes the pernicious myth of primitive societies living alongside nature, spawning such enjoyable tripe like Avatar. The reality of course is not that the native north Americans or Australians lived in harmony with nature, but that Nature was kicking their arses.
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July 30, 2015 at 11:27 am -
Michael J. “Crocodile” Dundee: [a goanna is sizzling over a fire. Sue looks ill] How do you like your goanna? Medium? Well done?
Sue Charlton: You don’t really expect me to eat that?
Michael J. “Crocodile” Dundee: Yeah, its great. Yeah, try some of these yams, try the grubs and the sugar ants. Just bite the end off, they’re really sweet. Black fellas love ’em.
Sue Charlton: [tentatively tries a large beetle] What about you, aren’t you having any?
Michael J. “Crocodile” Dundee: Me?
[Mick starts working on a tin with his knife]
Michael J. “Crocodile” Dundee: …Well, you can live on it, but it taste like shit. -
July 30, 2015 at 10:19 pm -
Did you know that James Cameron made ‘Avatar’ in the hope of waking us up? Did you also know that he made ‘A Message From Pandora’ because he knew about The Belo Monte Dam, was horrified…met with Raoni and Megaron and Shayla Juruna too…..
‘Message From Pandora’
https://vimeo.com/28181753Actually, they DID live in harmony with Nature, until The White Man came along…and made sure they became disconnected from their ancient way of life, their culture, their traditions, becoming reliant upon the state, again, like the Native Americans, disconnected from The Land, from Mother Earth, from who they were, from who they are…
‘Kanyini’ – with Bob Randall – Aboriginal Elder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAOcfkcGDKAHave you heard of Generational Trauma? How The Pain is passed down through the generations….and that pain is because of what we did to them centuries back, what we still do to them to this day…Look up ‘The Thick Dark Fog’ on Youtube…and…find out about Whiteclay, the town on the edge of Pine Ridge, where The Lakota live, a town of around 14 people, where every shop sells alcohol, by the lake-load, to the depressed, desperate people who see no future….Average age on Pine Ridge is around 40 years, for if the alcohol doesn’t kill them, the diabetes will…..They try to protest, to shut these shops down, but they get taken away, in horse boxes, by the local sherrif…The Genocide continues on, just more covertly these days. Same with The Aboriginies too.
They all believe that we are ALL related, ALL connected, to every living form.
That’ll do for me.
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July 31, 2015 at 10:43 am -
The fact that James Cameron, a great film maker, also falls for this level of stupidity is hardly surprising to me.
No animal lives in harmony with nature, I repeat no animal. What morons sat in armchairs in their heated buildings with access to almost infinite levels of food seem to ignore is that like all of nature, humans also directly follow a “foxes and rabbits” model. Stone age technology hunter gatherers with a low population density are not “living in harmony with nature” they are in fact being culled through a mix of starvation and disease. I also love the levels of Tribal violence where territories overlap and the levels of within tribe violence that are endemic to these peaceful hunter gatherers.
Generational trauma – oh dear god….
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July 31, 2015 at 11:00 am -
Hollywood’s still in trauma after Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. The rehabilitation of the Red Man was writ large in the 1980’s with mystic men and out of body experiences. CGI fits perfectly with a world that’s all in your head.
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July 31, 2015 at 11:02 am -
PS
The Aussies have been having the same trauma over the Abo’s since The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith.
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July 30, 2015 at 12:13 pm -
Indeed, and some Native American tribes hunted by driving herds of buffalo/bison off of cliffs. Most of the carcasses were left to rot.
It’s a also lot easier to romanticize living in a “primitive” society when you aren’t living in one.
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July 30, 2015 at 9:43 pm -
No, John, they did not do this at all.
Please, read ‘If You Have Forgotten The Names Of The Clouds, You Have Lost Your Way’ by Russell Means.
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July 31, 2015 at 5:52 am -
Hmmm, perhaps you are wrong
http://www.history.alberta.ca/headsmashedin/
or perhaps the UN is spreading lies against the indigenous peoples.
Your poorly researched information especially as it relates to north American culture exposes your naivete. Citing “idle no more” one of the bigger proven farces in recent times where the main proponent fasted for 40-some yet days but apparently managed to gain weight does not help.
Tend to agree that the death of the lion was needless and unsporting.
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July 30, 2015 at 10:02 pm -
I think you’ll find they were actually pretty good at ensuring their food supply wasn’t wiped out, that their water remained clean and was seen as sacred…They knew how to survive and part of that entailed only taking what they needed. They used every part of the animal too, out of respect to the soul of that animal.
I recall watching a Ray Mears episode some time back, where he spent time with the Reindeer People in Siberia, can’t recall their tribal name at present. They move camp every six months, leaving each place in the same pristine condition they find it, as best they can. This way, they do not overuse the resources in one area, eventually returning to it again in time.
The men are taught to kill a reindeer in a split second, cutting its’ throat with expertize, so as to cause it no suffering. They showed them doing this to one…and this beautiful creature was literally was standing there one moment, being gently stroked by the man and the next, he fell to the ground, instantly, not even aware of what had happened, no suffering…It wasn’t easy to watch, but you could see they had taken the trouble over centuries, to ensure the animal did not suffer, this skill being passed down through the generations.
Every single part of that reindeer was used, always with respect and honour and his soul was respected too, thanks given to him for the continued survival of the tribe.
We’ve lost that respect, care and compassion. We’re so disconnected now.
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July 30, 2015 at 12:14 pm -
It should be a given that it makes us bloody human.
Unfortunately so does killing stuff….preferably stuff what is 1.fluffy 2. weaker or not as technologically/evolutionarily advanced as what we is (I suppose some day Lions might evolve kevlar manes…). Can’t have ‘humanity’ without ‘inhumanity’….Kirk tried.
Some days Pet, I’d swear you were a guardian reader.
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July 30, 2015 at 3:36 pm -
Adding up all the labels commentators have attached to me so far, that makes me a Guardian-reading, Tory-voting, paedophile-sympathising, white supremacist multi-cultural Marxist.
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July 30, 2015 at 4:48 pm -
And those are only your good points ? :p
I don’t think you are any of those things Pet, infact the only Pet-label I’m sure of is ‘author’ or ‘the soul on fire scribbling thoughts for posterity, signing confessions in a shaky hand’ ….but you do a frighteningly good impression of an ethnically skirted, Guardian reading, homeopath with tofu dressing at times.
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July 30, 2015 at 5:52 pm -
I ate tofu yesterday, TBD, and organic tofu at that!
(Runs away & searches for stab-proof vest)
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July 30, 2015 at 7:23 pm -
You will be shooting lions next, it’s like a virus that eats your brain.
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July 30, 2015 at 5:46 pm -
Suspect that’s because you are maintaining the pretence of being a fairhanded moderate until such time as you can spring on all the lurking ‘KIPpers as the Handwringing, Pearl Clutching, Degenerate, Cultural Suicidal, Christ-Hating, Morally Equivocating, Burnt Out Tranzi Pinko that you really are…
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July 30, 2015 at 12:34 pm -
His name was Cecil, a very popular lion… How old are these people, 5? What about Gerald the giraffe, Lionel the leopard or Wally the wildebeest?
I blame a diet of Beatrix Potter and Disney films in their younger years. Now big game hunting is big bucks, and it’s a business same as any other. It’s a managed population, and animals have to be culled, lions have no natural predators the land can only sustain so many, so why not charge rich people to shoot them? I can’t speak for this particular case, but I do have doubts as to the “He skined it and chopped off it’s head” with the implication that the rest of the lion was just left there to rot. Usually the local tribe gets the carcass and the meat is shared out amongst the tribe (Yes they do eat lions).
How long before we get you can’t hunt red deer in Scotland because it’s Bambis mum? Then what happens is their numbers grow and outstrip the available food supply, and they all starve to death in the winter.
These animal rights idiots put up this stuff because it’s emotive, and they wont stop, they already demonstrate at some poor shmoe dangling a rod and line in the canal as all “Blood sports” are cruel. Keep sharing their shite, and think how nice it would be to eat a nice juicy steak whilst you’re shoving your lentil and tofu around your plate.
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July 30, 2015 at 12:58 pm -
Anthropomoronism perhaps
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July 30, 2015 at 3:38 pm -
I’ve never eaten tofu in my life, nor have I ever desired to shoot dead an animal, which you clearly yearn to do. Have fun on your male-bonding weekend.
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July 30, 2015 at 7:22 pm -
* I’ve never eaten tofu in my life, nor have I ever desired to shoot dead an animal *
If there’s a causal link, best not to shoot any animals. -
July 30, 2015 at 10:12 pm -
I do shoot, mostly rabbits and pigeons, but have taken a few ducks and geese too. These are eaten, I’ve also shot a fair few rats and foxes, these are not. I also catch fish to eat too.
Now please, explain to me the difference morally between me taking game in the wild and putting it on the table, and going into asda and buying either meat or fish in a white polystyrene tray wrapped in cling film?
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July 30, 2015 at 11:02 pm -
I’m a vegetarian, Budvar, but I have no problem whatsoever with hunting & fishing for food. In fact, I find it preferable to the Asda-alternative (and quite romantic). And more honest.
Living close to the sea, with ever present tourists, I’ve witnessed many times the Brit-abroad fishing for pleasure, pulling them out at an interval of minutes only to toss ’em back after struggling to remove the hook. Some of them probably even survive after bouncing Homer Simpson-like off the rocks! I always want to approach & urge them to buy a disposable bloody barbeque & some beers and to EAT them on the beach, for the love of Christ!
The missus’ father was a farmer, and like many here kept – and killed – goats, rabbits & the like (out of necessity). He was the epitome of taciturn, and it wasn’t a place (in his day) for “nancy boys”… but he never took any pleasure in the act of killing; neither did/does my almost brother-in-law: killing a goat with a knife isn’t, apparently, much fun… Haunting, by the sounds of it.
But I don’t think they’d have much time for trophy-hunters, people whose sole aim is to kill for kicks.
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July 30, 2015 at 11:44 pm -
When I had the farm, I used to slaughter my own pigs and goats. These were stuff I’d bred and reared myself. I don’t see the point of hunting or fishing for sport, I really don’t, you kill it, you eat it
. Yes I’ve killed rats and foxes, but they’re vermin, and I doubt that even Pet would continue to live in a house that was infested with either mice or cockroaches. That said there’s a place for trophy hunters, I have a friend who’s a head game keeper on a Scottish estate, I get cheap venison from him because mostly German businessmen go hunting for big bucks, and only want the head. The rest of the carcass gets sold to game dealers. It’s a business just the same as the big game thing in Africa.-
July 31, 2015 at 12:05 am -
Well, I suppose the Germans in this case are just doing the work of the abbattoir, but lions? Call it “bushmeat” and problem solved!
I’d be interested to know how you felt about slaughtering your own animals, given what I wrote about the almost-father-in-law; he was the last person I’d have imagined feeling this way, and even less so to ever have admitted it. He’d grown up needing to do it, and yet still found it a bit horrible, at least with something the size of a goat. (I don’t think the rabbits were a problem – and certainly they aren’t for the mother-in-law! If I ever return to eat such stuff it’ll be something I’ve raised/killed myself, but they’d be SMALL animals, for some reason I can’t begin to try to justify. Squemishness, perhaps.)
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July 30, 2015 at 6:37 pm -
“How long before we get you can’t hunt red deer in Scotland because it’s Bambis mum?”
Well, Bambi’s mum would have been a whitetail, but then, the level of actual knowledge the bunny huggers display about the natural world, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised…
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July 30, 2015 at 10:03 pm -
Joolz, It was the big hoo hah over reindeer steaks sold in Lidl not red deer, and it was all “But the kids wont eat Rudolf…” I was thinking of.
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July 31, 2015 at 5:37 am -
Ah, yes! I had those. They were delicious.
I don’t know if the beasts were stroked by Ray Mears before having their throats cut though. Perhaps that makes all the difference?
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July 30, 2015 at 7:21 pm -
I hope nobody has killed Roary. He used to be my favourite Lion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yr0M1q0GiY
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July 30, 2015 at 12:48 pm -
What about Gerald the giraffe, Lionel the leopard or Wally the wildebeest?
And who among us will ever the forget Knut?
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July 30, 2015 at 12:56 pm -
I don’t hunt, have no wish to, but then I also don’t understand my son’s harmless hobby of shooting flying crockery- i.e. clays. I do rather like eating pheasant though and the main local source is from shoots, but it doesn’t affect my appetite.
Back in the ’80’s I visited Kruger, several times- it’s about the size of Wales, but animal populations still need managing, and this is probably the biggest issue today wrt species survival- space. Even the largest reserves are really very large zoos, aren’t they?
I also don’t necessarily buy the idea that indigeonous populations lived in harmony with the environment either. Perhaps a small family group in the South American jungle has an equally small footprint on nature. As soon as numbers rise, the environment is exploited more & guess who wins? The mass killing of everything from Tasmanian tigers to North Sea cod or blue whales are just part of this, but I’d like to think we’ve moved on a bit.
I don’t think killing this one lion is a big deal. It may reflect poorly on the individual involved and the host country happy to take the tourist dollars, but the effect on world wildlife is I guess microscopic. And I’m happier for a lion to be killed than people, which is a bigger problem.
So why all the fuss?-
July 30, 2015 at 1:30 pm -
harmless hobby of shooting flying crockery
Harmless? You think? I’m sure a quick perusal of twitter would bring up a #STOPmurderfakepigeons group who take offence because those ‘clays’ are more properly ‘clay pigeons‘ and even the make-believe COLD BLOODED MURDER of any animal…..I can just hear the handwringingness “Have we not moved on as a society? How can the portrayal of shooting birds even be considered appropriate? Where’s the compassion?!”
Not to forget that no well behaved citizen would even want to hold a gun and what happens to all the propellant gasses expelled which innocent children might breath in and DIE of lung cancer?
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July 30, 2015 at 1:37 pm -
Same as e-cigarettes are merely Stan’s way of tempting you into the irredeemable wickedness of faggery
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July 30, 2015 at 3:52 pm -
I can just imagine those tortured souls attempting to release the clays into the wild, like those numpties did with the mink.
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July 30, 2015 at 6:34 pm -
By faggery, are you refering to the practise in some public schools wherby sixth form prefects use first year boys as slaves, but not necessarily sexual ones?
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July 30, 2015 at 7:21 pm -
No, faggery as in smoking fags. I gather an objection to ecigs is that they suck young people into desiring the real thing, much as shattering clay frisbees would naturally make you eventually eager to cause birds to be feathered into gore.
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July 30, 2015 at 5:18 pm -
Mmm…. TBD you haven’t mentioned the ever present risk to society from those tens of thousands of gun nuts keeping real guns in their homes, and wait for it, ammunition too! Perhaps 50 cartridges kept in the larder. All the gun safes, training certificates, licensing, police check ups, whatever, won’t protect us from an imminent nationwide Stallone inspired bloodbath, will they?
Meanwhile, the pigeons in the back garden that ate my sugarsnap pea plants & purple sprouting to the ground appear to be daily growing more evident concentric red rings on their breasts. So it won’t be the catapult. Not much meat on ’em though. -
July 31, 2015 at 7:52 am -
I’ve been hit by the falling fragments of a clay pigeon while on my regular health countryside walks…..
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July 31, 2015 at 9:18 am -
I rambled across a field and found some whole and entire in the turf. I took the survivors home and have cared for them ever since.
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July 30, 2015 at 1:32 pm -
Antelopes and zebras probably don’t buy the idea that lions live in harmony with the environment, either.
Killing of people is certainly a problem in Zimbabwe, although not as bad a problem as in Syria.
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July 30, 2015 at 1:40 pm -
Presumably O’Barmy holds a legal license.
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July 30, 2015 at 1:54 pm -
Whether hunting for sport is right or wrong, (I think it’s wrong and that no big cats should be shot unless they are man-eaters) this animal was not wary of humans and was lured off it’s safe patch by following a vehicle which had a piece of meat tied to it. This was arranged so that it would walk past the so-called sportsman, who, it must be hoped, probably didn’t see the vehicle and – it must also be hoped- believed it to be a wild lion, and not one tricked off a reserve. He is said to have shot it with a crossbow not a bow-and-arrow. There was no sport or skill involved particularly as the arrow missed a vital spot (not excusable if done with a crossbow which is accurate to the inch at 30 yards, it’s generally-accepted maximum range for hunting), allowing the wounded beast to survive in agony for nearly two days.
All in all, a most shameful and cynical performance by the guides and a complete lack of skill, knowledge and respect for his quarry by the hunter.-
July 30, 2015 at 2:12 pm -
One could argue that in modern Africa lions are farmed and thus it’s merely the slaughtering method that is at issue. One improvement would seem to be that if the hunter botches the bolt then the pro-hunter should have a high-powered rifle trained and ready to finish the job quickly. I’ve been recalling that I have a novel someplace at home that must go right back to the 1960’s if not the 1950’s (might have been one of dads’) and the plot all hinges around a professional hunting guide in Africa, so this commercial hunting is nothing new.
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July 30, 2015 at 6:20 pm -
pro-hunter should have a high-powered rifle trained and ready to finish the job quickly.
Messrs Rigby and Nitro approve of this comment.
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July 30, 2015 at 6:33 pm -
Probably Robert Ruark – ‘Something of Value’ and ‘Uhuru’ both have professional hunters as their main characters.
He also hunted himself, with the legendary Harry Selby as his PH (still a sprightly 95 year old!) and also wrote two non-fiction accounts of his safari, ‘Horn of the Hunter’ and ‘Use Enough Gun’.
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July 30, 2015 at 11:47 pm -
All the big wildlife reserves in Africa are a business and all the animals are farmed. That maybe an unpalatable fact, but a fact none the less.
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July 31, 2015 at 9:34 am -
* no big cats should be shot unless they are man-eaters *
This is rather reactive isn’t it? Someone has to be eaten before you take action? Wouldn’t pass muster with the modern form of pro-active policing where people are imprisoned to prevent them committing crime in the first place, thus ensuring there are no victims.
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July 30, 2015 at 3:49 pm -
You know Pet, sometimes you do regurgitate utter tripe. You don’t know any people who hunt do you?
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July 30, 2015 at 3:58 pm -
He’s a vegetarian Bill – he wouldn’t dream of even talking Tripe…
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July 30, 2015 at 4:50 pm -
Is it even legal to hunt tripe these days? Or is it only allowed for ‘natives’ (ie Geordies) like the eskimos being allowed to kill a quota of cute cuddly arctic mammals per annum?
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July 30, 2015 at 4:58 pm -
Never could stomach it myself.
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July 30, 2015 at 5:34 pm -
It’s neither one thing nor the udder.
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July 30, 2015 at 6:29 pm -
Oh for Cud’s sake, Abomasum sounds like it should be heading up a Jihadi terror group, omasum is a world leader famous for talking tripe and reticulum sounds illegal even among consenting adults.
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July 30, 2015 at 8:22 pm -
Tripe should be protected.
To pretend it’s food is perverse, though no doubt ‘value’ sausages are used to supply it ‘under the counter’.
I once invested in a very expensive bowl of Tripes de Caen in a restaurant in Honfleur- it appeared to contain a large pale chopped up rubber band & tasted worse.
Saw a shop window full of tripe in Bolton 1971; that should have been a warning.-
July 31, 2015 at 5:20 pm -
I saw a load of tripe, once. Turned out it was the Labour Party Manifesto.
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July 31, 2015 at 5:34 pm -
Can’t wait for the next sitting in 2020. Apparently they’ve found a cold-store full of the stuff and it’s been sealed since about 1983. They say they don’t make it like that anymore, so everyone’s looking forward to the vintage taste. Of course it may be that Health & Safety will condemn the lot long before and it’ll all go for compost. Only time will tell.
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July 30, 2015 at 7:47 pm -
I thoroughly apologise for wearing my heart on my sleeve and not being a 24/7 cynic. Evidently, such symptoms are uncool and I shall attempt to release my inner Katie Hopkins for future posts. Guess I’m just a big poofy nancy boy.
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July 30, 2015 at 8:04 pm -
That’s Windsock’s job – just be yourself, Pet, and enjoy the slings and arrows of outrageous comment.
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July 30, 2015 at 6:22 pm -
‘So-called ‘primitive’ native people of the lands incorporated into imperial European territories throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries tended to view the wildlife surrounding them as Europeans once had – as a source of food, clothing and occasional pagan sacrifice. The notion of hunting a beast for sport was not one they recognised. The Native American Indian tribes in particular seem to have had an instinctive understanding of the ecosystem governing their surroundings, aware that they were merely one link in an extended chain and that a delicate equilibrium had to be maintained in order for life as they knew it to survive. They never foresaw the infiltration of ‘civilisation’ of the European mode being the catalyst that would spark the swift destruction of that life.’
Sentimental hogwash.
Who saw off the elephant birds & moas? The Haarsts Eagles? It wasn’t colonialists! It was those ‘oh so in touch with nature’ native people…
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July 30, 2015 at 8:17 pm -
The nature of nature is that, throughout history, species have become extinct. Indeed it is reckoned that more far species have become extinct than currently exist. The other nature of nature is that stronger species eliminate weaker ones. Man has become ‘top species’ by virtue of developing the techniques and technologies which allow him to eliminate almost any other species (but he’s still working on mosquitos).
That does not excuse or justify killing rare animals for the pleasure of killing them but if, as a consequence, African lions ceased to exist, then man and the other species will still carry on unaffected. Personally, I do not deliberately kill animals unless that individual creature positively threatens me, but I am an omnivore and I often eat the product of animals which have been killed by others, that’s just nature at work without vindictiveness.
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July 31, 2015 at 12:42 am -
July 31, 2015 at 7:03 am -
Open any newspaper or online site carrying this story, and you’ll see the word ‘ego’ repeated again and again and again. It’s Walter’s ‘ego’ that drives him to do this terrible thing.
Well, I read this, and I wonder at the seeming lack of awareness that anyone else has an ego. What about the ego of the people who aren’t content to simply say ‘Trophy hunting? Eeeew! Not for me, thanks!’ and leave Walter to his (legal) pleasures?
Oh, you may dress it up as other things (conservation, etc), but that’s the heart of it – it’s your own ego that gives you the desire to stop someone else doing something they enjoy with their own hard-earned money.
And I’m reminded of another story about hunting. Years ago, a foundation in the US that existed to give terminally ill kids their last wish (how altruistic! how heartwarming!) received a wish from a young lad to hunt – a bear, I think. Now I can’t remember if they went ahead and granted it, or turned it down immediately, but once the ‘animal lovers’ got hold of the story, it was Katy bar the door! You’d think the unfortunate young man had expressed a wish to rape & strangle the Homecoming Queen on the town green!
There were petitions, and demands that other wishes be substituted – one man offered to take him on a photography ‘hunt’ instead, which struck me as like offering a condemned man a picture of the delicious final meal you weren’t going to let him eat!
In the end, a local hunting group paid for his trip, I think he bagged his bear, and (hopefully) died happy.
But think about this for a moment. Who, in their right mind, would put their own ego to the forefront here, and demand that this boy should not have the perfectly legal wish granted because it didn’t sit right with them?
So don’t excoriate Walter for his supposedly rampant ego. From where I sit, yours doesn’t look so good either…
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July 31, 2015 at 11:24 am -
I agree with you 100% on this Joolz, OK we both know it doesn’t happen often.. But still..
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July 31, 2015 at 1:32 pm -
What a depressing tale! Poor lad’s dying wish was to kill a bloody bear – good grief!
Was there any particluar reason for the bear being the chosen target? Maybe he wanted revenge after his family were attacked by one, or was it just that he wanted to kill something really big for no good reason whatsoever? Let’s have a look:
“Joe Soucheray, a columnist for The Saint Paul Pioneer Press, wrote: “Erik’s wish is legitimate. He wanted to tramp around Alaska with his father in pursuit of what is probably the greatest hunting trophy in North America.””
Oooh, hang on! That may not be the one, as whoever was the first seems to have started a ball rolling: there is a charity dedicated to helping dying children shoot big animals!
“Tina Pattison is in the wish-granting business. As president and founder of the nonprofit organization Hunt of a Lifetime, Pattison helps kids with life-threatening illnesses fulfill their dreams of shooting their first elk, or moose or boar.”
http://www.salon.com/2011/06/26/hunt_of_a_lifetime_harvest/
“Personally, Pattison’s not a trophy hunter, never has been, but some of the sick kids she arranges hunts for are, or would like to be, and really, what’s she going to say to them? What could anybody say? “I can’t blame ‘em,” she says. “Before they die, they want to put that mount on the wall. One of the boys, he’s 6 years old, and he’s got Type 1 juvenile diabetes. He’s been in three comas, and the last one, they didn’t think they were pulling him out. And he said, ‘I want to have a bigger deer rack on the wall than my dad.’ He’s 6 years old! What do you say to him? You can’t say, no, that’s not what hunting’s all about.”Indeed, what could you say? “Yee-haw!!!”
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July 31, 2015 at 3:18 pm -
What could you say? You could say ‘Yes, certainly’. To do otherwise is to put your own feelings of squamishness above the wish of a dying boy.
One might ask, who is the ‘monster’ in that scenario?
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July 31, 2015 at 3:45 pm -
Not sure it might be kinder to divert such a youngster to swimming with dolphins or somesuch. I was taken on a mackerel slaughter in Devon once and thought it a great idea as we sailed, but the behaviour of my fellows in the throng, ripping hooks out in a gore-fest of greed, with bits of mackerel spattered all around the gunnels, leaves me feeling a mildly queasy about my part in the activity to this day. Thank God my mother cooked our catch on the camp-fire that night, otherwise I might have been unable to rationalise what I saw lying just beneath the surface of the happy tourist. Hunting should be a solitary occupation of a grown [wom]man I sense, akin to the deer-hunter ethos of Robert de Niro in 1978 perhaps.
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July 31, 2015 at 1:15 pm -
I was pondering this last night before lights-out, trying to understand both sides of the food/pleasure argument.
Most of us would believe that it is desirable for a worker to find as much pleasure as possible in their job, no matter how humble the task may be. There are a lot of grim tasks to be done out there – I’ve done a few myself – but generally speaking it would be seen as a ‘good thing’ for the work to be done by someone happy, content & smiling, taking pleasure in their chores…
If we think about the industrialized slaughter-house, where someone’s job might be shooting bolts into a cow’s head all day or cutting their throats, would any of us here not find it all a bit, well, creepy if that person lept out of bed each morning with a yearning desire to arrive early & despatch another hundred or so beasts? Most accept that it is something that has to be done, but even so, who the hell would enjoy it?
It seems to me that the trophy-hunter falls into the category of those who might enjoy such a task, hence the distaste with which they are viewed by some (psychopaths, ego-trippers, power-mad, etc.). Maybe a greater test of the brave hunters skill with a bow & arrow would be despatching smaller animals, rats for example! It’d be a far more demanding challenge, although it’s hard to imagine the photographs would be hung on too many walls.
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July 31, 2015 at 2:48 pm -
“You have some wonderful heads here,” said Rainsford as he ate a particularly well-cooked filet mignon. ” That Cape buffalo is the largest I ever saw.”
“Oh, that fellow. Yes, he was a monster.”
“Did he charge you?”
“Hurled me against a tree,” said the general. “Fractured my skull. But I got the brute.”
“I’ve always thought,” said Rainsford, “that the Cape buffalo is the most dangerous of all big game.”
For a moment the general did not reply; he was smiling his curious red-lipped smile. Then he said slowly, “No. You are wrong, sir. The Cape buffalo is not the most dangerous big game.” He sipped his wine. “Here in my preserve on this island,” he said in the same slow tone, “I hunt more dangerous game.”
Rainsford expressed his surprise. “Is there big game on this island?”
The general nodded. “The biggest.”
“Really?”
“Oh, it isn’t here naturally, of course. I have to stock the island.”
“What have you imported, general?” Rainsford asked. “Tigers?”
The general smiled. “No,” he said. “Hunting tigers ceased to interest me some years ago. I exhausted their possibilities, you see. No thrill left in tigers, no real danger. I live for danger, Mr. Rainsford.”
The general took from his pocket a gold cigarette case and offered his guest a long black cigarette with a silver tip; it was perfumed and gave off a smell like incense.
“We will have some capital hunting, you and I,” said the general. “I shall be most glad to have your society.”
“But what game–” began Rainsford.
“I’ll tell you,” said the general. “You will be amused, I know. I think I may say, in all modesty, that I have done a rare thing. I have invented a new sensation. May I pour you another glass of port?”
“Thank you, general.”
The general filled both glasses, and said, “God makes some men poets. Some He makes kings, some beggars. Me He made a hunter. My hand was made for the trigger, my father said. He was a very rich man with a quarter of a million acres in the Crimea, and he was an ardent sportsman. When I was only five years old he gave me a little gun, specially made in Moscow for me, to shoot sparrows with. When I shot some of his prize turkeys with it, he did not punish me; he complimented me on my marksmanship. I killed my first bear in the Caucasus when I was ten. My whole life has been one prolonged hunt. I went into the army–it was expected of noblemen’s sons–and for a time commanded a division of Cossack cavalry, but my real interest was always the hunt. I have hunted every kind of game in every land. It would be impossible for me to tell you how many animals I have killed.”
The general puffed at his cigarette.“After the debacle in Russia I left the country, for it was imprudent for an officer of the Czar to stay there. Many noble Russians lost everything. I, luckily, had invested heavily in American securities, so I shall never have to open a tearoom in Monte Carlo or drive a taxi in Paris. Naturally, I continued to hunt–grizzlies in your Rockies, crocodiles in the Ganges, rhinoceroses in East Africa. It was in Africa that the Cape buffalo hit me and laid me up for six months. As soon as I recovered I started for the Amazon to hunt jaguars, for I had heard they were unusually cunning. They weren’t.” The Cossack sighed. “They were no match at all for a hunter with his wits about him, and a high-powered rifle. I was bitterly disappointed. I was lying in my tent with a splitting headache one night when a terrible thought pushed its way into my mind. Hunting was beginning to bore me! And hunting, remember, had been my life. I have heard that in America businessmen often go to pieces when they give up the business that has been their life.”
“Yes, that’s so,” said Rainsford.
The general smiled. “I had no wish to go to pieces,” he said. “I must do something. Now, mine is an analytical mind, Mr. Rainsford. Doubtless that is why I enjoy the problems of the chase.”
“No doubt, General Zaroff.”
“So,” continued the general, “I asked myself why the hunt no longer fascinated me. You are much younger than I am, Mr. Rainsford, and have not hunted as much, but you perhaps can guess the answer.”
“What was it?”
“Simply this: hunting had ceased to be what you call ‘a sporting proposition.’ It had become too easy. I always got my quarry. Always. There is no greater bore than perfection.”
The general lit a fresh cigarette.
“No animal had a chance with me any more. That is no boast; it is a mathematical certainty. The animal had nothing but his legs and his instinct. Instinct is no match for reason. When I thought of this it was a tragic moment for me, I can tell you.”Rainsford leaned across the table, absorbed in what his host was saying.
“It came to me as an inspiration what I must do,” the general went on.
“And that was?”
The general smiled the quiet smile of one who has faced an obstacle and surmounted it with success. “I had to invent a new animal to hunt,” he said.
“A new animal? You’re joking.”
“Not at all,” said the general. “I never joke about hunting. I needed a new animal. I found one. So I bought this island built this house, and here I do my hunting. The island is perfect for my purposes–there are jungles with a maze of traits in them, hills, swamps–”
“But the animal, General Zaroff?”
“Oh,” said the general, “it supplies me with the most exciting hunting in the world. No other hunting compares with it for an instant. Every day I hunt, and I never grow bored now, for I have a quarry with which I can match my wits.”
Rainsford’s bewilderment showed in his face.
“I wanted the ideal animal to hunt,” explained the general. “So I said, `What are the attributes of an ideal quarry?’ And the answer was, of course, `It must have courage, cunning, and, above all, it must be able to reason.”‘
“But no animal can reason,” objected Rainsford.
“My dear fellow,” said the general, “there is one that can.”
“But you can’t mean–” gasped Rainsford.
“And why not?”
“I can’t believe you are serious, General Zaroff. This is a grisly joke.”
“Why should I not be serious? I am speaking of hunting.”
“Hunting? Great Guns, General Zaroff, what you speak of is murder.”
The general laughed with entire good nature. He regarded Rainsford quizzically. “I refuse to believe that so modern and civilized a young man as you seem to be harbors romantic ideas about the value of human life. Surely your experiences in the war–”
“Did not make me condone cold-blooded murder,” finished Rainsford stiffly.
Laughter shook the general. “How extraordinarily droll you are!” he said. “One does not expect nowadays to find a young man of the educated class, even in America, with such a naïve, and, if I may say so, mid-Victorian point of view. It’s like finding a snuffbox in a limousine. Ah, well, doubtless you had Puritan ancestors. So many Americans appear to have had. I’ll wager you’ll forget your notions when you go hunting with me. You’ve a genuine new thrill in store for you, Mr. Rainsford.”-
July 31, 2015 at 3:15 pm -
Great short story, great film. ‘Outdoor chess, Mr Rainsford!’
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July 31, 2015 at 3:20 pm -
I’m hearing the music from ‘Tales Of The Unexpected’ (and imagining naked budget-Bond girls on a carousel) reading that, Moor!
(According to Wikipedia I’ve seen at least two of the “loosly-based” adaptations, one of ’em with – gulps hard – Jean-Claud Van Damme… May have to check out the original.)-
July 31, 2015 at 3:53 pm -
Don’t bother with the Van Damme one – but the original black & white movie with Claude Rains is marvellous!
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July 31, 2015 at 3:56 pm -
Does Jean-Claud get his taut buttocks out in that one? The most dangerous game indeed…
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July 31, 2015 at 6:22 pm -
Bypassing the Spanish Government’s futile attempts to throttle downloading as we speak!
(Somewhat warily, though: the last time I was tempted by one of Moor’s films – a very early Hitchcock “classic” – I was removed from film-choosing duties & sent to the doghouse for a few days… it moved really, really sloooowly, and wasn’t quite what my gal had in mind after a hard day’s graft.)
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August 1, 2015 at 1:05 am -
Southern Turkey all across is where they’d be filming today were there much a market for the cinematic.
‘All Along the Watchtower’ would be the score. Frightful place all.
https://ricochet.com/some-notes-on-turkey-the-kurds-incirlik-and-isis/
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