Categories: uncategorized
Date: 07 April 2008 12:44:35
The weekend was something of a non-event as FW was dying with "Girl Flu" and I had decided to take things easy as well. I did manage to make it to the rugby on Saturday afternoon and watch Pontypool win easily against Llantrisant. I must say that, had Llantrisant taken their chances, it could have been a much closer result. Now we're 1 point behind Caerphilly with 2 games in hand - the Premiership is looking closer, but I'm not getting over confident yet.
Sunday was very quiet and we managed to get a lie-in, a very infrequent event at the moment and spent the day watching the snow fall, melt and fall. The cats decided that staying in was a good idea and stayed on the bed.
We watched the Louis Theroux documentary and I must say that I was very impressed. The main protaganists were dealt with fairly and even handedly. Louis even tried to hunt with a crossbow but decided against it as he never actually felt the urge to kill a warthog while it was in its sights. The South African farmers didn't try to pressurise him but acknowlegded and respected it.
One of the things that annoyed one of the game farmers was that Louis kept asking him how he felt about the animals he bred being killed. Throughout the programme it was eveident that the farmers loved their animals, they even grew to like them but knew that without this industry many of these animals would cease to exist.
What people forget about Africa is that poaching is rife. People will decimate the animal population and kill everything that moves for food or trophies. The game farms are not just hunting places but also conservation areas. Without them many breeds would have died out years ago. As one farmer said, they were now having problems with Zimbabwean poachers coming over the border because they had killed everything they could in Zimbabwe and had nothing left to poach.
I can understand that many people do not understand hunting and think it barbaric. I agree that if it is done for no purpose then it is barbaric. If you use the meat, do everything to ensure that the animals don't suffer and help breeds and species to survive then that's a good thing.
If you find it distatsteful then don't do it. However don't stop others from doing so, that way you'll not make life more difficult for the farmers and the animals.