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Mind your language

Written by on 28 January, 2011 : 13:07

Too often we can find ourselves being cajoled, by the debate on bloodpsorts, into using the terminology of the hunting and shooting community. Expressions like ‘target species’ and ‘vermin’ are depressingly abundant in this world and it surely saddens anyone with a modicum of compassion to see nature demeaned by such a clinical vocabulary.

In contrast to this we recently tweeted on the impending end of the pheasant shooting season and it was both heartening and refreshing to see the way in which some of you commented on this news. Here are just a few of the remarks we received to send you off for the weekend:

'We have 12 females and a male that all roost and feed in our garden/small field. The male before this one was here for 8 years and we shared his ups and downs and supported him with easy food and water when he had a broken leg. I hate to hear the shoots and will be very glad to know they are finished with their slaughter for a while.'

'Percy Pheasant visits our garden regularly and we love to see the sun shine on his feathers…he's beautiful! :)'

'I live amongst it. It makes my heart cry every time. I will them to get away and when one does I clap! They might think i’m mad, but there is no word to describe what they are !!'

8 comments

Lorna
Also, words such as 'cull' or 'control' are often used euphemistically.No matter how it's dressed up, these people (and I could think of a few more apt expressions for them) are killing animals, each as capable of feeling pain and suffering as any other living creature.
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K WATSON
We need to get rid of the all too common desensitising technical jargon applied to living creatures. "Game" is a pre-First-World-War concept and bad enough. Thank goodness we have stopped calling horses "remounts" and "horseflesh" - one still hears about the "bloodstock industry" instead of bewildered two-year-old colts - and hopefully the change in attitude produced by the change in language will extend to wildlife liberated from the "vermin," "target species" and "quarry" labels.
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Bwanapima
For example; snaring is not a 'sport '(League heading). I support a ban on snaring but obviously totally unenforcable.
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Lorna
A lot of bans were/are believed to be futile because they're too hard to enforce (e.g. the laws around smoking in public places or wearing seatbelts, etc.) but campaigners have fought to have them brought in because they do make a difference, even if not immediately. There's a lot of confusion over which traps are legal and which are not because there is a very fine line between the two. Even saving some lives (human or animal) makes a ban worthwhile.
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Bobby Nahlong
Whether you agree with them or not there is a world of difference between a ban on snaring and smoking in public places/seatbelts. The two examples are easy to enforce because they are, ummm, in public spaces. And I believe there is evidence they save lives and possibly a huge amount of money. So this is a good thing. probably a common good to society. A ban on snaring is neither of these things. And cannot be enforced. Detected, but not enforced.
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Lorna
Sitting in a car whilst in transit (with or without a seatbelt) hardly constitutes a 'public space'. Another good example would be the laws surrounding the use of mobile phones whilst driving. Again, not a public place as such and difficult for the police to enforce. Dog-fighting is illegal but the authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to enforce the law because of an upsurge in the popularity of the barbaric 'sport'. Maybe we should just ditch that ban too. After all, it generally doesn't take place in 'public spaces'. An outright ban would at least send the message that the government don't condone such cruelty and for that reason alone it'd be worthwhile. At the moment they're sending out the wrong message to the public. Harming animals shouldn't okay under any circumstances, whether it be through forcing them to tear shreds from each other in contests or ending up dying slow, agonising deaths in snares.
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Babby Nahlong
Well Lorna, I could be wrong but I believe driving a car on the public highway constitutes an act in a public space. I believe it is relatively easy to enforce as police patrol the public highway. The police do not however, patrol my farm. If they did they would only find (if directed) legal snares checked at the required intervals. Just what the last labour government advised in fact.
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Ella
The point is that if the ban on snares came in those inspectors would find illegal snares placed at regular intervals on your farm and you would get fined. Sounds good to me! Bring on the ban ;)
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