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Vegetarianism - An ill wind
How are you getting on with the foxhunting debate?
I have only a couple of convictions. I believe we have canine teeth because since primeval man we have been carnivorous. I respect vegetarianism as our choice and could quite happily not be bothered about eating meat if it came down to it. I was vegetarian for a year when I was forced to be when I first met Andrea and they were all wearing rubber and joining hands at Greenham common! Hang On! I am just going to fetch my cup of tea!
Ahhh, that's better. Quick w**k and a cuppa! I always get passionate when I think of food because it's better than sex!
I believe 'hunting' has its place rightly or wrongly. But the reason behind this argument is, yes, you've guessed it! 'Stress'
Humans need a degree of stress to keep healthy. There is good and bad stress. The good stress is the adrenalin fired or instinctive 'Fight or Flight' mode that has been with us since men slew beasts to eat. Even before he discovered fire meat was eaten raw and like the animal kingdom he was predator and prey. The stress that is bad is the 'frustrating' or negative stress when we are never able to reach our full potential because of all kind of environmental factors. We suffer a dreary job. We have too much debt. Lousy relationships. Even more rudimental is sexual stress which can be more powerful than any and upset the normal healthy balance. The good stress is the stress which allows you to reach personal goals and achieve. The stress that attains the objective with confidence.
Why? Because it allows us to see our 'prey' that we almost certainly will capture and kill it. It is because we have the skill to kill. It means we are alert when the adrenalin kicks in. The 'fight or flight' theory is the response to outside stimuli. When we need to 'run' after prey (or away from it) the hormone is sent to our legs, but if we need to stand and fight it is sent to our upper bodies. Our ancestors relied solely on adrenalin to get a meal or fight a threat. Adrenalin was used a lot more often and quickly. Soon the hunter was well adapted to 'stress-up' as a part of his survival make-up. Even, like a drug that is used too often it can be bad for you. If you are in a perpetual, state of alertness it has damaging health effects. The body needs relaxation to replenish its resources, or very soon fatigue will close the body systems down. We know all this. When we rest the blood goes into absorption process, the pupils dilate, food is digested and repairs to tissue made. When we are stressed the blood leaves the gut to go to make the body alert. Muscles tense and bowels empty. As cavemen we simply hunted for food. One dead wilderbeast or wild pig in its raw state was good to keep for three or four days and it would stuff the whole family. Then, as his body was first designed (to eat every three days and not three times a day like modern man does, or in my case twelve times a day!) long periods of lean hunting, especially in the winter would lead to 'Mr Ug' being subjected to even longer periods of stress. Being continually alert hunting for food but not wanting to be eaten in the process. With that he evolved the adrenalin glands as a coping mechanism. It has a down side though. Today we do not have to hunt for food and as a result when we get 'bad' stress the toxins or waste products in out blood are stored longer and adrenalin does not get used much to eject these waste toxins. We do not have to do battle with Stegosaurus' or even chase chickens to survive these days. This leads to frustration and negative stress and that is why we have so many different illnesses connected with 'Stress' that did not exist hundreds of years ago. We died a lot earlier because we were more likely to kill or be killed. We lived on adrenalin. So, from the days of the Roman gladiators to today's 'Play stations' we have to watch or follow the hunt. Some adrenalin 'junkies' cannot be satisfied with these more subtle or tame hunting pursuits so they foxhunt or if they cannot get a licence, even worse bait badgers and cockfighting.
Even, betting or gambling, business activities or sport are all forms of hunting. Of course those of us in urban areas are in steady jobs or 'making a living' in far less adrenalin driven 'stressful' circumstances, but we still want to watch the football or the fight! It's all hunting. We naturally need this release.
Fox hunting is a barbaric way to feed this need, enacted by so-called sophisticated and civilised people of the privileged classes. This makes it worse than bear baiting because of the fascade of respectability attached to this superfluous and ugly bloodsport. While I am in favour of eating animals as long as we are humane in their destruction I too have been galvanised by the clinicality of the presentation of meat products in the food chain. Nonetheless, it does not shield me from recognising that we have a duty to the animal kingdom to respect their role in a survival environment. For instance when we were plagued by Mixomotosis (can't spell it) I believed in the culling, as with foot and mouth and 'Mad cow disease'. I also believe in the culling of gendered species to produce a healthier population. I think it is acceptable to kill a pet or a dangerous animal that has harmed or may harm humans. I think it proper to kill an animal that escapes captivity than it die a slow agonising death in the wild.
But I don't believe in 'Angling', another word for torture. If you think about the' hunting' process it is even more gruesome. It's strictly between man and beast. A man and his expensive murder weapon sitting all day, in all weathers, waiting to terrify a pathetic fish. The means by which a sharp metal barb is mistaken for food!! Not on, at all! Then the burly whiskered Arran sweated c**ts boast about the 'one that got away' down the pub. Whenever, I see a fisherman I am always abusive to them. I have a video of me saving a swan out of the river with two yards of twine, hook and weights attached to a sodden plastic carrier bag stuck in the poor buggers throat! I will show you one day! I complained to the river authority and asked them to ban fishing where there is a swan population. Fell on deaf ears. Thoughtless bastards fisherman. I hate the Father's that teach their kids to do it, most of all. If I see a kid with a fishing rod I want to wrap around their bleeding neck! Arseholes all of them. At least the hounds of the hunt are only doing what is natural to them.
I believe in animal research as long as it is the only option to find breakthroughs in medicine and it is humane. I am not 'comfortable' with Zoos or buying and selling pets, but I feel that we must have contact with species for educational purposes and further understanding of our beastie friends. I believe that protection of wildlife is paramount and all hunting legal or illegal should be banned because it serves no purpose but to satisfy an adrenalin rush that can be substituted for other activities in order to satisfy an ancient body function.
I love 'Easy' and 'Rags', but if Angela was walking one up the road and I was forced to swerve into them, I would hit the 'nags' I'm afraid rather than kill your wife! (on second thoughts if there was a fee....!!!!!)
Foxhunting is pretty base. Country folk dress it up with tradition. They feel they can kill anything including you or me if we are on their property. They have lived with the ways of Country life where killing has become easy. Slaughtering livestock or, shooting animals is just what country folk do! If it's OK for Prince Philip it's OK for us! It is immoral because it is cold-blooded. It is murder for the sake of entertainment. It is cowardly and primitive. One argument is that more foxes get killed on the road than on the entire network of hunts nation wide. Well, isn't that enough unnecessary killing without uniformed bigots taking champagne and pleasure watching hounds rip a defenceless animal to shreds?
I know you won't agree with all of this but b*ll*ck me anyway!
Thanks for all your communiqués, I hope you don't pull the plug on our debates. I know you think me deranged but I hope I make some valid points before they discover I am a very different type of 'asylum' seeker!
Hey! Ho! On with the hunt!
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