I know I m going to get my head bitten off but here goes anyway

Definitely not biting your head off either, I totally agree with you about the killing of any living creature.
However Harry and Meghan are another story for another day. I’ve never been nasty about them but I just wish they’d disappear into the life they so desperately craved.

What about chicken, cows, sheep and pigs? All bred to be eaten. If I had a choice I'd rather be a pheasant!

Not all who take part in shoots are wealthy, royalty , land owners etc

If it's ok to shoot for the table, what's wrong with actually enjoying it? If you can have fun and eat too, why is that so terrible?

I don't live in the UK, I'm in Africa. Here, it's the difference between hunting lion, say, (very bad), and shooting kudu on a game farms. I think kudu is delicious, and someone had to kill it for me to eat it. But that's what it was bred for.

If nobody ate meat, there would be a lot fewer animals. No farm animals, no game farms etc.

Personally, I'm a city girl and I would never shoot or fish. But if people eat what is shot or caught, and the numbers are managed sustainably, then I see no harm.

It's like the fuss people make about predators. They get upset when the fox, badger or owl kills. How about watching a lion bring down a kudu, or the cheetah take an impala.
And the same person probably doesn't care if their pet cat catches garden birds.
Humans are predators, same as animals. As long as we eat what we kill, we're no worse than they are.

It will be the deer on the royal parks next. And don't speak of culling because they breed the animals specifically to shoot them.

What a load of ill informed tosh!

Totally agree BlueBelle. Killing for pleasure!

I rarely write posts but enjoy reading the many comments of others. However your post has made me feel heated with the need to add an opinion..... I must agree with you 100%. Any form of animal cruelty or abuse is To me unacceptable. Allowing a child to witness such acts is totally appalling. Royalty and there love of hunting is well documented. In my opinion they are wrong and should set the example for others to follow. Regarding trophy hunting it Beggars belief how any human with an ounce of compassion could find this appalling practice enjoyable and acceptable....We should respect all wildlife and stop culling and destroying it. Finally I can’t resist adding those who kill wildlife often have pets. How can you define having pets whilst killing other animals for pleasure. Also an animal lover at the same time eating them... That’s my opinion and I’m aware others will disagree and I respect that but so be it ..... I needed to get that off my chest ....

@BlueBelle

100% with you Bluebell!

Sadly I did not think the idea of "perfect parents" would hold on to their image for ever.
Only Diana was a real Mum. She followed her gut instincts and her heart and showed her love for her children spontaneously.

I hope eventually the way we maintain a Royal family will change. I am loyal to the Queen. However the family idea they are supposed to embody is egregious and has always been thus. Cold and cruel, teaching their young ones to shoot defenceless wild animals is only the tip of the ice-berg. It will be the deer on the royal parks next. And don't speak of culling because they breed the animals specifically to shoot them.

Although plenty of rich people shoot the vast majority of people on shoots are just country people - of course there are some large commercial shoots which help the local economy but they are in the minority and on any shoot I have been involved with the birds are either taken by the guns, beaters and pickers up to eat or sold to a game dealer. Stalking deer is something else and is mostly done for the health of the herd. It is not just picking out a deer at random and shooting it - it will have been pre-selected. Other times it is to protect woodland - deer can do a tremendous amount of damage to young trees.

I couldn’t agree with Bluebell more . Taking any life for sport is callous and immoral , and involving a child in it as well is really not instilling an appreciation of the value of life !

Live and let live. I loathe Megan, and think Harry very weak. We have more to worry about than William having time out!

If that is what he enjoys doing, so what? Nothing wrong with Country Sports, let them get on with it.

Merlotgran Probably nothing, I didn’t trawl all through the pages, so don’t know how the conversation has progressed. I always try to respond as if it’s just me and the OP. She talked about the privileged doing what they like in front of children, and it reminded me of this story. By the looks of the last few posts, including yours, it appears the thread probably digressed before I got to it. You are completely free to disregard anything you don’t deem worthy!!

The upper classes do still indulge in this sort of thing i would imagine, so its not up to 'what we think' is it? They wouldn't just stop doing it because we say so, their families have been doing this for centuries.I would not do it, but im not one of the 'posh set'- i don't think it would be good to show a child though, and really, i can't see that william&kate, as caring parents, would do that?So I'm not sure if that is true,or just more propaganda made up by the press maybe?

for some bizarre reason it has always been the number one sport for kings. The queens father George 6th apparently loved shooting more than anything as did his father and so on back...not sure about Victoria? The Middletons were apparently introduced to stag hunting. It is their rite of passage into the nobility. It is awful barbaric and the more they are shamed the better. It is an area in which they are entirely insensitive as it clashes so much with their inherited culture. I cannot imagine enjoying killing a living thing. I think the fuss over George is because it was felt as indoctrination - the same way first participation in a 'successful' hunt the child is smeared with blood.

DiscoDancer1975

I completely agree Bluebelle. One rule for them and all that. I remember years ago, an article about our local zoo. The owner had taken his tiny grandson, about 2 I think, into the tiger cage, to make some sort of point? To show off? I don’t know what it was. I do know, that if it had been anyone else, other than this rich business man, Social Services would have removed that child. It was so dangerous, and a completely unloving thing for a grandfather to do.

What the heck has this got to do with the thread?

I completely agree Bluebelle. One rule for them and all that. I remember years ago, an article about our local zoo. The owner had taken his tiny grandson, about 2 I think, into the tiger cage, to make some sort of point? To show off? I don’t know what it was. I do know, that if it had been anyone else, other than this rich business man, Social Services would have removed that child. It was so dangerous, and a completely unloving thing for a grandfather to do.

Callistemon

^Hunting is banned^
Perhaps some posters didn't realise that.

I can't be bothered to go back through the thread and count how many times I've explained that hunting and shooting are two completely different activities and that hunting with dogs was banned in 2005.

Hunting is banned
Perhaps some posters didn't realise that.

Hunting is banned

DaisyL Despite not liking killing for fun, I completely see your point here and if all hunts ended in food being consumed I see the point. I do even understand the damage foxes do to livestock, but big hints and shoots merely for fun are somewhat different

What does that even mean ? Better than Meghan and Harry ?? None of us know or really understand the trauma these two young men went through when their parents very publicly got divorced then the loss of their much beloved mother. I don’t “judge” with of them for the choices they’ve made in their lives, it’s none of our business really (aside from funding it from our money, but in reality it costs us about 10p each every year, & I’m much more concerned with tax evasion and other wasted public funding) I wish all four of them, and their families, a happy and peaceful future. I too cannot condone blood sports, absolutely no need ! One can shoot without live animals.

Haven't read all the messages on this thread but I can see that there are arguments from both sides but as a farmer;s daughter who still lives on a farm and who works her gundogs on several local shoots I know that I would rather eat meat that has been shot such as pigeon, rabbit, deer, pheasant, etc than pork that is 'outdoor bred' and then reared crammed into a barn with thousands of other never to see daylight again or chicken which is normally killed before it is six weeks old after life in another smelly barn.

I couldn't care less about any member of the Royal Family but they are all brought up to "country pastimes" - hunting and shooting included. I agree it's ghastly and paricularly in front of their children.

I'm sorry Missfoodlove but your depiction of a Grouse Moor is not the whole picture. The shoots are subsidised by the tax payer, are destroying a variety of species, and actually pay very little into the local economy. There are lots of proposals which would provide better support for rural economies. greenecofriend.co.uk/grouse-moors-flooding/

Or that their organic vegan food was sown, grown, nurtured and harvested by happy peasants within a 5 mile radius of their home.