No to Killing

No to Hunting! No to War!

A disclaimer. You may not like my point of view, but I need to share my belief that humans must stop killing.

I am upset… Yes, I am really upset. I feel sick inside and tearful because I have just witnessed the unnecessary death of an endangered Turtle Dove… An animal that we associate with ‘love.’ There was nothing loving about its death. It was shot, tried to fly away, but could not land in its chosen refuge of a willow tree. Instead, the injured bird cascaded down through the willow branches to hit the river below. It did its best to pull itself to shore, slid under the overhanging foliage and disappeared, most likely to die an agonising death. I stood on the opposite bank separated by water from the hapless creature and separated from hunters by an impenetrable bank and fencing. I, the sole witness to a life lost for no reason, am inconsolable.

My grief means nothing to the sport hunter. They don’t care about the lives they take. They operate in disguise as farmers protecting their crops or livestock from what they consider ‘vermin.’ How strange then, that they bring in groups of enthusiasts to help them. No, their hunting is not a protection of the farm… It is a bloodlust, a degraded form of entertainment that generates huge profits for those who provide the ‘organised shoots.’ Whether the perpetrators are on horseback, in a 4×4, or on foot, they all have a ‘kill’ mentality as their main objective. It happens not just in the UK, but everywhere. Gutless individuals dress themselves in fatigues, arm themselves with expensive high powered rifles and shotguns and hunt down the mostly tame wildlife that looks on innocently as the gun is pointed at them.

This is not hunting for food. Millions of pheasants and partridges are imported each year into Britain for the sole purpose of killing them. They are not taken home, dressed and hung, so a hungry family might eat. Their bodies are mostly discarded right after the shoot.

Those that turn guns on animals, have no problem turning a gun on a person. Their bloodlust doesn’t stop but is only held in check by laws that would see a person go to prison for shooting another person. The law does not protect animals. They are victimised in such horrible ways and the perpetrators are not punished.

I reported my sighting to the RSPB and to Wild Justice. They can’t do anything, I have no evidence… No photo, no video of any of it, but making people aware is first and foremost, available to us. To be silent about witnessing a ‘wrong,’ is to condone such things. I cannot and will not condone hunting, whether it is a struggling fish on the end of a line, or a canned hunt of lions raised to be killed for a trophy rug. I do not condone farmed animals either. Yes, they are for food (for some but not for me). Farm animal existence is one that is equally persecuted and justified as necessarily cruel, whether in the living conditions or at the ultimate death in the abattoir. That is really shirking responsibility to provide a good life for an animal that dies for us to eat.

Likewise, warmongering amongst humans is just as cruel. It gives the bloodthirsty a reason to kill with impunity. Our world is, and always has been, full of people who force us into wars unwillingly, and kill us if we resist.

We must change our attitudes, and include compassion for the other living beings around us. If we do not, and continue our bloodlust, then humanity has no purpose and we will go extinct. There is no reason for us to be on a biodiverse earth if we choose only to kill the other life upon it including our own species. We have no purpose on Earth as a ‘killer.’