Hi Blackbrook and thankyou for the welcome.
the world is not off limits you know!
I don't know how that perception has arisen.
I don't havee a pass which says "access all areas" but I have never had any problem. It is just a matter of simple courtesy and you go where you want if you are not indulging in something that is going to cause problems, and you ask.
A farmer will know every nest, every area where there are snakes, every area where there are endangered species there. The public do not. So , if you want to sit by a river in a farmers field go and ask him. He will likely take you to a nice spot where you may see otter and kingfisher. But if he says don't go there because the horses will fret or there are adder there he is most likely telling you the truth.
All I do when I want to go somwhere is ring and ask. Nobody since I was 8 years old ever said no to me unless it was dangerous for me and the animals.
For example. If one wanted to go and watch the horses work in the morning on Lambourn downs or Newmarket heath you can. Nobody will stop you and you will be greeted with good morning by everyone on horseback. You will see myriad wildlife. Bats owls pheasant fox hare deer all sorts. However you should go with someone who is used to horses, and take great care in driving. The same is true if you go to watch the hunt. As long as you are not rude or violent even antis go. Many antis often end up switching sides and supporting the hunt; including incidentally many former senior members of the league Against cruel Sports!
Where would you like to go? Hunt wolf with eagles on horseback in Mongolia with nomadic tribes? See wild marsh ponies descnded from Roman Arabians and dragon flies as big as I have ever seen on the Gower peninsula while surfing? Its possible.
The truth is we never needed this government bill. It was designed purposefully to create conflict with the countryside. It is the politik of envy. They want the land for alternative ecnomic activity and to turn it into a theme park in little areas. Meanwhile they will rape it for housing, business developments, wind farms (huh see what they are doing in Wales to birds) bio fuel crops etc. So, they have purposefully (and many believe foot and mouth part of that) undermined the animal based rural economy; and I am sick of seeing habitat vanish in the last ten years.
Now people think they have the right to be on the land there is conflict because they are not respecting the code and conduct of courtsy and respect. They are boldly walking into fields full of horses and spooking them.
There is NO right of way throught the field. People now imagine everywhere is open.
However, the farmer never ever stopped anyone from using it if they asked nicely.
"can we have a picnic please?" was the way it always was, and every farmer would be pleased to take the to the best spot where no animals would be disturbed or cause you danger . Indeed, most country pubs and farms benefit from pople coming. They want you to come! just not with the attitude that this government has given people.
As I said, I live in the city myself.
I know one farmer round here who was worried by organised ritualistic attacks on horses and stock nearby. Anyway, some local wiccans or something contacted him to assure him it wasn't them. He got friendly with them and now they have permission to dance about naked in his woods if they are careful. Indeed; he has receently lost his wife sadly; it wouldn't surprise me if he was joining in he's a bit of a one! The kitchen is full of goth girls every time I go there having a bottle of wine!
Now. Contrast this with two incidents recently at a local racing yard.
One morning the horses couldn't get on the gallops because a car was parked on the entrance with two people shagging. The horses were all fired up ready to go and on lad got thrown breaking his collar bone. Second incident involved the gallops man who sports a mohican.
He politly asked while wearing his cap that som lads CAMPED ON THE GALLOPS move quickly. They refused. he took off his cap and staryting balling athe them and pulling the tnt apart. They were scared and he just got them off in tim bfore 8 horses thundred up the gallops at 40mph.
Now that latter incident the kids were "we have the right to be here". Now of course they realised why they did not have that right. That gallop cost ?60 000 and the damage they had done to it could have made a horse break its leg. The Gallops man just levelled it in time. The lads were very sheepish and know better next time. But they said he wasn't what they were expecting because he had a pink mohican. So they had attitude against him in a country cap you see. his girlfirnd is the amateur jockey there btw.
I suggest anyone who wants access to countryside gets friendly with th "natives" at local rituals. The point to point is the best way of doing this. It brings people from town and country together for amateur steeplechasing in farmers fields, and is amazing social function. Easy to get involved, You can even sponsor a fence or a race for about £100 to £200 and get sponsors badges for the sponsors tent. All your drink and food will thwn bw free and you will most likely be waited on by the landowners wife (and if you are lucky maybe her model daughter
with home made food. The one thing you will NOT find there is any hostility or snobbery. You will see people like Zara Phillips and top trainers like Paul Nicholls at some. All you need to do is be polite, frinendly and have respect for what is going on. There is no snobbery or hostility; its imagined. Unless of course you go with the wrong attitude and start slagging off hunting or something.
It is the same in the wildrness. March into Saskatchewan like you own the place and you will be quickly marched out of it again by the Cree . if you don't get killed by a br first of course. Get in touch with the Cree on the net and they will give you the trip of a liftime.
Now. Your question about endangered species and furs. All fur federations and designers support CITES. Indeed, many fur farms now breed aniamls (because their husbandry is so good) exclusively for zoos and restocking the wilderness. This is espcially the case with Lynx.
There is one who does it in Russia. They don't use the lynx for fur at all now on that farm. In some cases if it means that farmd lynx make a few furs for rich Russian oligarchs wives but most contribute to conservation that is good. Wild lynx is not used.
The greatest threats to wild big cats a not the few poached and sold by unscrupulous dealers. It is habitat destruction. In west Africa for example the leopard is virtually extinct becasue the land has been converted to cofffe plantation. Becaus th lopards natural pry is gone then the leopard pryed on 7 year old coff pickers. When your child goes missing and his rotted half eaten carcass is found up a tree then the leopard evrywhere in the area gets it.
So the leopard there hunted for ten thousnad years for fur and survives, then survives a century of big game hunting, and is still fairly abundant, suddenly goes extinct for coffee and sugar?
I wish people realised that when they sit sipping it guilt free yet would condemn fur.
It is possible to buy leopard friendly coffee by the way. I can't see much hope for African wildlife while the IMF and free trade movement encourage them in these ways.
Far better is the situation in namibia and South Africa where big game hunting has returned and the indigenous populations earn money from that so protect the fragile habitat. cheetah and leopard populations are booming there.
Even the wwf have adopted hunting areas in Africa now: big game hunting in Cameroon and Sable reserves in Siberia for example.
Of course I can back all this up with evidence should you require it. Also evidence of high welfare standards on fur farms.
I was once asked to identify customs seized furs. They suspected there were dog and cat and leopard and jaguar. Most were mouton dyed to resemble big cat. Much softer actually and made from sheep. Even an alleged tiger fur was in fact rabbit sheared and dyed. The dog was actuallly tanuki and the cat was all rabbit.
Yes these animals are used but not by the legitimate fur trade. They sometimes in the case of dog and cat, end up as trims for parka hoods and they are so bad you would think them fake. no way could they ver pass as mink or fox. A friend even had to pull a girl at a London train station having a go at a lady in a mink. The girl actually had dog fur on her parka hood. She thought it fake. The mink was spectacular and would hav required incredible animal husbadnry including grooming.
Problem is with such things people can misinterpet what they see, In Argentina for example, a video once showed the chinchilla in dusty pens. These are actually bathing pens. Chinchilla bathe in volcanic ash not water which has to be transported to ranches at great cost. Water makes mould grow in their thick fur which kills them. Shame most of those farms ar gone now and the pampas and forest under soya which creates sterile desert for wildlife. Go and see. Go to a suprmarket with an Argentinian polo groom as I hav and watch them go beserk at the tofu section and the soya milk. They will tell you what they think about vegans. Don't try and match them mojito for mojito though in the evening eh?
Never again lol!
we have to rty to rappraise what w think about animals. Better we treat them with compassion and understanding but not reject them as resource. It takes 100 years for a tree to grow. Millions for oil to be formed. Takes about five years to create a billion rabbits from a few breeding pairs. As long as we treat them well the answer to many of our world problems is staring us in the face.
I know rabbit farms in Eastern Europe. A friend got a rabbit at one as a companion to a horse who didn't like other horses. So he took me thre. I was partly for range. Good conditions. rabbits grromed. Then they are sheared for four years and the fur usd in the hat industry which is a important part of the czech economy. Used to be booming until everyone started wearing basball caps instad of trilbies. Philip Tracey uses the production there I am told. Anyway when they are about 5 years old they are culled...quickly, painlessly and without the nonsense you probably imagin. Thn thir fur is usd for fur coats, usually sheared for a smooth ffct, and the meat used by humans. Most Czech restaurants have started srving rabbit again as deand increass with the fur rvival. In Czech they have "nature" restaurants. If you ask for a vegetarian restaurant you will probbaly be guided to one as they think you mean organic or free range and wild game. Thing is most Brits just go on the oeoeoeoe in Prague and never step out of it to see the fantstic countryside. Slovakia is 80% forest and hunting is one of the main economic activities, Long may it remain so. I discovrd a bear in Switzerland about tn years ago and nobody would believe me. In the Engardine. My camera had one shot left and it was a bit of a blur. They suggested it was a large badger
. Two years ago, it is confirmed bear have returned. Incidentally I have also seen raccoon there. They wouldn't have that till recently either.The Bear have come from Slovakia and Italy through the Alps. In Slovakia they have bear and colossal wild boar . Incidentally, the fox remains extinct virtually in Czech: that was the legacy of The Nazis ban on foxhunting with hounds in the former Czechoslovakia. Good for the rabbits though I guess. Some reformed Hunts there are trying to reintroduce the fox.
And remember the countryside in most of Czech revolves like Ireland Wales and England and Brittany around the sport of steplchasing; often another target for the animal rights folk. One Czech trainer and owner were able to buy land destined for develpment for his horses after a few of them won over a million pounds in prizemoney in Italy at Merano. That land will now contiue to support a thriving bio diversity.
I just hope some of this is useful in helping people reappraise what is good in the long run for animals. Small eco footprints. And hunters make the smallest.
I hope programmes like Tribe and Meet the natives begin to teach the british public about these new ideas we are learning from hunters. Nobody ever believed me and David Bellamy, Prince Charles and Roger Daltrey