Brock vs Tiggy

[GOW]

Originally Posted by STYRBJORN

Posie - you have spotted a point which I had deliberately left aside. When I lived in the commune we killed and ate "wildlife". This causes me no shame or guilt. We were living as close as possible to nature. We grew our own vegetables, our own herbs, our own spuds as far as poss. We caught trout in the stream, and tried other fish. I had a battered old shotgun which kept us in rabbits and woodies, backed up with a lurcher, two pair of ferrets and some snares. We only killed what we could eat, or exchange in the village for items we could not make. All the animals we killed ended up in the pot.

Can you say the same?

Sounds great STYBJORN. I have lived much the same lifestyle in the past, never done the old hedgehog bit but will in the future given the opportunity. Used to snare and shoot rabbits, woodies. Keep my own sheep chicken gees ducks and gunie fowl all went into the pot, not at the same time I hasten to add. I forage a great deal and am just about to take up fishing.

By this time next year I will be living in a house and the self sufficiency will start again I can't wait.

[STYRBJORN]

Thanks Gow. I think it's important that we distinguish between casual slaughter of wildlife and living in contact with nature. I've been a bit leary in here because it's only too easy to condemn people who are trying to live a natural lifestyle which must include killing animals. We didn't only kill and eat rabbits, we wore them. Bunny mittens are ever so warm!

If your new house is on clay, let me know and I'll send you the method for cooking hedgies.

Styrbjorn aka Ric.

[Hedgehoggy]

Originally Posted by GOW

Sounds great STYBJORN. I have lived much the same lifestyle in the past, never done the old hedgehog bit but will in the future given the opportunity.

Originally Posted by STYRBJORN

If your new house is on clay, let me know and I'll send you the method for cooking hedgies.

Styrbjorn aka Ric.

Just in case those last two posts weren’t said tongue-in-cheek, for those unaware, hedgehogs were included in the new UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) of Priority Species in 2007 due to their decline in the UK over the last 10 years. They were identified as being in need of conservation and greater protection. According to some scientists, our only spiny British mammal [which has been around a cool 15 millions years ], will be EXTINCT by 2025 if their current rate of decline continues.

Hedgehogs are protected under the Wildlife & Countryside Act and may not be trapped without a licence from Natural England, the Countryside Council for Wales, or Scottish Natural Heritage. I somehow doubt you’d be granted a licence to trap and kill a hedgehog for the pot!

~Don’t eat ‘em, feed ‘em! ~

[posie]

..Eating hedgehogs.....there is I'm sure no need (i.e. hunger ) for either Ric or GOW to eat hedgehogs NOW... so if NEED is not the reason, what is?.....Posie..

[John_M]

Originally Posted by posie

..Eating hedgehogs.....there is I'm sure no need (i.e. hunger ) for either Ric or GOW to eat hedgehogs NOW... so if NEED is not the reason, what is?.....Posie..

I'm a vegetarian, and have been for about 25 years. Without in any way judging or condemning anyone else, I would submit that ther is no NEED, NOW... to eat cows, sheep, birds, pigs, horses, fish, molluscs. So if NEED is not the reason, what is?

[STYRBJORN]

Fair comment peeps. Yes, I was tongue in cheek (tastes 'orrible). Our little commune was over 40 years ago, and there is no way I would set out to kill a 'piggie for the pot today. As to vegetarianism, that is a whole different kettle of scaley wriggly gilled finny critters! I have no qualms about respecting my evolutionary background as an omnivore.

Ric

PS the herbs we grew weren't all for eating . . . .

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by STYRBJORN

All the animals we killed ended up in the pot.

I thought i recalled from other threads that you'd done fox control - and I know from experience that fox tastes flipping horrible (a mate of mine tried to make deep fried fox fritters once - not a success to put it mildly)

likewise fillet of stoat was not a culinary delight either

I'm all for eating what you kill (squirel stew for example) but there are limits

[GOW]

Originally Posted by STYRBJORN

Fair comment peeps. Yes, I was tongue in cheek (tastes 'orrible). Our little commune was over 40 years ago, and there is no way I would set out to kill a 'piggie for the pot today. As to vegetarianism, that is a whole different kettle of scaley wriggly gilled finny critters! I have no qualms about respecting my evolutionary background as an omnivore.

Ric

PS the herbs we grew weren't all for eating . . . .

High STYRBJORN Unfortunately I was not tongue in cheek I have never eaten it but would have given it a go however I will bow to your judgement.

I have no problem with vegetarians, each to their own but I am an omnivore and will continue to be one. We have been omnivores since we dropped out of the trees. I do not have a problem with killing meat to eat. I do not agree with intensive/battery farming. I have always killed my meat humanely and they have all been free-range. That meat that I could not slaughter at home was taken to a small local family run abattoir and dispatched very quickly.

I did start a thread elsewhere on here as I was wondering how many on here were vegetarian/vegan.

[STYRBJORN]

Originally Posted by eeyore

I thought i recalled from other threads that you'd done fox control - and I know from experience that fox tastes flipping horrible (a mate of mine tried to make deep fried fox fritters once - not a success to put it mildly)

likewise fillet of stoat was not a culinary delight either

I'm all for eating what you kill (squirel stew for example) but there are limits

Our motivation was to live as close to nature as possible, and we had no need to kill other than for the pot. Looking back, I'm pretty sure that if a fox had started raiding our chickens the consensus would have been for Benson and I to do some fox control ASAP.

Carnivore meat generally tastes 'isgusting.

Any way, we are wa-a-ay off thread so I am dropping out. It is clear that badgers are not having a significant effect on hedgehog populations, which is what I asked about in the first place.

Thanks to all who have posted.

Ric

[HedgehogRescue]

Originally Posted by vole-woman

Do domestic cats kill hedgehogs? I remember seeing a hog disembowelled on a front lawn in Guildford town centre in the 80s and assuming it was due to a cat.

No, that's more likely to have been a fox or a dog. Possibly a badger interrupted as they normally eat everything and just leave a spiny shell.

Cats cause injuries to hogs. I have 3 here now. A baby with a nasty septic wound where a cat took it from the nest, an adult with a hugely swollen back leg from a cat bite and another adult with a punctured eyeball where a cat swiped at her.

If you ever have to deal with any animal that's been caught by a cat, get it to a vet for antibiotics immediately. Releasing it back to the wild will result in death as cat bites are highly toxic.